August 21 [16:00 EDT] -- All four members of the now disbanded Soundgarden, plus some unspecified members of Pearl Jam and producer Brendan O'Brien have donated a total of $400,000 to buy and preserve 220 acres of land in the Cascade Mountain foothills east of Seattle.
The money was donated to the Land Conservancy of Seattle and King County, a private non-profit which then bought the Hardscrabble Creek property from the United Cascade Mining, a transaction that took three years to negotiate.
The purchase of the land, the last privately held piece in the valley, ensures that it will forever be protected as a wildlife habitat.
The area is a refuge for mountain lions, elks, bears and eagles and is also rich with old-growth timberlands.
"Our purchase of this strategically important property will forever protect this extraordinary region from the impact of development," Gene Duvernoy, the executive director of the Land Conservancy said in a written statement.
