The City of Tacoma has applied for a grant to help preserve open space near Swan Creek on Tacoma’s East Side.

If the Pierce County Conservation Futures program awards the $99,000 grant, the city plans to acquire the property in an effort to protect it from future development and reforest the site to enhance its environmental, stormwater and aesthetic functions and value of the Swan Creek corridor, according documents prepared by city staff. The city would match the grant with $10,000 already earmarked in the city’s current budget.

The grant program aims to protect threatened areas of open space, timber lands, wetland, habitat areas, agricultural and farm lands within Pierce County by acquiring land or the rights to future development of land, according to Pierce County Conservation Futures’ Web site. Funding for this program comes from a tax of 6.25 cents per $1,000 of assessed value of each Pierce County owned parcel.

The application deadline is April 8. A citizens’ advisory committee is expected to review and score the applications in June, and Pierce County Council is expected to make a final decision on the funding in August.

Last year, the city worked with the Conservation Futures Program to purchase and permanently conserve nearly six acres of land in South Tacoma. The Conservation Futures Program provided the majority of the $411,000 purchase price. The city’s contribution was $13,030 paid from Tacoma’s open space fund.