On June 18, people gathered at Sehmel Homestead Park for a Walk & Talk focused on celebrating the diversity of human and more-than-human communities during Pride Month. Leading the Walk & Talk was GPC’s VISTA Education Coordinator Jaime Webb and GPC board member Dana Coggon. Dana Coggon is the current Executive Director of Pierce Conservation…
Bird Songs That Tell a Conservation Story
Last month, Great Peninsula Conservancy was awarded a $25,000 grant from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative. The award will facilitate a collaboration with GPC, Daniel Froehlich (Ornithologistics), Dr. Alison Styring and graduate student Kayleigh Kueffner (The Evergreen State College), and Northwest Natural Resource Group. The collaboration will address an important…
Taking a “Lichen” to Mosses & Lichens
On April 29, thirty people showed up in the Banner Forest Heritage Park’s parking lot at the head of the trails for an exciting morning spent examining the forest floor for mosses and lichens. Leading the Moss & Lichen Walk & Talk was GPC’s own 2020 Volunteer of the Year, John Foltz. John is an…
Hansville Greenway and the Secret Lives of Birds
GPC’s second Walk & Talk of the year was a birding expedition out at Hansville Greenway with field ornithologist Dan Froehlich. Dan is an expert bird handler and tour guide with a passion for educating people about the magnificence of birds. Before the ten excited birders got started on an early morning hike, ornithologist Dan…
Shoreline Geology at Misery Point
At the end of August, 24 GPC members and neighbors gathered at the Misery Point Preserve near Seabeck for our second installment of the Walk and Talk series. Hugh Shipman, a retired Department of Ecology Coastal Geologist of 30 years, walked us through the glacial history of the bluff and present-day erosion and accretion processes…
This Forest On The Kitsap Is Protected – Forever
On Washington’s Kitsap Peninsula – that arrow-shaped piece of land between Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula – Great Peninsula Conservancy is working to conserve and restore degraded shorelines, peat bogs, forests, saltwater marshes, and salmon-bearing streams. The lands and waters under Great Peninsula Conservancy’s care are protected – forever. Through property purchases and conservation easements, the…
Before & After: Restoration at Hahobas
GPC’s Hahobas Shoreline Preserve has had a facelift. The cabin that afforded former Boy Scout members a phenomenal waterside viewshed for over 60 years has been removed. Although the cabin is no longer, the shoreline view of the Olympic mountains remains remarkable. Come visit, take a seat at the picnic bench, and revel in the…
Land Labs Investigates Ecosystems at Curley Creek
Sierra Kross, Land Labs Education Coordinator AmeriCorps VISTA, guest posts on the inaugural Land Labs fieldtrip at GPC’s Curley Creek Tyner Preserve, where many students met face-to-face for the first time after a year of virtual education! GPC’s Land Labs program aims to partner with local public schools to provide hands-on science projects that meet…
Public Access at Filucy Bay Preserve
Last month, Great Peninsula Conservancy hosted our first volunteer event since the pandemic started… can anyone really believe it’s been a whole year? To kick things off, we created a public access site at our Filucy Bay Preserve. Filucy Bay Preserve protects 99 acres of intact, high-value estuarine nearshore, saltmarsh, riparian forest, and estuarine shoreline…
Fieldtrip Fridays
Over the past few weeks, Great Peninsula Conservancy started a new tradition: meeting up on Fridays to introduce the new staff to community partners and members and visit the GPC preserves across our working region. Our new AmeriCorps members, Sierra Kross and Janessa Hollmaier, are getting out on the land to think about possible use…