The forests that surround us are full of incredible variety. As the climate of our region changes over the coming decades, different parts of the landscape will be affected differently. Those areas that remain relatively buffered from the worst impacts are known as refugia. These microsites within the landscapes we protect will be incredibly important…
Six Actions For Forest Resilience
1. Build Habitat Piles Everybody needs a place to live, and habitat piles are like high-rise apartments for the forest! Especially in second-growth forests where there’s not always a lot of places to live, habitat piles can be essential. Squirrels, chipmunks, toads, newts, songbirds, and more will all move in to one these – and…
If a tree is felled in a forest – does it make a difference?
For thousands of years, the forests of Puget Sound have been cared for by the native peoples who lived here. Many places that we may now think of as “wild” have in fact been carefully managed. Generations of cumulative human impact is what made the forests here into tremendous natural cathedrals. The American settlers that…
Sounds of a Salmon Stream
In the fall of 2020, local audio recordist and musician Alan F. Jones waded into the cold waters of Curley Creek with a microphone in hand and the goal of capturing the “acoustic fingerprint” of a Kitsap salmon stream. The resulting recording is intimate and specific; a soundscape with all the nuance of a landscape…
In Land Labs, students make lifelong connections with the natural world
Mushrooms and salamanders were catching students’ eyes all day long. A woodpecker fluttered past. Tree frogs were croaking in the distance. Deep in the forest at Grovers Creek Preserve, the rain wasn’t so bad. But these moisture-loving organisms were thriving in the gloomy weather. That wasn’t exactly what we had come here to study. But that’s the magic that’s possible during Land…
What’s So Special About Dead Trees, Anyways?
For the past 3 months, GPC’s stewardship team has been creating wildlife habitat on our preserves through a procedure called girdling. Our goal is to create snag and den trees, features that are relatively rare in many of GPC’s evenly-aged forest preserves. In older forests, standing dead trees (snags) and logs are common and provide…
How much do you know about Olympia oysters?
For Logan, it was a dream come true. He was bursting at the seams with excitement when he talked about how he wanted to become a marine biologist. Now he had a chance to be face-to-face with a professional restoration ecologist from the Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF). On this sunny September morning, Logan got…
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…
A Weekend of Stewardship
It was another busy weekend for conservation and stewardship up and down the peninsula! The weekend started early on Friday morning, when GPC’s stewardship team led a work party at the Klingel-Bryan-Beard Wildlife Refuge. We got a ton of support from YouthBuild Kitsap to make this event possible, and we’re so grateful for it. This…
Hard Work Pays Off at the Day of Caring
Lots of people were sheltering from the heat last weekend, as temperatures skyrocketed up to extreme heights. But Friday wasn’t just a hot day – it was also the United Way Day of Caring here in Kitsap. Thanks to the strong partnership between Great Peninsula Conservancy and the Clear Creek Task Force, we came together…