Returning coho, winter steelhead, and cutthroat make their way past the Indianola spit into Miller Bay and reach the Suquamish Tribe’s Grovers Creek Salmon Hatchery where Miller Bay Road meets Indianola Road. The staff manually passes the wild, sea-running fish over the hatchery dam so they can spawn upstream. The fish swim up Grovers Creek,…
Salmon Tours 2018
Despite the lack of rain and the low tide that kept the salmon out in the bay, we had so much fun at this year’s Salmon Tours at the mouth of Chico Creek on November 3rd! This was one of 8 stops throughout Kitsap that celebrated the return of the salmon. This estuary, on which GPC…
October Stewardship Photo Essay
A huge thanks to the 50 or so volunteers who came out to the Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park waterfront on a very foggy October morning. Many thanks to REI for sponsoring the event and Kitsap County Parks, North Kitsap Trails Association, and Great Peninsula Conservancy staff for coordinating and bringing their tools and expertise.…
GPC-REI National Public Lands Stewardship Day
Great Peninsula Conservancy was excited to partner with REI again this year to host this National Public Lands Day Stewardship Event. This took place on the Peninsula’s new 3,500-acre piece of public land – Kitsap County’s Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park! Great Peninsula Conservancy, REI, Kitsap County Parks, Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, North Kitsap Trails…
Powerful Partnership Video with Puget Sound Energy
GPC is working with Puget Sound Energy and their Powerful Partnership Program to help involve more people in conservation. Check out the video below to hear Executive Director Sandra Staples-Bortner discuss our partnership at the beautiful new Curley Creek Tyner Preserve! We toured the creek at the end of August as part of our Walks &…
Growing in Nature
This summer Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) piloted a new program called Bremerton Urban Roots, which created opportunities for young people in Bremerton to learn about the environment through hands-on service projects and outdoor environmental experiences. GPC partnered with the New Life Community Development Agency’s Living Life Leadership youth mentorship program, run by the incredible Karen…
Great Peninsula Conservancy acquires McLane Cove
Sometimes big things come in small packages. That’s the case with Great Peninsula Conservancy’s purchase last Friday of 2.5 acres on McLane Cove, a ‘pocket’ estuary near Grapeview. This small, skinny parcel has 1200 feet of undeveloped shoreline that is a nursery for young Chinook and other salmon. Young salmon slowly make their way to…
Development Fees Pay for Hood Canal Preserves
The forested “Dewatto Shoreline Preserve” encompasses 1,700 feet of high-bank waterfront, as well as streams and tidelands. Its beaches provide spawning area for surf smelt, a food source for salmon and halibut. The property borders state forest. At the north end of the canal, the “Bob and Melissa Olson Shoreline Preserve” spans 490 feet of shoreline…
Landowner Partners with Land Trust to Save Salmon
Press Release BREMERTON, WA The first time he saw the place he knew it was special. It was November 1994 and Steven Tyner was looking at real estate in South Kitsap for a family retreat. “The 30 acres was heavily wooded and the stream was thick with chum salmon in the midst of their spawning…
The Return of the Salmon
Every year in early November tens of thousands of chum salmon return through the recently restored estuary into Chico Creek to spawn. And hundreds of Kitsap residents return to the stream to view the remarkable event! This year the weather was cold but clear and the salmon were easily viewable from the creek. Great Peninsula…