Public Access at Filucy Bay Preserve - Great Peninsula Conservancy

The new picnic table and interpretive sign invite kayaking folks to access the preserve for a lunch break.

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 habitats. Accessible only by hand-powered watercraft, this public access site features interpretive signage, a picnic table, and a bench.

Filucy Bay interpretive sign, illustrated and designed by Joanne Tejeda.

Volunteers Penton and Hayes dig holes for the interpretative sign.

Volunteers tackle the laurel. The new bench looks out at the bay at low tide.

GPC staff worked with a small group of volunteers comprised of neighbors across the bay, folks with Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, and Taylor Shellfish Farms. As a team of 12, we removed a truckload of trash and hundreds of pounds of invasive laurel and blackberry; we created habitat piles; installed sign posts to host our beautiful interpretive signs; and built and installed a picnic table and a bench.

(Prior to this event, an isolated pile of debris on the site was found to contain asbestos. It is clearly marked and will be removed by professionals.)

GPC staffer Erik Pedersen poses with what’s left of it.

This project encourages the public to engage in healthy, human-powered recreation in one of our region’s beautiful bays. We hope it will create positive experiences for community members and connect them to the conservation efforts which made those experiences possible.

The volunteer day and public access site were made possible through the 2020 Lu Winsor Memorial Environmental Grant, funded by the KGI Watershed Council and Lu Winsor Environmental Grant Program partners, Pierce County, Peninsula Light Company. and the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation.

GPC board member Erin Ewald and her daughter helped haul the laurel out.

COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines allowing, GPC hopes to be hosting more volunteer work parties in the near future. We will broadcast events and opportunities on our Facebook page and website.