Category Overview
State Parks grants help preserve and develop our state’s best outdoor recreation areas by funding new campgrounds and amenities to increase the capacity of our parks, creating new parks, improving park resources, and protecting historical areas. These grants help our state continue to develop our world-class parks system to share our cultural heritage and natural treasures with all of its visitors.
Project Highlights
SRFB and RCFB funding combined with private and federal grants allowed State Parks and the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community to purchase Kiket Island (approximately 93.6 upland acres). This purchase preserves natural eecology, habitat, and cultural resources. Located directly east of Deception Pass and within the boundaries of the Swinomish Reservation, Kiket Island is connected to Fidalgo and Flagstaff Islands by two tombolos. This acquisition protects important Skagit River delta marine Riparian Protection for endangered salmon and provides access to adjacent Tribally-owned tidelands for passive public recreation, exercise of Tribal treaty rights and environmental purposes including eradication of invasive species, scientific research, habitat protection and restoration, and environmental education. Protecting Kiket from development benefits diverse nearshore habitat including feeder bluffs, kelp and eelgrass that support Chinook, chum, and coho salmon, steelhead, and bull trout. Herring, surf smelt, and sand lance spawn along the Kiket Island shore. A rare and high functioning pocket estuary fed by freshwater seeps through a palustrine scrub shrub wetland is adjacent to and largely surrounded by the acquisition property and offers important habitat to juvenile salmonids, forage fish, and numerous waterfowl and shorebirds. Marine riparian forested uplands with old growth trees shade the Kiket beaches.