Category Overview
Urban Wildlife Habitat projects fund close-to-home places to play and explore nature. As our urban areas are increasingly expanding and densifying, these grants protect important fish and wildlife habitat within five miles of densely populated areas, creating green refuges that help keep our ecosystems healthy and provide places to enjoy nature right in our backyards.
Project Highlights
The Central Kitsap Riparian Corridor project begins the 2nd phase of the Hood Canal Salmon Sanctuary (HCSS), an acquisition and stewardship campaign to protect and improve Hood Canal salmon and wildlife habitat. This grant will allow us to permanently preserve and protect 330 acres of key salmon habitat on Big Beef Creek, home to coho, summer chum, fall chum, cutthroat and steelhead. We intend to purchase (fee-simple) 105 acres on the lower mainstem of the creek, thereby completing the acquisition efforts begun with previous IAC grants. Using fee-simple and conservation easements we will acquire 225 acres of headwater wetlands, thereby protecting an area critical to the stream’s hydrology and a place of refuge for juvenile salmonids. The HCSS is a cooperative effort among the state, county, tribes, and nonprofit groups. It has broad support from the local community, businesses, and area media. This effort implements early action recommendations of developing ESA recovery plans. Future phases of the HCSS will be closely coordinated with ESA recovery efforts and will continue to safeguard the headwater wetlands areas targeted in this phase. The legal description of the properties to be acquired is described as follows: Stavis Creek – Sections 25 & 35 T25N, R 2 W.W.M. Lower Big Beef Creek – Sections 22, 27, & 34 T25N, R1 W.W.M. Upper Big Beef Creek – Sections 7, 8, &18 T24N, R1W and Sections 12 &13 T24N, R2W