Category Overview
Washington is famous for its gorgeous and abundant waterways, from the Salish Sea to the Nisqually River, but many communities lack open public beaches and waterfronts where everyone can enjoy picnicking, swimming, paddling, boating, and angling. Water Access projects fund public shoreline access, boat launches, and fishing docks to create more opportunities for water recreation.
Project Highlights
The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife will use this grant to acquire 38.12 acres just north of Forks, WA in Clallam County. This property is a combination of forest and natural vegetation, including some very large old growth conifers trees. A portion of the property has been partially cleared to accommodate tent and trailer camping no utilities or power exists. The property itself is on the 18.7 mile mark of the world renown Sol Duc River. The property is within a large turn of the river which uniquely provides water frontage on the East, South, and a large portion of the West property boundaries. This parcel has over 2600 feet of water frontage with nearly 1500 feet of easily accessible fishing and recreation opportunities including an opening on the South end of property that provides a natural boat launch site.This particular site location are extremely important for access not only for launching a vessel but also retrieval. This property is downriver of the Sol Duc Hatchery boat launch at River mile 29.5 and Maxfield Road Access site at River mile 22.8,the property would provide the only public access below these two launches for over a 16 mile stretch. This location for retrieval is also extremely important as downstream of this site portions of the Sol Duc become very technical, so many boaters choose to not navigate this portion. Acquisition of this property to provide water access for boaters and bank fishing access .