Please Consider a Year-End Donation to NKTA

As an all volunteer non-profit, NKTA prides itself on getting things done on a shoestring, but we've stretched that shoe string pretty darn tight! Recently we had two funding requests we really wanted to say yes to; more trail improvement projects and funding towards the Port Gamble Shoreline land acquisition. We're also working on the purchase of a major trail link. We simply don't have the funds for all the great projects we're working on.

This year has been full of accomplishments and great headlines:

• In March we teamed up with GPC to prepare our first large grant proposal and Forterra exercised the option to try to conserve 6690 acres for the Kitsap Forest and Bay Project. In spring we posted 17 new trail map signs on the Port Gamble trails, hosted an REI sponsored competitive weed pull in NK Heritage Park w/ Kingston High students, and by fall had gone through 35,000 "Save the land and trails!" brochures.
• In June we celebrated the opening of Millie's trail and National Trails day with the Int'l Mountain Bike Association sustainable trail building training.
• Summer and fall saw major improvements to the North Kitsap Heritage Park: the completion of the boardwalk, drainage improvements on the trails, a new fence and expanded parking at the entry.
• At year end we celebrate a new National Park Service grant to support the Kitsap Peninsula Water Trails, the adoption of Kitsap County's Non-Motorized Plan and look forward to the first closing of the Kitsap Forest and Bay conservation efforts; 564 acres and 1.8 miles of Port Gamble Shoreline.

Your donations help our volunteers build and maintain trails, support land conservation efforts, post trail signs, maintain our website, design and print maps and apply for grants. Memberships are crucial to what NKTA can accomplish and make a great holiday gift. Joining NKTA helps demonstrates the number of people who care about trails.

Want to learn more about NKTA? Read some of the 135 articles on our website.

Rei Funds Trail Improvements to NK Heritage Park

A $10,000 grant from REI funded three projects, including $6,000 for trail improvements in North Kitsap Heritage Park during October and a spring Scotch Broom pull competition. The funding for heavy equipment to help on the trails, allowed much more work to be completed by our trail volunteers. Water control improvements were made on over two miles of trail, including a portion of the popular Spine Line trail which used to have flooding problems. This will make rainy season hikes in the Heritage Park even more enjoyable! Many, many thanks to REI for the generous contribution that enabled us to get this work done.

Challenges Ahead for Kitsap Forest & Bay Land Conservation

There's plenty to celebrate and about 1200 acres of good news; progress towards acquisition of 535 acres and 1.5 miles of Port Gamble shoreline, the 366 acre North Kitsap Heritage Park expansion and approximately 180 acres of the Divide, plus adjacent conservation lands. Forterra, Great Peninsula Conservancy and Kitsap County have worked hard to secure grants to earn that good news. But that leaves a big gap to reach the goal of conserving 6690 acres. Unfortunately much of that gap is on NKTA's highest priority conservation project; saving the 3316 acres of the Port Gamble land and trails. Out of a $5 million state DOE appropriation we'd been told was for Port Gamble land acquisition, a heartbreaking small $500,000-770,000 is currently committed to the Port Gamble forested uplands. We're still working with DOE and hope to improve that, but the loss of those DOE funds is an enormous setback to Kitsap Forest and Bay conservation efforts.

We've learned there is extremely limited grant funding that could be used to preserve the forested watershed and trails around Port Gamble Bay. State grants focus on shoreline, wetlands and sensitive habitat, not forests. It's not known exactly how big the funding gap is for the Port Gamble uplands watershed, but it's likely that 2/3 to 3/4 of that land has no funding. NKTA supports the idea of exploring an array of options to reduce the costs of land acquisition. The following statement was unanimously supported at a KFB meeting:

In order to further the goal of preserving the 7,000 acres of the Kitsap Forest & Bay Project for the public forever, we encourage the KFBP Principals to explore the idea of allowing Pope Resources (or its successor) an additional timber harvest rotation to decrease land acquisition costs, while replanting a mix of native species and transitioning to a sustainably managed forest.

NKTA's goal is to preserve as much of the land and trails as open space for forever, and we're willing to accept compromises to leave that legacy for future generations.

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