Help Save a Forest!
Help Preserve 40 Acres of Miller Bay Watershed with a Trust Land Transfer
We have some exciting news to share from our Friends of Miller Bay!
Friends of Miller Bay is working to transfer a 40-acre Department of Natural Resources parcel located along NE Gunderson Rd to Kitsap County through Washington’s Trust Land Transfer program. Our goal is to protect this land as open space: Preserving precious habitat, protecting a valuable wildlife corridor, and restoring its second growth forest to a semblance of the mature Northwest temperate rainforest it once was. We are combining our energy and resources with Kitsap County and Great Peninsula Conservancy Land Trust, to protect this 40-acre parcel from future logging and/or development. Currently the property is scheduled for potential timber sale in 2029, so the time to act is NOW!
This 50-year-old upland forest (last clear cut in 1976) abuts the 13-acre Miller Bay Preserve to the east, which is contiguous to the 3.5-acre Kawahara Preserve that fronts the western bank of Grovers Creek, a major fish-bearing stream that drains into Miller Bay.
Why save this forest? It is an important wildlife corridor for deer, black bear, coyote, and river otter as they make their way to the bay. The water quality of Miller Bay is directly impacted by the protection and preservation of its upland forests. This property provides an added benefit with two stream channels feeding Miller Bay Preserve wetlands and ultimately flowing into Miller Bay, and as we all know, water quality directly affects salmon and other species that live in the bay. With the inclusion of this DNR parcel, the total contiguous area of protected land will be 56 acres of forest connected to 1,575 linear feet of protected Miller Bay shoreline. The value of conserving these adjacent parcels is so much greater in their aggregate, providing protection and habitat for an enormous diversity of wildlife across upland forest land, creek channels, tidally influenced mudflats, salt marsh habitats, and open water.
We need your help! Please write a letter of support to:
info@friendsofmillerbay.org, by Sept 22nd, 2025.
(See attached Proposal for more information about the property)
For more information about Friends of Miller Bay, please visit www.friendsofmillerbay.org.
