Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park
Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park is a 3,493-acre (1,414 ha) county park founded in 2014, and is the largest in Kitsap County, Washington.[1] It contains 60 miles (97 km) of trails.[2]
The park property was acquired from Pope Resources/Olympic Resource Management, a forestry company, partly in direct purchases by the county government, and partly by the Forterra land conservation non-profit corporation who raised funds through individual donations and grants.[3][4][5][6]
Olympic Resource Management's Olympic Property Group proposed a public trail system in its Port Gamble property c. 2007. Invoking the Olmsted Brothers park planning, local groups envisioned a regional "String of Pearls" trail plan c. 2011 in the Pacific Northwest linking water trails linking the Olympic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula with the Kitsap Peninsula.[7] A proposed system, the Sound to Olympics Trail, would allow one to cross Washington State by foot on a continuous trail system from the Pacific Ocean to the Idaho border. Kitsap County plans to embody a portion of the Sound to Olympics Trail in the Port Gamble Forest.[8]
References
- ^ Tristan Baurick (January 4, 2017). "Port Gamble Park now county's largest". Kitsap Sun. Bremerton, Washington.
- ^ "Port Gamble Forest - Forbidden Forest Trail Loop". Washington Trails Association. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ "Pope Resources' Timber Harvest in Port Gamble Heritage Park". northkitsaptrails.org. Archived from the original on 2019-10-30.
- ^ Mapes, Lynda V. (January 14, 2017). "Saving the Port Gamble Forest, a natural jewel, from development: 'It's our heritage and it's our future'". The Seattle Times.
- ^ A Gift to the Region: Over 1,500 More Acres of Port Gamble Forest Secured On Kitsap Peninsula, Forterra, December 22, 2017
- ^ "Kitsap Forest and Bay Community Campaign". Forterra. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ "North Kitsap's String of Pearls Trail Plan". North Kitsap Trails Association. July 15, 2011 – via National Park Service.
- ^ Nick Twietmeyer (April 6, 2018). "County presents Port Gamble trail study". Kitsap Daily News.
Further reading
- "Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park resource stewardship & recreational access plan executive summary" (PDF). Kitsap County Parks. July 13, 2015.