|
December 30, 2019
 Workshop assesses potential of little-known treasure Coulter Creek Heritage Park
Over 1,500 acres, Kitsap County’s Coulter Creek Heritage Park is a mostly unknown and undeveloped but diverse forestland that provides wildlife habitat, recharges the aquifers and holds a treasure trove of natural and recreational resources. The community is invited to a public workshop to address the park’s potential with the Kitsap County Parks Stewardship and Recreation Steering Committee from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9 in the Long Lake Community Center, 5100 Long Lake Road SE, Port Orchard.
Coulter Creek park has no existing trails or parking areas and is not currently open to the public. The citizen steering committee’s role will be to assess attributes of the park’s landscape and recommend appropriate public access, recreation activities, park management, and the possible future development of support facilities. Coulter Creek park will include Calvinwood, formerly a rustic retreat facility, which had been leased to Washington State Parks, and Square Lake State Park, recently approved to be transferred to Kitsap County from Washington State Parks.
“We’re inviting residents from surrounding neighborhoods and members of recreation groups who are potential users of Coulter Creek Heritage Park to join us in initially assessing what’s there and some of the immediate possibilities for public use,” said Kitsap County Commissioner Charlotte Garrido. “But we’ll also begin to envision some longer-term opportunities, especially with the former state park properties.”
Kitsap County Parks staff already completed a natural resource assessment of the property, identifying hazards and applying their resource management landscape classifications to define areas of environmental sensitivity and high watershed value, which will need to be protected; and in some cases, off-limits, but other acreage can be identified that is more suitable for some degree of public access and recreation.
To learn more about the Coulter Creek park, go to https://www.kitsapgov.com/parks/Pages/CoulterCreekHeritagePark.aspx.
The Coulter Creek Heritage Park Resource Management Plan is available at https://www.kitsapgov.com/parks/Documents/CoulterCreekHeritagePark_Resource%20Management%20Plan2018.pdf . Guided familiarization tours of the property will be available in early 2020.
For more information, contact Steven Starlund, Kitsap County Parks & Open Space Planner at sstarlun@co.kitsap.wa.us, (360) 337-5312.
|
