Great Peninsula Conservancy partners with Navy to buy and protect forest near Bangor

CENTRAL KITSAP — Three-year-old Jada Wong had her boots on, even if she needed a little assistance on the hike to the middle of a forested area north of the Newberry Hill Heritage Park. As she stood with her mother, Lisa, of East Bremerton, the two were part of an effort on Friday to remove invasive plants in a newly protected community forest that is intended to remain natural and usable when Jada is old enough to pull Scotch broom herself.

The Wongs were two of the 10 or so volunteers at a Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) event, joining GPC members and Navy personnel to remove invasive plants in a community forest purchased for $3.5 million and intended for future public access.

"I'm really excited to be able to help with conservation and to teach her (Jada) that volunteering to take care of Earth is important," said Lisa Wong, whose husband works as a contractor for the Navy in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and decided to join the Earth Day Stewardship event with GPC after seeing an Instagram post.

The Newberry Woods Community Forest is located to the north of county-owned Newberry Hill Heritage Park west of Silverdale, and about two miles from Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, the homeport for eight of the country's 14 Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines, some guided-missile submarines and Seawolf-class subs.

GPC's land purchase in October 2022 prevents the forest from future development and allows public access to the land, and it couldn't have done so without an assist from the Navy.

Navy program pays 80% of GPC's land purchase

The 202-acre forest was owned by the Lindstrom family since the 1960s. It is now open for the public for hiking and wildlife viewing after GPC bought the land and turned it into the Newberry Woods Community Forest in 2022 with support from the family and other federal and county agencies.

The forest was appraised at a value of $4 million. The Lindstrom family is credited with a $500,000 donation for accepting a total purchase price of $3.5 million. Also, the U.S. Forest Service Community Forest Program granted GPC $600,000. Kitsap County Conservation Futures grant contributed $100,000. The remaining $2.8 million came from the Department of Defense's Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program, said GPC's executive director Nathan Daniel.

The DOD's REPI Program preserves military missions by supporting cost-sharing agreements between the military, other federal agencies, state and local governments, and private conservation organizations to avoid land use conflicts near military installations, address environmental restrictions that limit military activities, and increase resilience to climate change, according to DOD.

Allison Satter, Naval Base Kitsap Community Planning Liaison Officer, was among the volunteers who carried a "weed wretch" tool to pinch and pull invasive plants out of the ground on Friday. Satter said the Navy appreciates the investment that could maintain the forest and spaces for wildlife and protect the salmon habitat in Central Kitsap.

"As Kitsap continues to grow, trees get cut down, it's going to be nice to have something in the general area that's similar to our type of development," Satter said.

Since Bangor is an existing forested area, there could be a chance that endangered species decide to locate on the property, which would cause the Navy to have additional regulations and restrictions on the base, Satter said.

"So, if we have things outside in the community to be able to handle those endangered species and for them to find home there, then it's not necessarily going to be as potentially cumbersome to us," Satter said.

It was not the first time GPC purchased property near the Bangor base and Hood Canal to protect land from development. DOD signed the 5-year REPI agreement with Great Peninsula Conservancy in 2020. That year, GPC purchased the Misery Point Preserve in Seabeck for $1.8 million, which is on the waterfront of the area where submarines go out and do testing at Hood Canal and Dabob Bay.

The REPI program contributed $200,000, or about 10% of the total, toward the Misery Point Preserve purchase. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Coastal Wetland Grant made up $1 million. The State's Salmon Recovery Funding Board granted GPC $600,000. And the Kitsap Audubon Society and Hood Canal Environmental Council both made contributions of around $5,000 each, Daniel said.

GPC plans to renew the agreement into a second five-year period after 2025, Daniel said.

The Navy leadership is glad to see the completion of the Newberry Woods Community Forest purchase. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Meredith Berger described it as a perfect example that occurs when environmental preservation, community partnerships, and Navy assets come together to enhance one another and ensure a positive operating landscape for generations to come, Berger said.

“I’m extremely proud of our Navy’s contribution to making the Newberry Woods Community Forest a reality," Berger said in a statement to Kitsap Sun.

Future discussion of community forest

Micaela Petrini, GPC's Stewardship Associate, the lead of the Earth Day event and the community forest project said she's grateful for the volunteer's contribution. Seeing people involved in the stewardship of the community forest is encouraging, she said.

"With Newberry Woods Community Forest, we really want to engage people with long-term stewardship of this place. And that has to start somewhere. So, having it started on Earth Day is pretty exciting," Petrini said.

Great Peninsula Conservancy hosted two forest tours and three community meetings in January and February for the public to participate in the discussion of the long-term vision of the community forest. Friday's Earth Day event was the first stewardship event for people to be part of the conservation. More details to provide further public access to the forest are still being discussed, Petrini said.

Later this year, GPC is planning to establish a community forest advisory team, a volunteer group of possibly 7 to 15 people, to provide input and advice on the various activities and management decisions for the community forest, Petrini said.

Those who are interested in joining the advisory team can visit GPC's website at https://greatpeninsula.org/property/newberry-woods-community-forest/ for more information.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Newberry Woods Community Forest protected with Navy funding