One of the many comments about the PROS Plan delivered to the Planning Commission Hearing on the PROS Plan: 5.20.25

An especially troublesome issue in the management of large public properties is fiscal. Public use of these natural areas requires construction and maintenance of access ‘trails’ designed to be consistent with wildlife habitat protection. In our larger parks the expense of achieving these goals can be prohibitive. Personnel, equipment, supplies, etc. can be costly. For the ten-year period 2013-2023, talented, energetic, committed citizens with pertinent skills and environmental passion have done almost all of the work of maintenance of North Kitsap Heritage Park (NKHP). Formerly referred to as park “Stewards”, a term implying special expertise, the few that are left are referred to only as “volunteers”, subject to the rules newly established by a Park’s administration more interested in procedure than passion for the land over which they exert bureaucratic control. Lost is the partnership and economy of productive, publicly supported citizens engaged in park stewardship.

Just a few of the stewardship accomplishments since 2013, planned and executed almost entirely by stewards, with nothing more required than a thumbs up from prior Parks administrations:

1. Trail maintenance, including the construction of three boardwalks over wetlands, and extensive trail resurfacing, raking and trimming of encroaching vegetation.
2. Culvert maintenance of 33 culverts, some long non-functional, including annual clearing, and a relabeling project with brass tags paid for by stewards. Weekly clearing, for years, of the Beaver Creek beaver deceiver.
3. Trail tree trimming for line-of-sight safety for bikers and hikers.
4. Timely removal of leaning and downed trees over trails. Stewards established an email alert system to stay informed of the need.
5. Park-wide recognition and removal of invasive plants.
6. Stewards initiated and conducted a project designed to determine the impact of hand-thinning with chain saws the forest on one side of Spine Line, but not the other. An experiment in low impact forestry, we called this monthly activity “Fourest Thursday”.
7. ‘Gnome’ work on Ravine Run trail – quiet arborist thinning activity with mostly hand saws, and a very quiet small chain saw.
8. Signage renewal, including posts, for trail names, intersections and distances.
9. Printing and posting trail maps.
10. Regularly stocking dog waste bags at trail head kiosks.
11. Installation of trail kiosks in concrete bases.
12. Miller Bay Road (MBR) parking area construction including installation of tire stops and periodic re-graveling of surface (A&L delivery and steward labor).
13. Painting of barn mural by artist/steward Craig Jacobrown, aided by another steward.
14. MBR lawn development, mowing, weeding and decorative planting.
15. Norman Creek restoration – a project conceived, planned and executed by stewards, aided by county forester Arno Bergstrom, to remove two culverts and reconfigure a former trail crossing to facilitate wetland redevelopment. Stewards first harvested affected vegetation and heeled it in temporary beds at a steward property, ultimately replanting it once grading had been completed.
16. Stewards simultaneously constructed a bypass trail to replace the restored Norman Creek crossing. This homespun trail, of a type preferred by citizen visitors, was subsequently widened and straightened by paid WTA trail builders, at citizen expense.
17. Construction of new trails at Bay Ridge and Beaver Ridge, as conceived and planned in the NKHP steward-authored Master Land Plan (a document initially requested and subsequently shelved by Parks).
18. Stewards crafted ADA-compliant trail plans (6) one of which, from the MBR parking lot to the long pond to the north (an excellent bird watching site) was partially constructed before it was disallowed.
19. Stewards conducted a complete, professional wetland delineation, including temporary ponds and intermittent streams, of all 815 acres. An on-the-ground project, we were directed and accompanied by a botanist/steward who made his living thus. GPS plotting was courtesy of the tribe.
20. The then-county-forester agreed to allow stewards to mark trees for a commercial thinning scheduled by the Parks department in the NE portion of NKHP.
21. Stewards created detailed land classification/trail maps with proposed trails, contemplative zones, ADA trails and other details. Again, aided by the tribe.
22. We measured all valid NKHP trails, on the ground with an odometer wheel. Totaled a tad over 52k feet (about ten miles in 800 acres).
23. Initiated a formal environmental inventory by seining in Bear, Beaver and Norman creeks, and in the MBR pond referred to earlier. The intent was to collect data to judge stewardship over time.
24. Stewards proposed a small mammal survey (utilizing Sherman live traps) to gauge the effect of obstructive trails and roads within the park on relative numbers of voles, moles, shrews and mice. Project was denied because of fear of the word ‘trap’.
25. We responded to the declining water quality of the senescent pond by the picnic table, by conducting a preliminary removal of masses of invasive yellow irises. Took all day with a dozen stewards participating, one with a truck. We were denied permission to continue this effort to rejuvenate amphibian habitat.
26. We were denied permission to acquire a scientific collecting permit which would have enabled us to expand our environmental inventory to include other species.
27. The Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy (ARC) responded to our query by suggesting that ARC sponsor the first Bioblitz proposed for a Kitsap County Park.
28. Responded to a request by Parks to write a Forestry Plan for NKHP. Four stewards met regularly at NKHP with the then-county-forester to write said document.
29. Pleased that stewards had sanctioned restorative thinning of the forest at NKHP, we were asked by Parks to write a Master Land Plan including application of a land classification scheme. Our document was completely consistent with the PROS plan then in effect. Because our plan specified all trails must be “perpetually non-toxic and permeable”, and despite almost universal public approval in a survey conducted by Parks, our work representing months of meetings and dozens of edits, all overseen by the then-park-planner (subsequently fired), never saw the light of day.
30. While we were not specifically informed about a plan to construct a paved road through NKHP, when we did find out we formed a group known as SAPs (Stewards Against Paving) and repeatedly expressed our disapproval. Turned out to be an apocryphal acronym. We were ignored by Parks and vilified in some circles.
31. Stewards used cutting tools to dissect a half dozen abandoned vehicles and haul the parts to park borders for pickup by a metals recycling company.
32. We initiated a project to convert a several acre plot behind the barn (the ‘blackberry triangle’) into a ‘forest garden’ not unlike those known to have developed by PNW tribes. Stewards mowed the blackberries into submission with personal DR mowers and a Parks’ mower kept securely and in good repair at a nearby steward’s home. The project died when Parks reclaimed their mower, failed to maintain it and lost it to theft from the barn.
33. With aid from the former park planner (ultimately fired) stewards crafted a detailed plan to build another visitor parking lot, this one at the Norman Road entrance. Denied by Parks who suggested instead that park visitors park at the county lot at the junction of Norman and West Kingston Roads and walk a mile to the park entrance.

ALL of this and more, conceived, planned, and executed almost entirely by park stewards at nearly no cost to Parks.

Tom Doty, Ph.D., Biological Sciences

Kitsap Resident

Send your own comment by email to the Planning Commission by May 27, 5 pm.

> Return to Community Comments