Cutthroat, Coho, and Coyote, oh my!
Springbrook Creek Preserve represents an outstanding conservation opportunity for everyone on Bainbridge Island. The forests and wetlands play a key role in providing cool, clear, and consistently flowing water in the creek for local wildlife including birds, fish, mammals, and amphibians.
Conservation Guided by Scientific Analysis
The multi-year Springbrook Creek Watershed Assessment identified future restoration opportunities, such as removing fish passage barriers and enhancing riparian habitats, evaluated the possibility of returning the stream to its historical path, and protecting intact fish habitat through acquisition or conservation easements within the watershed. Concerns about the impacts of development, lack of healthy riparian vegetation and habitat, and alteration of Island wetlands led the Land Trust to work with a conservation buyer, to acquire this threatened parcel off of Fletcher Bay road.
Springbrook Creek (which drains into Fletcher Bay) is important in a region-wide context. Its protection is a priority of the Puget Sound Partnership Action Agenda, which is the State’s directive for recovering endangered species such as Chinook salmon and orca whales.
Through this assessment, we also learned that the Springbrook Creek watershed provides 4.7 miles of habitat for native fish species, and is listed by the federal government as critical habitat for one of our state’s most iconic fish species, Oncorhynchus mykiss, also known as steelhead trout. Recently, Wild Fish Conservancy took samples in the saltwater/freshwater interface of Springbrook Creek and Fletcher Bay and, using a tool called environmental DNA (eDNA), detected the presence of O. mykiss – either steelhead trout or their resident counterpart, rainbow trout.
eDNA allows researchers to determine with confidence whether fish species of interest are present at sampling sites. This is determined through lab analyses of water samples to identify DNA recently shed from target species at or upstream from the sampling location. According to eDNA analysis conducted by Wild Fish Conservancy, steelhead are believed to be present in Springbrook Creek. This revelation provides further evidence that our actions here on Bainbridge Island can provide a regionally-threatened species like steelhead a boost for survival. Through partnerships like that with Wild Fish Conservancy, the Land Trust will continue to support scientific analysis in our efforts to conserve critical remaining habitat on Bainbridge, for the benefit of fish, wildlife, and our community.
Climate Resiliency
Our Preserve also holds regional significance for helping build resiliency to a changing climate. Its wetlands and mature conifer and deciduous forests act as a sponge to help protect groundwater, absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and control storm water run-off.
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