Where We Work - Serving Communities

Klingel, Bryan and Beard Wetland Refuges
(Private - GPC lands)

Elizabeth Klingel purchased 66 remote acres on the north shore of Hood Canal. Its wildness provided an ideal location for watching birds and other wildlife. She hoped to retire to this land, but health concerns changed her mind. She didn't want her land developed, so she and her brother, Terry, searched for an organization to help them preserve this beautiful, untouched place. They approached several national organizations. One of these suggested community members form a land trust to undertake the long term preservation of this and other land. Thus Hood Canal Land Trust (now Great Peninsula Conservancy) was born.  

Terry and Elizabeth Klingel knew the value of wild wetlands, estuaries, and wooded habitat. When the transaction donating Elizabeth's 66 acres to Hood Canal Land Trust (HCLT) was complete, Terry Klingel remarked, “I wish you could save the whole estuary.” Terry's words inspired HCLT to adopt such preservation as a goal.

Soon every land owner around the toe of the canal was contacted. As a result, Judge Robert Bryan and his wife, Catherine, generously donated their 17 acres of wetland contiguous to the Klingel Wetland. They did it in memory of Judge Bryan's father who had loved duck hunting on the property. When Judge Bryan gave the land, he said his father often told him ducks needed sheltered areas to hunker out of the wind. He wanted his land preserved so ducks had just such a haven.  

Shortly after, Oda Beard donated her 2.5 acres of salt marsh to HCLT to add yet more valuable estuarine habitat to the already preserved portions.  

These adjoining, protected properties provide habitat to great blue heron, eagles, owls and many other raptors attracted by the vast population of meadow voles. Waterfowl, songbirds, coyotes, beaver, deer and river otter round out the wild residents. Rarer species such as trumpeter swans, white pelicans and the elusive Virginia rail sometimes reward patient observers. The shoreline and waters provide shelter and optimal breeding for oysters, clams, salmon, and their young.  

These preserves are located two miles from Belfair on State Route 300 along Hood Canal 's north shore. Part of the refuge is a salt marsh on Lynch Cove estuary. Dikes built by early settlers divide part of the refuge into a freshwater marsh with a wooded buffer strip along the road. Across the road, a 12 acre stand of mature, second growth climbs the hillside.  

In 2003, Great Peninsula Conservancy began working with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and other partners on a long-term estuarine restoration project. The work will remove dikes and restore the natural salt marsh which is an extremely rich habitat. Ultimately, Great Peninsula Conservancy will restore to Hood Canal the critical saltmarsh which man borrowed over 50 years ago.