Community Environment Government

Parks Department outlines management plan for fourth phase of txʷaalqəł Conservation Area

At a Gig Harbor City Council study session on Sept. 11, Parks Manager Jennifer Haro briefly laid out the next steps in the city’s management plan for the recently acquired fourth phase of the txʷaalqəł Conservation Area.

The txʷaalqəł Conservation Area is a more than 52-acre parcel the city acquired between 2022 and 2024. Most of the conservation area is largely sequestered in a relatively untracked-by-humans forest. Gig Harbor Now visited a portion of the conservation area last November, after the Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) helped the city acquire it.

Obstacles to access

In her presentation of the department’s Phase IV management plan at the council’s study session, Haro noted that several obstacles remain before the city can open the conservation area to human traffic.

The txʷaalqəł Conservation Area, as seen on Nov. 25, 2024. Photo by Carolyn Bick. © Carolyn Bick

For instance, she said, the property includes the wreckage of a house that burned down 45 years ago. The city will need to take care of the burned-down structure’s foundation, and either demolish it or build a fence around it, before creating trails, “so that it doesn’t become an attractive nuisance.”

She also noted that the city will need to remove an old driveway culvert, which the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) considers a partial blockage for North Creek (also called Donkey Creek).

Conservation priorities

Haro said the department’s plan for the property revolves around conservation priorities outlined in the grant application for money that helped the city acquire it. Those priorities are archeological and historic landmark sites, critical salmon habitat and trails and corridors.

Long-term management goals include public access to the land, such as a trail to the old home site off of the loop trail, which she said the department hopes will soon be open in either Phase I or II. It also includes educational signage. However, the city will only allow “passive recreation” — things like walking, jogging, hiking and picnicking — in the conservation area.

Haro also said it may be possible to use the driveway area for a small pedestrian bridge.

“Stream protection is also one of the long-term management goals,” she said. In addition to the house foundation and debris removal, she said, “there are some old household items, like kind of outdoorsy gardening stuff lying around.”

The city will also remove invasive species, such as Himalayan blackberry.