STO Trail Archives | Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connections

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connections

We were honored by a visit from Congressman Derek Kilmer in August, to celebrate the $16.13 million federal RAISE grant for local and regional trail design.

Kilmer walked the Sound to Olympics Sakai Pond Connector with the Parks & Trails Foundation, city and park officials, and local trail boosters to mark the amazing grant, which brings big-time dollars to Bainbridge Island to continue designing the STO north to the bridge.

Said the Congressman: “It has been said that roads segregate, and trails integrate. I like that notion, because what we’re really celebrating is connection. Connecting Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties. Connecting cities and tribes and all those points along the way. Connect recreationists to nature, people to jobs, students to schools.”

A refresher: Earlier this year, the PS2P Collaborative – an initiative led by the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation with the North Kitsap Trails Association and Peninsula Trails Coalition, and […]

Kilmer celebrates federal RAISE grant, trail connectionsDouglas2023-08-28T13:56:44-07:00

$1.7M planning grant for Bainbridge Island STO

$1.7M planning grant for Bainbridge Island STO

The City of Bainbridge Island will receive $1.7 million in federal funding to plan the Sound to Olympics Trail from Winslow to the Agate Passage Bridge.

The award is part of a larger, $16.13 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant, administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The grant will plan and design 100 miles of new multi-use trails in the Puget Sound to Pacific (PS2P) corridor, from Bainbridge Island to LaPush on the Pacific Ocean.

The RAISE grant was awarded to the City of Port Angeles. Co-applicants included the City of Bainbridge Island; the Washington State Department of Transportation; the Quileute and Suquamish tribes; Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties; the cities of Forks, Port Townsend, Poulsbo, and Sequim; and the Port of Port Townsend.

The grant application was coordinated by the Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative, an initiative of the […]

$1.7M planning grant for Bainbridge Island STODouglas2023-08-30T16:08:54-07:00

Kilmer announces $16.13M grant for PS2P

Kilmer announces $16.13M grant for PS2P

PORT ANGELES, WA – Today, U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer (WA-06) announced that the City of Port Angeles has been awarded a $16.13 million RAISE Discretionary Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. This grant will be used to plan and design approximately 34 active transportation components, addressing approximately 100 miles of gaps, community connections, and safety improvements for multi-use trails connecting Bainbridge Island on Puget Sound to the Pacific Coast.

“This is a big deal,” said Rep. Kilmer. “This investment in the Puget Sound to Pacific trail will help connect workers to jobs, local residents to essential services, and folks looking for recreation to some of our region’s natural treasures. Having the federal government provide this grant funding means we will see improved trail connectivity and better safety without the cost being borne entirely be taxpayers in our neck of the woods. That’s a huge win for our region.”

The Puget […]

Kilmer announces $16.13M grant for PS2PDouglas2023-06-26T11:05:11-07:00

Leafline Trails Coalition launches 900-mile trail vision

Leafline Trails Coalition launches 900-mile trail vision

Gov. Jay Inslee pedaled the Sound to Olympics Trail on Bainbridge Island, as Leafline Trails Coalition today launched a visionary network with more than 900 miles of trails to safely and efficiently connect communities throughout the central Puget Sound region.

“Nobody’s ever caught frowning on a trail,” Inslee said as he live-streamed his ride up the STO from Winslow Way to High School Road, via a handlebar-mounted camera. “Everybody’s happy, ever notice that? People on trails are always smiling.”

Inslee live-streamed brief comments from the STO trailhead, hailing the regional trails plan as the most exciting mapping project since Peter Puget surveyed Puget Sound in 1792.

There are about 500 miles of trails today in King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, Leafline says, but there has never before been a concerted effort to create a network that crosses jurisdictional boundaries and Puget Sound.

Currently, 56 percent of the more than 900-mile trail network is […]

Leafline Trails Coalition launches 900-mile trail visionDouglas2022-06-01T14:52:35-07:00

A ‘trifecta of awesomeness’ on the STO Trail

A ‘trifecta of awesomeness’ on the STO Trail

In the fullness of a 3,700-mile route, a seven-mile ribbon across a little island in Puget Sound may not seem so grand.

Then again, it’s our seven miles. So the fact that Bainbridge Island’s bit of the Sound to Olympics Trail also falls along the path of the Great American Rail-Trail – a contiguous path that will stretch from the other Washington to this one, crossing a dozen states and entirely walkable and bikeable – that’s turning into kind of a big deal.

That’s what Kevin Belanger, project manager for Washington D.C.-based Rails To Trails Conservancy found during an April visit to Bainbridge Island. Belanger came to spend an hour walking the STO’s Winslow segment with local trails fans, and was greeted by City Hall.

“I really […]

A ‘trifecta of awesomeness’ on the STO TrailDouglas2022-09-23T11:08:42-07:00

Friends of STO fund supports greenway tree work

Friends of STO fund supports greenway tree work

Underperforming trees marked for thinning on the STO Winslow Connector.

Tree thinning on the Sound To Olympics Trail heralds a healthier greenway for Winslow’s “linear park.”

Spindly, underperforming and dying trees are being removed along a stretch of the STO’s Winslow Connector, between Winslow Way and the ravine bridge south of Vineyard Lane.

Those remaining trees will enjoy healthier long-term growth, and native shrubs below will thrive better.

“Hotter and drier summers are testing the health of island forests,” says Barb Trafton, Parks Foundation Projects Director. “The thinning of overcrowded stands of trees by removing spindly, shaded ones allows more air and water circulation for the remaining trees, boosting opportunities for biodiversity along the STO greenway.’

The select thinning was approved by the City of Bainbridge Island. The project is funded through the Parks Foundation’s Friends of the STO Trail Fund, which supports greenway stewardship in […]

Friends of STO fund supports greenway tree workDouglas2022-01-21T09:48:00-08:00

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcome

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcome

Great turnout for the STO Sakai Pond Connector dedication and Trail Mixer! If you’ve not walked this new trail yet, check it out and discover sublime Sakai Pond for yourself – and trails leading up into Sakai Park and beyond.

Thank you to the City of Bainbridge Island for partnering on this great dedication event, and planning forward with Bainbridge Metro Parks on the trails next leg north. Together, we’re building out our island’s public trails network to connect neighborhoods, parks, commercial and service centers, and transit for a better, greener island community.

STO Sakai Pond Connector gets a warm welcomeDouglas2022-02-10T22:50:43-08:00

Building a greener urban trail on the STO

Building a greener urban trail on the STO

Let history record that the Sakai Pond Connector’s first user came not on wheel or foot, but hoof.

As crews feathered in the last of 400 feet of asphalt on the Sound To Olympics Trail’s newest leg, a black-tailed doe emerged from the woods, sampled a newly planted tree at the trailside – not to its taste, fortunately – scampered across the new trail and off into the highway lanes.

“Be smart,” one onlooker enjoined in the deer’s direction.

“Or lucky,” said another.

Highway traffic paused briefly, the doe disappeared across the far shoulder, and work went on. By the end of the day, STO Sakai was done.

Let the wheels and feet follow.

That the deer found the trailside so tantalizing owes to the aggressive planting schedule (formerly “restoration,” now “assisted natural revegetation” in the parlance) of Northwest trees and shrubs.

[…]

Building a greener urban trail on the STODouglas2022-02-10T22:51:33-08:00

Clearing land by cloven hoof on the Sound To Olympics Trail

Clearing land by cloven hoof on the Sound To Olympics Trail

They came spilling out of the trailer in twos and threes, tentative at first, squinting into the sudden sunlight and a little unsure of the new terrain.

Then they saw green.

Then it was a pell-mell rush toward the sprawling buffet of a vacant lot at High School Road and SR305. The salad bar was open. The goats would be first in line.

“They’re happy. They’re doing what goats are designed to do,” said Tammy Dunakin of Vashon-based Rent-A-Ruminant, as her goats set about denuding the landscape. “They’re designed to eat ‘browse’ – not feed or hay, that’s not their main thing. They love to climb, and they love new things because they’re very smart and very inquisitive.

“This kind of meets all those things that they love.”

The menu on the one-acre lot next to the Chevron station featured nuisance plants like ivy and blackberry, along with various scrub […]

Clearing land by cloven hoof on the Sound To Olympics TrailDouglas2021-05-25T19:04:02-07:00

Kitsap Sun: Goats chew the way clear for new STO Trail segment

Kitsap Sun: Goats chew the way clear for new STO Trail segment

Published in the Kitsap Sun, May 14, 2021

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – The herd of goats sits contentedly in the sun, appetites temporarily whetted, workers taking some time off the job. Vehicles motor by on Highway 305, and the temporary residents of the nearby greenbelt tangled by blackberry vines, ivy and other greenery, bleat and shuffle around, jockeying for just the right spot. A protective dog barks from inside the fence at visitors as they stop to peer in at the unusual workforce.

The Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation brought in the goats to munch away at the northeast corner of Highway 305 and High School Road through the Vashon Island-based business Rent-a-Ruminant, which sets herds of goats on properties as an “eco-friendly, green and sustainable approach to vegetation management.”

For six days, they’re working at the site to clear the way for the newest section of the Sound to Olympics Trail. […]

Kitsap Sun: Goats chew the way clear for new STO Trail segmentDouglas2021-12-07T09:37:15-08:00