The Stand for the Land campaign’s largest conserved property yet!
In 2020 and 2021, the Bainbridge Island Land Trust pursued a rare opportunity to protect one of the last few remaining intact and unprotected parcels over 20 acres in size on the Island. This acquisition protected a mature intact forest habitat important to a number of species and critical for the Land Trust’s continued efforts to build a network of lands resilient to a changing climate.
In 2022, this already spectacular Preserve was expanded to include an adjoining 10-acre parcel with a wetland and stream – further enhancing this wildlife-rich landscape.
The 45-acre Rockaway Bluff Preserve is an exceptional forest laying above Rockaway Beach on Bainbridge Island. Stewarded for decades by an Island family, the preserve forms the core of an extraordinary intact, but currently unprotected, upland forest that largely forms a first visual impression of the Island from the Seattle-Bainbridge Island ferry as it heads into Eagle Harbor. On a clear day, this iconic forested plateau, with the backdrop of the snow-capped Olympic Mountains in the distance, welcomes visitors and residents alike to the refuge of the Island, from the dense development of Seattle and the I-5 corridor.
The Preserve provides critical refuge for many species, specifically birds (of which over 80 species have been documented), who are dislodged from North American Pacific Maritime habitats lost to development in the Seattle area – where more than 500,000 people have moved in the past ten years.
Please note that the Rockaway Bluff Preserve is not currently open to the public. Private tours are available.