Many people have helped NKTA achieve major goals: the North Kitsap Heritage Park trails are essentially complete and Kingston and Indianola are connected by trails. Volunteer efforts, community donations, NKTA memberships and several smaller grants are what and who accomplished that. After a two year process involving 1100 community members the North Kitsap String of Pearls Trail Plan is officially adopted into Kitsap County's Comprehensive Plan. Planning has begun for the first steps of the Sound To Olympics Trail (a paved separated shared use path) to complete the missing link in the cross state trail from eastern Washington through North Kitsap communities to the Olympic Discovery Trail. The Kitsap Peninsula Water Trails Map is in its second printing.

Currently NKTA is working closely with numerous partners led by Forterra (formerly Cascade Land Conservancy) on the Kitsap Forest and Bay Project, the effort to conserve close to 7,000 acres of forest and 1.8 miles of shoreline stretching from Port Gamble Bay to Kingston. This is a regional conservation effort on a scale that is hard to comprehend; 7,000 acres is 40% of the size of Bainbridge Island. The deadline for the Kitsap Forest & Bay Coalition to exercise its option was March 28 2013; that deadline has been met and now the coalition now has one year (through 3/28/2014) to close on the land purchases that are possible. Whether the land remains open with public access to trails or is lost to private homes, what happens in the next year will alter the face of North Kitsap forever.

While NKTA continues to work on land and water trails, trail events and advocate for safer bike facilities and the Sound to Olympics Trail, much of our focus in the next year will be to support the Kitsap Forest and Bay Project. What we learned from our community outreach is that North Kitsap deeply cares about trails. The beauty of simple walking trails is that volunteers can build and maintain them. The challenge is that trails cannot exist without public access to open space. NKTA sees this as a once-in-forever opportunity. Join us and help save the land and trails so future generations will have the opportunity to enjoy what we treasure.