NKTA History

2007

OPG (Olympic Property Group) held a meeting with over 500 people interested in trails in North Kitsap attending.
OPG publishes their vision for trails and more.

2008

2009

NKTA diversified its Board to include Kitsap County, OPG, and representatives from NK local communities.

2010

North Kitsap Heritage Park opens.
County Commissioner Steve Bauer and Jon Rose of Olympic Property Group announced the proposed North Kitsap Legacy Partnership between Kitsap County with a goal to combine economic development in Port Gamble while conserving 7000 acres of Open Space in North Kitsap.

2011

2012

Kitsap County, Forterra, GPC and the Suquamish and S'Klallam Tribes form the Forest and Bay Project for the purpose of purchasing and preserving 7,000 acres of OPG timber land near Port Gamble. NKTA joins with other coalition groups to support the project.

2013

NKTA receives a National Parks support for a water trail
Kitsap Peninsula Water Trails Alliance is established to promote the development of water trails throughout Kitsap County.

2014

The initial 535 acres of Pope Resources tinber land were acquired to create the Port Gamble Forest Heritage park on the west shore of Port Gamble Bay.
Kitsap County adds 366 Acres to the North Kitsap Heritage Park, providing a potential STO route through the Park.
Kitsap County, working with NKTA and the Evergren Mountain Biking Alliancee (EMBA), receives a $500,000 RCO grants to create a bicycle ride park in PGFHP.
Kitsap Peninsula Water Trails are designated as part of the National Water Trail System by Secretary of Interior.
2014 – Kitsap County adopts a long-range county-wide Non-Motorized Trails Facilities Plan using NKTA's North Kitsap "String of Pearls" Trail Plan as a model.

2015

GPC acquires about 220 acres of the Grovers Creek "Divide Block"; an STO easement across that property is obtained.
Kitsap County completes a feasibility study across the for the STO route across the "Divide Property" between Old Port Gamble Road and Miller Bay Road.

2016

NKTA purchases an easement across private property east of Old Port Gamble Road to provide a future STO connection between the Port Gamble and North Kitsap Heritage Parks.
The F&B Project add 1,356 acres to the Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park

2017

The final 1,504 acres of Pope Resources timber lands were added to the Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park, completing the the decade-long Forest & Bay project that has now conserved 4,000 acres for recreation, restoration, cultural heritage and habitat.

2018

2019

An FPD grant to KC funds $1.7M towards (1) creation of the bicycle ride park, (2) a PGFHP development plan and (3) an engineering design study for the northern segment of the STO within PGFHP.

2020

Kitsap County receives $2 million PSRC grant towards construction of to build out 3.4 miles of STO shared-use pathway near Port Gamble, from the community to the Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park.

Kitsap County partners with the Leafline Trails Coalition, in partnership with King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, and other trail advocates, to connect nearly 450 miles of trails throughout the central Puget Sound region, including the Sound to Olympic Trail.

The City of Poulsbo receives a grant for a roundabout at Johnson Parkway and SR 305. The project will construct a part of the STO connection from Lincoln Road to SR 305 along with a bicycle/pedestrian tunnel under busy highway 305.

2022 & 2023

NKTA partnered with the Bainbridge Island Parks & Trails Foundation and the Peninsula Trails Coalition to create The Puget Sound to Pacific Collaborative (PS2P), a community- connecting vision of a safe non-motorized transportation route from the Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean. Our first step was to bring 13 agencies together to identify the remaining "gaps" that exist in the Sound to Olympics Trail (STO) and the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) in order to complete this vision. Second step was to hire professional consultants with our donor- generated funds to tell this "story". The consultants created the PS2P application for federal transportation infrastructure funding that was submitted in February 2023.

The City of Poulsbo completes the Johnson Parkway project that includes approx. 1 1/2 miles of the STO separated shared-use trail, a bicycle/pedestrian tunnel under busy SR-305 and the SR 305 traffic roundabout. This project also created an SR-305 landscaped entrance to the city with culturally significant signage and artwork aesthetics.

In June 2023 the US DOT awarded the PS2P $16.13 mil. to complete the design & engineering work necessary to fill those gaps in the STO & the ODT, along with a few other collector trails that will link the PS2P with nearby communities.