The East Bremerton Rotary has adopted Illahee Forest Preserve as a focus for club activity. Illahee Forest Preserve provides East Bremerton Rotary with a welcomed opportunity for "hands-on" participation while making a difference in a local County Park and helping to protect an important parcel of forested land. All of these points are important community benefits from Rotary's perspective.

East Bremerton Rotary has been a part of Illahee Forest Preserve since January of 2005 when the completed a significant enhancement to the parking lot area at Thompson Lane along Riddell Road. Among other tasks, East Bremerton Rotary provided a County Parks sign at this location which prominently identifies East Bremerton Rotary's commitment to Illahee Preserve. Ever since that time, East Bremerton Rotary has been conducting various work parties at Illahee Forest Preserve, primarily thru improving trails by the spreading of wood chips and other maintenance.

Rotary Work Party - January 26, 2008

The East Bremerton Rotary completed another work party of spreading wood chips on trails at Illahee Forest Preserve on Saturday morning, January 26th. The weather was below freezing when we started, but thankfully no snow or rain. Our focus was the wood chip pile at the Water Tank situated atop Riddell Road. Wood chips were wheel borrowed to cover the main trail all the way to Compass Circle.

The work party totaled 15 people and one dog. See photos. A second work party at this location is anticipated in 3-4 weeks (mid-late February) with hopes of depleting the remaining wood chip pile. Wonderful pastry snacks and hot coffee were provided by Olympic Coffee (next to Fred Meyer) courtesy of East Bremerton Rotarian Andy Graham who also helped with the work.

In addition, GPS mapping work was performed by East Bremerton Rotarian Shane Foraker. We hope to complete the basic GPS mapping of the entire trail system within the next couple weeks and deliver to Rice Fergus Miller Architects who are assisting us with composition of a trail map and brochure for Illahee Forest Preserve.

It was a great day at Illahee Forest Preserve.

Pictured above - from left to right: Jim Stephens, Betti Sheldon, Andy Graham, Lew Bruser, Dick Sims, Shane Muhleman, Ron Pettygrove, Shadow Wright, Bill Benson, Jo Ann Wright, Jon Buesch, Bill Wright, Jack Stodden, Vic Ulsh, Ron Muhleman

Rotary Work Party - April 18, 2007

On the evening of Wednesday, April 18th, we had another productive work party at Illahee Forest Preserve. Arrangements were with Marine Corps Security Force Company from SuBase to assist East Bremerton Rotary in moving wood chips onto trails from the chip pile at Petersville and Riddell. 10 Marines and 9 East Bremerton Rotarians participated. All 10 Marines and some Rotarians are in the attached photo. The end result was the complete removal of the remaining chips on Riddell at Petersville. The focus was to add chips to the muddy section of trail leading west from Compass Circle. Mission Accomplished. The Marines were awesome. They were all smiles and hard work. Great guys. We will be planning additional work parties with them in the future. The next location for wood chip deliveries is the water tank atop Riddell.

LOCATION:

Illahee Preserve is located in the east Bremerton area of Kitsap County. The entrance is at Thompson Lane off Riddell Road. There is also a trail head at the corner of Almira and Fuson Road across from Lowe's parking lot.