About now, I start thinking about warmer months. So for this month’s What Watershed, I pulled a photo from the archives of summer days when I went paddleboarding with my friend Lara in Manzanita Bay! If you’ve ever had the pleasure of bringing a paddleboard or kayak into Manzanita Bay and lower Manzanita Creek, you know how absolutely beautiful and peaceful this little corner of our Island’s coastline is. Cedars and salmonberry dip down into the water as you glide by, watching for submerged logs and listening for a kingfisher trilling in the distance… you can tell I’m yearning a bit for summer :-). Lucky for all the wildlife and all of us who love this area, the mouth of Manzanita Creek where it enters the Bay and 13 acres of surrounding land is protected by the Bainbridge Island Land Trust as the Miller Kirkman Preserve.

Manzanita Creek and watershed. Map courtesy Wild Fish Conservancy.

The Manzanita Watershed, at about 2200 acres, is one of the largest watersheds on Bainbridge Island. Manzanita Creek makes its way through a diverse landscape, originating in the area of Suyematsu Farm, crossing under 305, continuing through agricultural and residential areas and a historic gravel mine before it eventually makes its way under Miller Rd, Peterson Hill Rd, and into Manzanita Bay. The north fork of Manzanita joins with the east stem of the stream just below Peterson Hill Dr, and that stream branch goes as far north as Port Madison (see map at right).

Manzanita Creek is one of the more productive salmon streams on the Island, with species including chum, coho, cutthroat trout, and even the occasional stray king salmon, likely from nearby Grover’s Creek hatchery (Bainbridge streams generally aren’t big enough to support Chinook but we do get the occasional visitor). In addition to monitoring salmon on this stream for the past 20 years, there’s also substantial data for this stream about its stream invertebrate populations and flow data. This extensive data, combined with many opportunities for habitat improvement including addressing water quality and fish passage, has led the City to conduct a Watershed Assessment of Manzanita to evaluate conditions and restoration opportunities in this watershed. There’s been great work done by the Bainbridge Island Land Trust, the City, and state and regional partners to better understand this watershed, and there are lots of opportunities to do more to protect and restore its habitat and functions.