Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife used this funding to acquire 122.7 acres of property bisected by a 1/2 mile length of Morse Creek east of Port Angeles. The objectives of this acquisition were 1) immediate protection and 2) future restoration of mainstem, side channel, and off-channel habitat historically used by Puget Sound Chinook and currently used by bull trout, summer chum, fall chum, coho, pink, steelhead, and cutthroat. A major goal is to provide protected and restored habitat to support re-establishment of Morse Creek Chinook, which were recently extirpated. All anadromous salmonid stocks using Morse Creek will benefit significantly from this project. The properties were for sale and, because of their location on the outskirts of Port Angeles, were at risk to be acquired by developers. The properties are critical to the protection and restoration of salmonid habitat in Morse Creek because : 1) the terrain is steep and unstable and logging or development on this property could severely impact Morse Creek by triggering catastrophic inputs of fine sediment, 2) the area contains the entire floodplain along approximately 1/2 mile of the stream, and 3) the stream is channelized, diked and depleted of wood throughout this reach and would benefit from restoration. The project addresses two (2) WRIA 18 Limiting Factor Analysis-ranked Action Recommendations for Morse Creek, which could not be accomplished within this reach without the acquisition of this property. The following parcels were purchased with this grant and a match from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program: · Rains 102.37 acres · Oliver 6.65 acres · White .5 acres · Melick .2 acres · Wood 4.69 acres