This project will acquire and protect 50 acres of tidelands, salt marsh, and forested uplands associated with the head of North Bay and Coulter Creek Estuary, in Case Inlet, Mason County. Completing this acquisition will protect a half mile of Puget Sound nearshore habitat and a majority of the Coulter Creek estuary. The salt marsh and shoreline are largely undisturbed and provide critical rearing habitat for several species of salmon. Protecting this property will ensure the availability of salmon rearing and transitional habitat and safeguard existing in-tact natural shoreline processes. The associated upland will remain forest and eliminate the potential for residential structures and uses that would be attractive on one of the last few remaining undeveloped parcels on North Bay. The protection of the Coulter Creek estuary has always been a high priority to the West Sound Watersheds Lead Entity, and protection of functioning nearshore habitat is the highest priority in the South Sound chapter of the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Plan. This project has not been reviewed by the SRFB.