Great Peninsula Conservancy will use this grant to acquire high habitat-value riparian properties within the Grovers Creek watershed in northern Kitsap County. This Grovers Creek Phase II project will permanently protect 111 acres of interconnected, highly-functioning riparian habitat along 1.13 miles of fish bearing main-stream and tributaries within the lower reach of Grovers Creek. This project protects the creek's main-stem and tributaries; mature Sitka Spruce-Western Red Cedar forests; and palustrine scrub-shrib, emergent and floodplain wetlands through fee simple acquisition of 60 acres and conservation easements on 51 acres. The property's habitat provides spawning and rearing refugia for anadromous fish including ESA-listed winter steelhead; aquatic and terrestrial-linked habitat for amphibians; nesting and foraging area for birds; and a migratory corridor for mammals. This project is a critical link within a larger wildlife corridor. It completes the preservation of stream and wetland habitat between Kitsap County's 809-acre North Kitsap Heritage Park and Great Peninsula Conservancy's 270 acre RCO-funded Grovers Creek Phase I acquisition project. Given the proximity of this wetland complex to Miller Bay (1.4 miles upstream), the proposed project is also essential to the long-term protection of the Bay through sediment storage, non-point pollution filtration, flood attenuation, and the slow release of water to maintain base-flow essential to salmon lif