Olympia Ecosystems

Olympia Ecosystems is a community-based conservation land trust, with four preserves across 500 acres. Our mission is to protect, preserve, and restore the diverse ecosystems in and around our state capital that are home to many northwest species in the heart of our community. We seek to integrate conservation and restoration of degraded ecologically important areas within our urban community, while providing access and education to the public and enhancing the well-documented mental and physical benefits of a public connection to nature.

Trail within the restored area of the West Bay Woods

The West Bay Woods, our oldest preserve, is a 23-acre remnant shoreline forest, adjacent to Olympia's downtown on the western shoreline of the Deschutes Estuary. We have been carrying out restoration projects here over the last several years and have introduced a number of green infrastructure projects to improve water quality in our part of Puget Sound. The recovering forest contains 100-year old trees and a very present ecological connection to the water. It not uncommon to find shells littering the forest floor. It is also not uncommon to find the community walking the trails. 

Board president, Sarah Hamman, talks about the ecological connection between the woods and Puget Sound from the viewpoint above the new stormwater pond.

This past year we transformed a parking lot for the derelict Reliable Steel plant on West Bay Drive into a trailhead and stormwater pond. A new rock stream channel, tumbles down the hill - once feeder bluffs to Puget Sound - over multiple weirs and cascades into a small pond along West Bay Drive.

Aerial view of the new trailhead, pond and rock channel along West Bay Drive.

The new trailhead creates access from the sidewalk on West Bay Dr. to a viewpoint from where you can see Mt. Rainer, the Olympics and the State Capitol. From the viewpoint, you can continue on into the rest of the West Bay Woods, connecting with two additional trailheads in the upland neighborhood. The stormwater pond removes fine sediment from and detoxifies stormwater runoff before it reaches Puget Sound. It also creates valuable habitat in an area where the nearshore has been damaged.

Hikers visiting the new trailhead and stormwater pond

This year, we are asking for your support to help us with the costs of installing granite boulders for seating at the trailhead, installing educational signage, and for replanting the surrounding area.  It will be a beautiful park for the public to enjoy along West Bay Drive, complete with stunning views of Budd Inlet, Olympia, and Mt Rainer, and will provide the ecosystem service of cleaning stormwater from West Olympia neighborhoods before it enters the Puget Sound. Help us to complete this visionary project that we have been working on for several years now. As always, we could not do the work we do without community support.