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Kaiser
(Green Cove Wetlands) Preserve:
19.43 Acres along Kaiser Road in the Green Cove
Creek Basin.
Acquired in 2007.
The
Kaiser Preserve is located within the Green Cove Creek
basin, just outside of Olympia's Urban Growth Boundary,
on
Kaiser Road
in
Thurston
County
. The Preserve is located adjacent to the LOTT
Alliance property, sharing a North/South
boundary. The property consists of three main types of
vegetation: lowland grasses and shrubs in the eastern
edge, largely undisturbed wetlands in the center of the
property, and upland forests on the western edge.
The wetlands were formed by depressions and
beaver activity.
Red
alder and western red-cedar dominate the forest
wetlands, with an understory of salmonberry and
groundcovers including skunk cabbage and lady fern.
Douglas
spirea and willows dominate the shrub-scrub wetlands.
Other dominant wetland plant species on the property
include field horsetail, creeping buttercup, and slough
sedge.
Green
Cove Creek flows through the property. Green Cove Creek
is a perennial stream with anadromous (fish that migrate
from sea to fresh water to spawn) and resident fish
species present. Anadromous
fish found in the Creek include Chinook, chum, and Coho
salmon, steelhead, and sea-run cutthroat trout. The
federal government has recently listed all of these fish
species as threatened.
The
bald eagle, which is federally listed as threatened,
regularly visits the property. The Great Blue Heron,
which the State of
Washington
lists as a state monitor species, also regularly visits
the property.
Other local inhabitants include
birds such as the osprey, western grebe, American
bittern, and northern harrier.
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