Capitol Land Trust

10/16/2026

🌼🐝 Thank you to everyone who showed up last Saturday to prepare Hilburn Preserve for our new pollinator meadow! Pollinators are an important part of the ecosystem, including providing food for fish like salmon, who in turn feed the orcas who swim in our local waters.

Tomorrow is the moment we’ve been waiting for: Time to put some native plants in the ground to complete our pollinator meadow in celebration of Orca Recovery Day!

Join us and Mason Conservation District beginning at 9:00 am. We’ll provide all the supplies you’ll need. For more details, visit https://capitollandtrust.org/2026-orca-recovery-day-2/

10/15/2026

Whether 8 years old or 80, so many of you came out to Bayshore Preserve this past Saturday to learn how to spot the Wildlife Tracks & Signs written across the landscape.

Thank you for helping make this another successful Second Saturdays event! Thanks, too, to Firecraft Northwest for guiding. Your keen spotting ability and attention to the clues left behind by local wildlife ensured that we had plenty of opportunities to hone our own detection skills.

From dusty deer tracks to the remnants of a robin who became a meal for a hungry fox or coyote, it was a fascinating window into the stories quietly waiting to be told by the land. Other stories included a chum salmon who was likely carried to the base of a tree by a raccoon or eagle, a stick used by a beaver for chewing practice, tree cavities that had been hollowed out by sapsuckers and piliated woodpeckers, and signs of red crossbill written on the Douglas fir cones they’d sampled while foraging.

There is just one Second Saturdays event left this year, and it just happens to coincide with our annual Salmon Experience at Bayshore! The topic will be Fungi of Bayshore, you can learn more about it and the Salmon Experience on our Events page: https://capitollandtrust.org/events/

And if you’d like to be among the first to know about upcoming outdoor offerings at our preserves, consider signing up for our e-newsletter, The Heron: https://capitollandtrust.org/email-sign-up/

10/15/2026

It’s not too late to become a volunteer Salmon Docent at this year’s Salmon Experience at Bayshore Preserve!

Join Capitol Land Trust and Puget Sound Estuarium for our volunteer training on Tuesday, October 20 from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm. This training introduces volunteers to Bayshore Preserve and the work CLT and our partners have done to restore salmon habitat, as well as chum salmon biology, interpretation tips and tricks, and program logistics.

Register now or find out more: https://capitollandtrust.org/2026-salmon-docent-training/

📷 Photos by Leslie Coulter

10/14/2026

Pocket estuaries are some of the rarest habitats in South Puget Sound, and now thanks to a recent 218-acre conservation easement, the pocket estuary known as Hudson Cove is permanently protected. Here, young salmon can adjust to salt water gradually, sheltered from predators by overhanging shoreline vegetation. That gives them time to feed and grow strong before heading into deeper waters.

This Steamboat Peninsula property supports five salmonid species, including Chinook salmon and steelhead. In addition to providing refuge for salmon, its marine waters and cobbled shoreline provide habitat for forage fish and the wildlife who depend on them, including many bird species from bald eagles to great blue herons.

Watch this video to learn more about the critical habitat now conserved forever through the Hudson Cove Conservation Easement: https://youtu.be/PhhGUHiJLOo

📷 Aerial images by Mike Melton

10/11/2026

📆 Mark your calendars: Salmon Experience is just one month away!

Join us November 11, 14, and 15 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Bayshore Preserve in Shelton to watch chum salmon return to Johns Creek, where their lives began.

Salmon Docents will be on-site to answer questions about salmon life cycles and our restoration work at the preserve, and underwater cameras will be available to provide a view below the surface. This popular annual event, co-hosted by Puget Sound Estuarium, is free fun for the whole family. We hope to see you there!

🔸 Learn more about this year’s Salmon Experience: https://capitollandtrust.org/salmon
🔸 Or become a Salmon Docent: https://capitollandtrust.org/2026-salmon-docent-training/

10/10/2026

We’ve got not one, but two events happening today in Shelton!

Beginning at 9:00 am, we’ll be teaming up with Mason Conservation District to prepare Hilburn Preserve for a pollinator garden that will be planted next week in celebration of Orca Recovery Day. More information is available on our website: https://capitollandtrust.org/2026-orca-recovery-day-1/

Then from 10:00 am to noon, our monthly Second Saturdays series is back at Bayshore Preserve. Hosted by Firecraft Northwest, the topic for this month’s event is Wildlife Tracks & Signs. Learn more: https://capitollandtrust.org/second-saturdays-wildlife-tracks-signs

10/08/2026

🐾 Look who was just spotted at Lower Eld Inlet south of Randall Preserve by CLT’s newest drone monitoring pilot, Will Smith!

If you’d like to enhance your own wildlife encounters by learning how to spot their tracks and signs, consider joining us this Saturday for a free event hosted by Firecraft Northwest. It’s part of our ongoing series, Second Saturdays at Bayshore Preserve.

Saturday, October 10, 2026
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Bayshore Preserve, 3800 WA-3, Shelton, WA 98584
Meet at the kiosk • Overflow parking opens at 9:30 am
Free • No parking pass or RSVP required

Details: https://capitollandtrust.org/second-saturdays-wildlife-tracks-signs

10/07/2026

Our two-week Orca Recovery Day celebration kicks off this Saturday at 9:00 am at Hilburn Preserve in Shelton! Help us and Mason Conservation District prepare the site for a pollinator garden that will be planted the following week on October 17.

See https://capitollandtrust.org/2026-orca-recovery-day-1/ for more details.

This fall, we are excited to offer a number of opportunities to get outdoors and learn about the incredible plants and animals that make Mason County great!

Join us after dark for two Pier Peers with Puget Sound Estuarium & Squaxin Island Tribe to explore the estuary creatures found below the water's surface. And drop by our Orca Recovery Day events to prepare for and help us plant a pollinator meadow at the Capitol Land Trust property Hilburn Preserve to support our Southern Resident orca populations. Full event details & registration can be found at masoncd.org/events.

Pier Peer at Alderbrook Resort
Friday, October 9th from 7-9pm, Registration required

Invasive W**d Removal at Hilburn Preserve
Saturday, October 10th at 9am

Orca Recovery Day Native Planting at Hilburn Preserve
Saturday, October 17th at 9am

Pier Peer at Shelton Yacht Club
Friday, October 30th from 7-9pm, Registration required, costumes encouraged

10/06/2026

Conservation Success! Hudson Cove Conservation Easement

Hudson Cove Conservation Easement was conserved by Capitol Land Trust in 2026. The 218-acre property protects 2.5 miles of marine and freshwater shoreline, salt marsh, a pocket estuary, and upland forested habitat. The conservation of this property adds to a network of protected estuaries conserved by CLT along Totten Inlet and the greater Puget Sound, providing important habitat for salmon and other wildlife.

Learn more: https://capitollandtrust.org/hudson-cove-ce/

10/05/2026

Every fall, thousands of chum salmon return to Bayshore Preserve to spawn in Johns Creek. We're looking for volunteers to help share this epic migration with the community during our three-day Salmon Experience event, co-hosted by Puget Sound Estuarium.

As a Salmon Docent, you'll guide visitors of all ages through the restored salmon habitat at Bayshore Preserve, answer questions about the life cycle and behavior of chum salmon, and help connect people to the conservation work that makes their annual return possible.

▪️ Training: Tuesday, October 20 from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
▪️ Volunteer shifts: During the Salmon Experience event November 11, 14, and 15 at Bayshore Preserve near Shelton

While training is optional for returning Salmon Docents, it’s a great opportunity to refresh your knowledge and share your experience with this year’s docent team.

Sign up to become a 2026 Salmon Docent here: https://capitollandtrust.org/2026-salmon-docent-training/

📷 Photo by Leslie Coulter.