A family with deep ties in Kitsap County has donated 14 acres of pristine property in Seabeck in honor of its deceased family member, helping create a new wildlife preserve along an estuary on Hood Canal.
The Drury family of Bainbridge Island donated 14 acres of estuary and forest to Great Peninsula Conservancy (GPC) in honor of Gretchen Elizabeth Drury, who died in 2021. Combined with GPC’s recent acquisition of an adjacent 1.85-acre property, the nonprofit is now about the conserve the entire Little Beef Creek estuary near Seabeck, fulfilling Gretchen Drury’s wish, GPC announced in a statement. GPC’s project permanently protects critical spawning and rearing habitat for threatened Hood Canal summer chum salmon.
Andrew Drury, Gretchen’s son, said his parents bought the property in 1994 and realized that it came with ownership of much of Little Beef Creek itself. Gretchen and her husband Don, who now lives in Seattle, first visited the banks of Little Beef Creek in the early 1990s and were struck by the beauty of the place. She wanted the property protected from development at first sight, and since, according to the statement…