Restore wildlife. Restore habitat. Restore balance.
Your contribution supports
creeks and streams on private land
Restoring Wild Salmon From the Ground Up
Healthy land creates healthy water. Healthy water sustains wild salmon.
Over 60% of creeks, streams, and rivers flow through private property, often unseen, unnamed, and unprotected.
Many landowners are unaware these waterways exist, or how essential they are to salmon survival. Without knowledge or support, these headwaters quietly degrade, and the food web collapses long before salmon ever reaches the ocean.
This is where Habitat for Nature works.
We support landowners with information and aid necessary to help restore habitat from the ground up, starting with local creeks, streams and headwaters. Our approach is voluntary, noninvasive, and unregulated. We identify overlooked waterways and provide practical guidance to protect clean water, native vegetation, and the food web salmon depend on.
Food and water are our most important commodities.
Based in the Pacific Northwest, our work is grounded in a proven testing and restoration landscape on several acres on Bainbridge Island. Our primary focus remains the United States, with particular emphasis on Alaska. From there, future efforts extend outward through collaboration and education to other key wild salmon regions, including British Columbia, the Fraser River system, and Vancouver Island, with broader awareness initiatives reaching Iceland, Norway, and other global salmon producers.
Our focus remains on wild salmon and natural ecosystems. We do not compete with aquaculture or farming practices. Instead, we complement them by strengthening the natural watersheds that sustain biodiversity and long-term ecological resilience.
Your support helps unlock the most overlooked opportunity in salmon recovery. Private land, restored voluntarily, one creek at a time.
Current Projects
Each project strengthens a missing part of the ecosystem with native plants, clean water, safe cover, and carefully managed supplemental food so wildlife like this Pacific Tree Frog can return and thrive.
We restore habitats for birds, pollinators, and other native wildlife. This process is fundamental toward soil health and improvement, providing ideal conditions that enable salmon recovery. By planting native trees, shrubs, vines, and grasses while removing invasive species, we rebuild habitat necessary for wildlife return and healthy salmon streams.
We add ponds, basins, and wildlife baths to provide reliable water sources year-round. Brush piles, native hedges, and berry and nut producing shrubs create safe cover, nesting areas, and natural forage. Together these features give birds, squirrels, amphibians, and pollinators the water, protection, and habitat structure they need to return and thrive.
Urbanization and clear cutting remove natural food sources, leaving wildlife with little to survive on. We offer limited, carefully managed supplemental food to support species temporarily without creating dependence. As native plants return, we phase out feeding. This method gives wildlife a short-term bridge while the ecosystem is rebuilt.
From the Ground Up
Oncorhynchus spp.
Salmon are the most important native species we protect. They are a keystone species that connects forests, freshwater, shorelines, and the open waters of Puget Sound.
Chinook, Coho, Chum, Pink, and Sockeye salmon depend on Bainbridge Island creeks, wetlands, and nearshore habitats. Clean, cool, shaded streams support spawning and juvenile survival. Healthy shorelines and eelgrass beds help young salmon transition safely to saltwater.
When adult salmon return to spawn, they bring the ocean with them. Their bodies deliver marine nutrients inland, feeding insects, birds, mammals, native plants, and forest soils.
Chinook salmon are also the primary food source for Southern Resident orcas. Protecting salmon habitat is inseparable from protecting orcas and the wider Puget Sound ecosystem.
Protecting salmon protects everything that depends on healthy water.
Salmon feed far more than people. They sustain wildlife from rivers to forests.
Rana aurora
Quiet, elusive, and deeply tied to healthy forests, the Northern red-legged frog is one of the Pacific Northwest’s most important indicator species. Its presence signals clean water, intact understory, and living soils capable of supporting sensitive amphibian life.
Unlike more adaptable frogs, this species depends on cool, shaded wetlands for breeding and undisturbed forest cover for shelter. When red-legged frogs return, it often marks the early stages of ecosystem recovery.
Across much of its range, populations have declined due to urban development, clear-cutting, wetland loss, invasive predators, and climate shifts. Many former breeding sites now support only a few individuals, or none at all.
Ecologically, red-legged frogs help regulate insect populations and support native predators such as herons, garter snakes, otters, and raccoons. By moving between ponds, streams, and forests, they transport nutrients across habitats, strengthening ecosystem connections.
Each returning frog is a measurable sign that wetland and forest systems are beginning to function as an integrated whole again.
Pseudacris regilla
The Pacific chorus frog is often among the first amphibians to return to recovering habitats. Its presence signals adequate moisture, insect life, and seasonal water needed for successful breeding and survival. At Habitat for Nature sites, their return marks early restoration success and improving ecosystem health.
Color varies widely from green to tan, brown, or orange, shifting with light, temperature, moisture, and background for effective camouflage. Breeding occurs in ponds, slow streams, and seasonal wetlands, including temporary waters. After breeding, frogs disperse into surrounding native vegetation, forest edges, gardens, and ground cover.
Chorus frogs help regulate insect populations, support native predators, and move nutrients between aquatic and terrestrial systems.
Taricha granulosa
The rough-skinned newt is a small amphibian that plays a big role in Pacific Northwest ecosystems, and the kind of work Habitat for Nature focuses on.
These newts spend their lives moving between forest floor and water. They breed in shallow ponds and wetlands, then return to damp woodlands where they live under logs, leaves, and stones. Their presence signals clean water, intact forest cover, and connected habitat.
One of the most fascinating facts about rough-skinned newts is their natural defense. They produce tetrodotoxin, a powerful toxin that protects them from nearly all predators. It is one of the strongest natural toxins found in North America. When ingested, it can kill a human being or animal. Just another reason you should always wear gloves while gardening.
We care about rough-skinned newts because they are indicator species. When wetlands are filled, forests fragmented, or water quality declines, newts disappear quickly. When they return, it is a sign that habitat restoration is working.
By restoring native plants, protecting wetlands, leaving natural ground cover, and keeping waterways clean, Habitat for Nature helps create the quiet, connected environments these newts need to survive. Supporting them means supporting entire ecosystems.
Rana pretiosa
We have documented frequent frog activity at this site and believe conditions may now support the northern spotted frog, a species of conservation concern in Washington. Unlike chorus frogs, spotted frogs require clean, permanent wetlands, stable water levels, and intact native vegetation throughout the year.
A core goal of Habitat for Nature is to restore and protect these sensitive wetland systems so species like the spotted frog can return and persist long-term. Confirming its presence through photo or video documentation would represent a major conservation milestone and demonstrate that targeted restoration efforts are producing lasting ecological results.
Support for Habitat for Nature directly advances this goal by funding wetland protection, native plant restoration, and long-term monitoring that make recovery possible for vulnerable species.
Tamias townsendii
Adaptable native. Townsend’s chipmunks use forest edges, brushy cover, and even yards where food and shelter exist.
Seed spreaders. They cache seeds, nuts, berries, and fungi, and forgotten stores can sprout into new plants.
Soil helpers. Digging aerates soil and mixes organic matter, while fungi dispersal supports underground mycorrhizal networks.
Food web link. They are important prey for owls, hawks, and other predators.
What helps. Native shrubs, leaf litter, fallen wood, and low pesticide use create safer, more connected habitat.
Tamiasciurus douglasii
The Douglas squirrel is a keystone species of Pacific Northwest forests.
By caching cones from fir, hemlock, spruce, and pine, these squirrels disperse thousands of seeds, many of which grow into new trees.
They eat underground truffles that form vital partnerships with conifer roots. As the Douglas squirrels move through the forest, they spread fungal spores that support trees by improving nutrient uptake and strengthening soils.
Douglas squirrels are an important prey species for owls and hawks.
Their alarm calls help warn other wildlife of danger. They are loud and can mimic other animals and sounds. This ability to communicate and produce a variety of sounds is just one indication of how intelligent these tiny little squirrels are.
While common regionally, they are locally uncommon and fragile on many Pacific Northwest islands due to habitat loss and forest fragmentation.
At Habitat For Nature, we protect and restore native forest structure so Douglas squirrels and the ecosystems they support can thrive from the ground up.
A story from the field
A young Douglas squirrel found several jars of nuts at one of our storage sites. What a treasure! How could he possibly get to these delicious nuts? The jar was glass, so he couldn’t chew through it, and the lid was a rigid plastic he couldn’t bite through without hitting the glass. Instead of giving up, he studied it, then twisted the lid by positioning himself using every part of his tiny body for maximum leverage. He had to work his way three times around the jar, gripping the lid, tooth and nail.
Finally! It opened!
This was problem solving in real time. To be noted; these were seriously tightened jars meant to keep midnight thieves out.
A couple of days later, much to our surprise, we discovered he filled a 48-inch shipping tube to the brim with various nuts for his winter reserve. Jays noticed it too and began stealing from it. This sly thievery did not get past the little squirrel.
On our next visit, the tube’s entrance was sealed tight with a charcoal briquette that had been over twenty feet away! Somehow, he moved this briquette nearly half his size, inch by inch, over fencing and obstacles, to protect what was his.
When native species are given a chance, they reveal just how remarkable they are. Moments like this remind us why Habitat for Nature exists.
Sylvilagus nuttallii
Ground cover dependent. Nuttall’s cottontails thrive where dense native understory provides food and shelter.
Seasonal native diet. They focus on grasses, forbs, and wildflowers in spring and summer, then shift to woody stems and dried vegetation in fall and winter.
Restoration supported. Native plantings provide the foods these rabbits evolved to eat, reduce pressure on gardens and crops, and create safer habitat edges for foraging.
Ecosystem role. Their grazing helps regulate plant growth, and their droppings return nutrients to the soil, supporting microorganisms and healthier soils.
Food web link. As key prey for owls, hawks, and other predators, cottontails connect healthy ground cover to balanced ecosystems.
Cyanocitta stelleri
Steller’s Jays are highly intelligent, vocal birds and one of the most recognizable residents of Pacific Northwest forests. Their sharp alarm calls alert other birds and mammals to danger, acting as a living early warning system.
They are expert food hoarders, carrying and caching nuts, seeds, and berries. Many caches are never recovered, helping support natural forest regeneration.
Steller’s Jays are also skilled mimics, sometimes imitating hawks to intimidate competitors and protect food sources.
Why They Matter: When jays thrive, seed dispersal improves, predator awareness increases, and forest resilience grows.
Across our region, rapid development has removed trees, shrubs, and the natural food sources that once supported a rich variety of animals. Planting a new tree cannot replace an entire ecosystem.
This is why we step in early.
This is why we step in early. Habitats are rebuilt from the soil to the canopy.
With carefully managed supplemental food, wildlife has a real chance of returning.
Once revived, these species, from microbes to mammals, restore this natural balance
completing the cycle of a healthy ecosystem.
Help us help them.
Your donation fuels supplemental food, native plantings, and safe shelter for wildlife that have lost their homes to development. Together we are rebuilding healthy habitats from the soil to the canopy.
Help us help them.
Your donation fuels supplemental food, native plantings, and safe shelter for wildlife that have lost their homes to development. Together we are rebuilding healthy habitats from the soil to the canopy.
Questions, ideas, or want to collaborate beyond our shores? Send us a note.
Thank You!
Your donation fuels supplemental food, native plantings, and safe shelter for wildlife that have lost their homes to clear-cutting, tree poaching and urban sprawl.
