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Here's a great article I found at www.northwestnavigator.com: -- The nature trail that winds through the forested grounds of Naval Hospital Bremerton is back open for use. Under the direction and guidance from several key members of the command’s facilities management team, the successful restoration of the trail has been an environmentally-sound and environmentally-friendly undertaking with multiple benefits. “Our goal from the beginning has been to completely restore the natural habitat as much as we can and a big part of that is the installation restoration of our nature trail,” said Ramon Calantas, NHB Environmental Management System (EMS) coordinator. According to Calantas, the trail had been closed for approximately a year due to clean-up efforts and an ongoing munitions investigation for left-over debris from when the site was part of a Navy ammunition depot until well after the World War II. “The restoration was necessary due to the ongoing munitions investigation project that required vegetation removal to the trail area,” explained Robert Mitchell, NHBÕs Environmental Manager and command natural resources manager. Additionally, excessive wet weather last winter caused a lot of erosion due to no hillside vegetation along with washout of a lot of the trail. “Providing a trail for staff and our eligible beneficiaries is a great idea, but we knew it had to be done in a way to preserve the area,” continued Mitchell. “The area has a wetland and a dry stream bed, which works to manage storm water and reduce erosion. We took it upon ourselves to restore all of that. We also have two foot bridges that are part of the trail.” Following the overall restoration objective of Jim Hegtvedt, NHB project manager, all work was performed with minimal impact on the environment. Only trees that were unsafe and diseased were removed. Several of the unsafe trees were simply cut down to a height of 20 feet or less, making them less a hazard for humans and still useable for wildlife habitat. Repairs were made to the stream bed. Grass was planted. Trees near the edge of the stream even had water diverted away from their root system to lessen the chance of erosion. According to Mitchell, the restoration involved using as much recycled and reusable products as possible. This even included grinding removed trees into mulch and using the wood chips to pave the trail. Two new seating areas were also added to the trail, completely constructed from trees cut during the project. “Doing this project with minimal impacts is keeping with our command policy of protecting the environment,” noted Ramon Calantas. “Plus, this is our natural habitat. We need to preserve it as much as possible. We have a number of small animals, as well as birds, that call our grounds their home.” There are plans for additional improvements to the Nature Trail in the spring. Once the natural vegetation returns, they will be augmented with native ornamental and medicinal plants. There is also the possibility for more seating areas, as well as posting informational placards to identify the floral and fauna for educational purposes. Staff and patient alike have used the approximately 700 meters of intersecting trails that dissect the hospital’s 14.5 acres of forested land since the early 1980s. The restoration improvements done by the Facilities Management team will ensure that tradition continues, in as natural and environmentally friendly a setting as possible. As it was meant to be.  http://www.northwestnavigator.com/index.php/navigator/regionalnews/nhb_nature_trail_an_environmental_success_story/