Stats for the State of Washington Certified Signature Sanctuaries: 1

Chambers Bay Golf Course
Audubon International worked cooperatively with Pierce County on 250 acres to restore habitat and to provide a cohesive educational program aimed at golfers, areas residents, and trail users at Chambers Bay Golf Course. The property was previously disturbed by the mining operations of the Glacier/Lone Star Northwest Gravel Mine. The entire project covers 928-acres of Chambers Creek Properties containing  parcels that included 650 acres of gravel mines, two miles of shoreline, and 3 miles long forest ravine and creek with a backdrop of Puget Sound, McNeil and Fox Islands and a western horizon framed by the Olympic Mountains.  

Chambers Bay Golf Course is an 18-hole walking-only, public resort, links-style golf course divided by the SoundView multi-purpose trail. Residents from surrounding areas walk, jog, and enjoy the views. The SoundView Trail system was opened to the public May 5, 2007 and welcomes dogs, families, bicycles, walkers, and runners.  It provides public access right through the golf course and along the western edge of the property bordering Puget Sound.  In the 1970s the site was the most productive sand mine in U.S. and when the entire project is completed, it will have the longest expanse of public beaches in  Washington State. The only remnants of the sand and gravel mines are period structures along the south edge of hole #18. But arguably the most impressive natural features on the site are the dunes created during the construction process and vegetated with native plants and grasses. Course designers, Bruce Charlton and Jay Blasi with Robert Trent Jones II, created a layout that restored the land to look like it was carved right out of dunes.

Many holes are isolated by the dunes while others are breathtaking because of the changes in elevations. Although there are no trees on the property except the lone Douglas fir behind the 16^th tee, terrestrial wildlife will find shelter within the adjacent Northern Forest Preserve of mixed conifer-deciduous forest with dominant species of Douglas fir, Pacific madrone, red cedar and ocean spray. To view more of Chambers Bay, visit the website at www.chambersbaygolfcourse.com