The South Kitsap community is invited to attend a public workshop Thursday, Jan. 9, to address the potential of Port Orchard’s Coulter Creek Heritage Park with the Kitsap County Parks Stewardship and Recreation Steering Committee.

The park has more than 1,500 acres and is a mostly unknown, undeveloped but diverse forestland that provides wildlife habitat, recharges the aquifers and holds a plethora of natural and recreational resources, according to a county news release.

Coulter Creek park has no existing trails or parking areas and is not currently open to the public.

The citizen steering committee will assess the park’s landscape attributes and recommend appropriate public access, recreation activities, park management and the possible future development of support facilities. The park will include Calvinwood — formerly a rustic retreat facility that had been leased to Washington State Parks — and Square Lake State Park, recently approved to be transferred to Kitsap County from Washington State Parks.

“We’re inviting residents from surrounding neighborhoods and members of recreation groups who are potential users of Coulter Creek Heritage Park to join us in initially assessing what’s there and some of the immediate possibilities for public use,” Kitsap County Commissioner Charlotte Garrido said.

“But we’ll also begin to envision some longer-term opportunities, especially with the former state park properties.”

Kitsap County Parks staff has already completed a natural resource assessment of the property, identifying hazards and applying their resource management landscape classifications to define areas of environmental sensitivity and high watershed value.

To learn more about the Coulter Creek park, visit kitsapgov.com/parks/Pages/CoulterCreekHeritagePark.aspx.