Restoration Center News

		Light is passed through gratings in the narrow dock and reflected by sheet metal panels to increase light reaching newly replanted eelgrass beds. The previous dock had created a dead zone in the nearly continuous eelgrass meadow. See more pictures

Staff from the Northwest Maritime Center (NWMC) and NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center’s Community-based Restoration Program, Congressman Norm Dicks, and a broad coalition of partner organizations, funders and community members celebrated the opening of a very special dock on the waterfront of Port Townsend, Washington, on May 22.

The new NWMC dock not only serves as the visionary front door for a regional educational center celebrating the marine economy and ecology of Puget sound, it also serves as an example for how to build a better dock. Thousands of eelgrass sprouts planted around and under the dock benefit from its high pilings, light-passing gratings, and under-dock reflectors that reduce the shading impacts typically associated with dock development.

The ceremony included a lecture on eelgrass ecology, the first among many as the dock and the center serve to exalt and protect the vibrant ecosystem that shaped the history of the Puget Sound region. Representative Norm Dicks congratulated NWMC on their powerful private-public partnerships and renewed his support for the Marine Center, salmon recovery efforts, and the protection and restoration of Puget Sound.

The previous week, volunteers bundled eelgrass seedlings and attached them to landscape stakes, a planting method developed by Battelle Marine Sciences Laboratories designed to reduce damage from mischievous Dungeness crabs. Project design and eelgrass restoration was funded under a cooperative agreement between NWMC and NOAA Restoration Center’s Community-based Restoration Program. With the dock and restoration complete, NWMC staff look forward to the extensive capital campaign to build the educational center buildings, and a new identity for the Port Townsend waterfront.

Contact:
Paul Cereghino, NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center, Seattle, WA 206-526-4670

More pictures:

The new dock moved boat moorage and floating dock components out past the critical eelgrass zone, where shading will have less impact on the subtidal ecosystem.		Rep. Norm Dicks (WA 6) congratulated the Northwest Maritime Center for their effective public-private partnership, and reiterated his support for the protection and restoration of the Puget Sound Ecosystem.
Attendees at the celebration receive a primer in eelgrass ecology as Rep. Norm Dicks (WA 6) prepares his statement. Eelgrass in the Puget Sound propagates vegetatively, and so recovery is slow following damage.		The ritual ribbon is cut. The traditional longboat ‘Townshend’ crewed by young mariners age 14-18 officially opened the new Northwest Maritime Center as part of the 14th Annual International Pacific Challenge, sponsored by the Wooden Boat Foundation.