Community workshop set for June 22
Workshop focuses on voluntary projects to protect shoreline
natural resources

When?
June 22, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
(Presentations 9-12, Site visit 1-2; Lunch on your own)

WHERE
Kitsap County Fairgrounds, President’s Hall

(Port Orchard, WA )  The Kitsap County Department of Community Development received an EPA Puget Sound Watershed Assistance Program grant to conduct an effort entitled The Kitsap Regional Shoreline Restoration Project. “This project helps identify opportunities to restore shorelines and work cooperatively with landowners who might have interest in helping to address these issues,” said Larry Keeton, Director of Community Development. The project includes:

• A Shoreline Sediment Source Analysis to identify priority sediment-source reaches of Kitsap shorelines;

• A Feasibility Study combining mapped priority reaches, shoreline conditions, and landowner interest to identify areas for potential shoreline sediment restoration projects;

• Bulkhead removal project on public property at Anna Smith Park on Dyes Inlet;

• Outreach and education funding.

“Kitsap’s Shorelines and Restoration Opportunities: A Landowner Workshop” is the first of these outreach efforts. The workshop provides a general background on beach processes and ecology, and an overview of project including some initial results. Commissioner Josh Brown is the opening speaker at this special workshop intended for shoreline landowners and restoration interests. The workshop includes a site visit to Anna Smith Park. Attendees will see the work being done to remove the bulkhead there. “It makes sense to not have to rebuild the seawall and instead let the beach restore itself naturally,” noted Dori Leckner of Kitsap County Parks Department regarding the project.

Shoreline landowners have an opportunity to contribute to the project at the workshop through a landowner restoration interest survey. If you are unable to attend you can complete the survey here (www.kitsapgov.com/dcd/nr/nr.htm). Results from the survey are used to help focus future efforts, and determine what efforts are best for landowners and the environment. The morning sessions start at 9:00 a.m. and are at the President’s Hall on the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. After a break for lunch (on your own) the Anna Smith Park tour begins at 1:00 p.m.

“We hope that many residents will attend this workshop,” said Keeton. “It’s great information for shoreline landowners, and gives us some insight in the best ways to work with folks on restoring shoreline environment for future generations.”