On July 19th and 20th, the Kingston community came out to celebrate Great Peninsula Conservancy’s Summer of Stillwaters; a five event series celebrating the integration of Stillwaters Environmental Center as a program of Great Peninsula Conservancy.
On Friday night, GPC kicked off the festivities with a community picnic featuring words of environmental inspiration from Stillwaters founders Naomi Maasberg and Joleen Palmer, State Representative Greg Nance, and Kitsap County Commissioner Christine Rolfes. GPC also unveiled the new sign for the Stillwaters Treehouse — handmade by Executive Director Nathan Daniel — now called the Bert Jackson Treehouse. Between the expertly flipped burgers (Thank you Michelle and Mark Graves) and excellent conversation, it seemed that a good time was had by all!
Saturday featured a little something for everyone:
-A BioBlitz during which community members identified 116 species including the illusive sundew!
-A Presentation on the past, present, and future of Stillwaters at the Village Green.
-A Land Labs lesson on shorelines featuring GPC’s Land Labs team, Green Crab Search Volunteers, and a NOAA scientist.
-A sunset kayak tour of the estuary led by GPC Executive Director Nathan Daniel.
As a program at GPC, Stillwaters will continue connecting community members – and youth specifically – with the wonders of the Carpenter Creek estuary through research, restoration, education, and volunteer opportunities. This legacy will be preserved, while providing a launch pad for future endeavors in education and community science. Both Stillwaters and GPC couldn’t be more excited about this continuation and collaboration!
Thank you to all who attended! For those who couldn’t join us — we look forward to getting outside with you sometime soon!