Here are events such as opening ceremonies, dedications, and ribbon cuttings for facilities funded through the Recreation and Conservation Funding Board (RCFB) and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB). For committee or board meeting schedules, see links on the left.

Date: May 13, 2008
Time: 5-7 p.m.
Location: Manette Side Bar, 2111 East 11th Street, Bremerton
Grant Award: The Key Peninsula Metropolitan Park District used a $500,000 Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant to buy 34 acres surrounding Taylor Bay, protecting the largest pocket estuary on Key Peninsula in Kitsap County. The bay is integral to Chinook, chum, coho and cutthroat trout recovery. The land includes forested riparian and uplands protecting Taylor Bay Creek and estuarine conditions at the creek mouth. Acquisition of Taylor Bay property will prevent habitat degradation from development and maintain the pristine habitat. This purchase is part of a larger project to protect three parcels that include gravelly beaches, wetlands, pocket estuaries, mudflats, lagoon, salt marshes, creeks, forests, stream banks and patches of open meadow.

Kitsap County used a $460,000 Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant to buy 34.5 acres at Pilot Point, protecting the habitat from development and adding to the 400 acres of protected land along the north Kitsap shoreline. The land and associated waters provide important near-shore habitat for bull trout, Chinook, chum and coho. The unspoiled shoreline supplies healthy eelgrass beds with nutrients, freshwater and refuge vital to migrating salmon.

Date: May 16, 2008
Time: 3:30-8:30 p.m., official ceremony at 3:30 p.m., skating demonstrations, a skate contest, and refreshments.
Location: 14224 Bel-Red Road, Bellevue
Grant Award: Bellevue used a $300,000 Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program grant to build a 12,000-square-foot, lighted outdoor skate park in Highland Park. The skate park accommodates all skating types and skill levels, and includes a skate bowl and simulated street features, such as curbs, rails, stairs, “jersey barriers” and ledges. The new outdoor skate plaza complements the city’s existing indoor skate park, which opened in 1994.

For more information, please visit the City of Bellevue's web site.

Date: June 5, 2008
Time: 1p.m.
Location: East of Highway 3, at Harstine Island Bridge on Pickering Passage
Grant Award: Mason County used this $363,750 Boating Facilities Program grant to buy 2.34 acres adjacent to the county's most used boat launch at Latimer’s Landing for parking and other services for boaters, such as a restroom and small picnic area. The current boat launch site at Latimer’s Landing is only .59 acre and provides parking for only 10 vehicles. The new property fronts Pickering Passage and overlooks Harstine Island.

For more information, please visit Mason County's web site.

Date: June 7, 2008
Time: Noon- 3 p.m.
Location: Crossroads International Playground, 16000 NE 10th Street
Grant Award: Bellevue used a $300,000 Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program grant to construct a 35,000-square-foot accessible water play area at Crossroads Park. This is the first playground in the city specifically designed for people with physical disabilities, and the first to incorporate water as a significant play element. The “zero depth” water play area will delight children of all ages with squirting clams, orca whales, a floating granite world, and more. The park also includes family gathering places and restrooms. The project is a partnership between Bellevue and the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club, which has raised $100,000.

For more information, please visit the City of Bellevue's web site.