FUNDRAISING PROGRAM
If you haven't heard about us, we'd like to introduce you to the Ship Harbor Interpretive Preserve (SHIP); a project designed to preserve and protect a beautiful, but endangered wetland, located adjacent to the State Ferry Terminal. The site includes acres of wetlands, upland habitat and 2000 feet of sandy beach. This wetland not only provides important habitat in its own right, but is important in maintaining the adjacent marine eelgrass beds and Dungeness crab nursery. It is a rich area with an abundance of plants and wildlife and an interesting history of salmon canneries and tribal fishing.
Ironically, the very pressures that promote the need for protection render the site so effective as an education center. Approximately 2 million visitors pass through the adjacent ferry terminal annually. In addition, there is increasing residential and commercial development in the area. This has resulted in increased foot traffic in the wetland, with informal trails threatening sensitive plants and wildlife. SHIP proposes to control this situation by providing public access by means of a defined trail system that will be both protective of particularly sensitive areas and provide general public education about the role and significance of such wetlands through signage and other informational techniques. Consider the mitigation value of educating up to 2 million people a year about the need to protect wetlands, as well as their role in providing habitat for ecologically and commercially important species! In addition to this general public education effort, there will be a well-designed K-12 program that will become incorporated into the science curricula of local school systems.
Participants, including the Anacortes Park Foundation (coordinating the effort), Western Washington University's Shannon Point Marine Center, the Anacortes School District, the Samish Indian Nation, Evergreen Islands, the Port of Anacortes, and approximately 60 local citizens who have contributed their time as volunteers, are now ready to make this dream a reality. But we need your help!
We have raised some $77,000 which has funded the initial planning and design phase of the project, have a pledge from a Seattle foundation for $10,000, and $4,000 from the local Kiwanis Noon Club.
If we are to be successful in attracting the support of major benefactors, we must show extensive local support. We are asking you to help by buying one (or more) planks at $50 each and becoming a SHIPMATE. We would of course recognize major contributors with appropriate plaques or signs along the trail. Either way you will be you will be helping us demonstrate to others the extent of commitment on the part of local citizens.
Let's all work together to make SHIP a reality
Funding Needs With the planning functions for trail and pavilion design, business plan, surveying, engineering, costing and bid packages completed, volunteers are working on project funding. The Project has been broken into three phases: Phase A covers the pavilion and some access trails; Phase B takes us from the pavilion and ferry landing on an ADA approved trail to beach access: Phase C covers the balance of the trail and interpretive signage. Costs for each Phase are detailed below:
Planning, architecture, and engineering total: ..$76,788
Phase A. (Pavilion and access trails) ..$146,880
Phase B. (Access trail to wetland and beach $157,550
Phase C. (Wetland trail and Interpretive signs) .$268,800
Total Cost .$650,018
(note these costs do not include Sales tax and inflation
