U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey maps of Bainbridge Island in the 1890s show our largest salt marshes at Hawley Cove, Schel-schelb (near Lynwood), on the north shore of Manitou Beach and between the bluff at the north end of Sunrise Drive north to Point Monroe.

A century later, U.S. government geologists Bob Bucknam and Brian Sherrod sought places on the island where core samples might provide a clue to seismic events the same as the ones found in the pond on the peninsula between Upper Farms Road and the Country Club.

The only site where a salt marsh could be found for a core sample in Eagle Harbor was in Hawley Cove. They tried to find similar sites at the Head-of-the-Bay or elsewhere in Eagle Harbor and none could be found, which isn’t surprising since they didn’t exist on the 1897 maps.

Now the city’s efforts to “restore habitat” where none existed threatens an unthreatening non-toxic site and all of its rich history at Strawberry Cannery Park. Meanwhile, within Hawley Cove wetlands there’s a man-made fill or berm – probably an old attempt to build a road from Wing Point to Winslow – that stretches 235-feet long and up to 40-feet wide and spoils an honest-to-goodness real salt marsh created by nature.

We have reported this to park maintenance supervisor Arlan Elms, who lives adjacent to the Hawley Cove park, and the city’s shoreline planner as to why the opportunity to restore a real salt marsh is not a higher priority than Strawberry Cannery Park. At the park, uncompromising environmental zealots want to create a salt marsh where one never existed and cutting the heart out of the island in so doing.

To date there has been no response except that Elms thinks it is a nice feature in the park, same as many people feel about the landscape at Strawberry Cannery Park.

Gerald Elfendahl

Island Center