Eelgrass. No, not the tingling evil doer Indiana Jones battles in “Raiders of The Lost Ark.”

Islanders learned about it recently at IslandWood and now they want more of it.

At the 10th annual Bainbridge Environmental Conference, Northwest scientist Ron Thom and others made their point: our 53 miles of shoreline need to keep the grass and get more of it to grow. He said at least one of our bays kills it off despite his heroic efforts at replanting it.

What goes with it are some 60 types of dependent aquatic life. The implication of an inattentive, fixed management plan is sooner or later we are one of them who goes.

Over the next year or so, shoreline owners, neighborhoods and uplands residents beyond the 200-foot tide mark are expected by state law to get involved at City Hall to update our 1996 management plan. More than our mother’s typical beach plan of taking a shell bag and the older beach towel, this one due in 2011 is complicated.

The jargon and island applications are unique to each site, tedious, and off-putting. Yet, our homework about them must be done before we go if we want the passing-to-excellent grades state advisors said we got the last time.

R.O. Conoley

Sunrise Drive