Event invite: Celebrating the recovery of Puget Sound

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I want to invite you to join me at an event this Thursday at the Port of Everett's Box Car Park to celebrate a milestone in the recovery of Puget Sound. Since 2002, the Northwest Straits Initiative has removed more than 5,600 derelict fishing nets from the Puget Sound's shallow subtidal waters.

For decades, these lost nets captured and killed tens of thousands of marine animals. The nets the Northwest Straits Initiative removed contained more than 450,000 entangled animals representing more than 260 unique species. Removing these nets has protected the animals of the Puget Sound from future entanglement, and they now have free access to more than 800 acres of marine habitat.

Below are the event details.

What: Derelict Net Removal Celebration
When: Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015 at 11 a.m.
Where: Port of Everett's Boxcar Park
RSVP to Heidi Lehman at (360) 733-1725; lehman@nwstraitsfoundation.org

This incredible accomplishment reflects the power of collaborative conservation, which was the vision of the Murray-Metcalf Commission when it established the Initiative in 1998. U.S. Senator Murray and Congressman Metcalf cast the vision that if communities worked together, we could address the challenges facing the Puget Sound. I am so grateful for their bipartisan and lasting leadership that has made a generational difference. The work of the Initiative has been supported by dozens of organizations and thousands of individuals in the years since its inception, and I was honored to lead the bipartisan effort to secure the final $3.5 million in funds needed for its completion.

I hope you will join me this Thursday as we celebrate this monumental achievement!

Sincerely,

Norma Smith