By Matt Wendland

Hundreds of people gathered at Seahurst Beach this weekend for a public celebration of the park’s reopening after a major restoration project that spanned two years.

Friday evening's Seahurst Beach Reopening Celebration was put on by the City of Burien’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services department and sponsored by the Environmental Science Center, which is located at the north end of the park, and Burien Press, a specialty coffee shop in downtown Burien.

An estimated 750 people of all ages, took part in flashlight tours of the park, s’more making, sing-a-longs, and listening to Native American storytelling around a campfire. They also took part in learning about the local ecosystem and wildlife with the Environmental Science Center, drinking coffee and hot chocolate and of course, watching a stunning sunset over the Puget Sound.

The Seahurst Park Ecosystem Restoration Project Phase II restored 2,800 feet of shoreline over 2013 and most of 2014. The first phase of the project restored 1,200 feet of the south end of Seahurst Park’s waterfront in 2005. Between the two phases of the project, a three-quarter-mile length of bulkhead was removed. This made way for the shoreline to be regraded and thousands of plants were reintroduced to the local ecosystem impart of the beach’s renorishment. The restoration project was paid for with a combination of state and federal funding with the Corps providing the maximum federal funding limit of $5 million and the City and funding partners providing the additional $3.1 million for construction funds through state capital dollars allocated by the PSP through the PSAR Fund, the Environmental Protection Agency and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Estuary & Salmon Restoration Program as well as the Green/Duwamish Central Puget Sound Watershed Forum through the King Conservation District.

Seahurst Beach, located at 1600 S.W. Seahurst Park Road, Burien, 98166, is now open to the public during normal park hours with the addition of a new playground, rain gardens, fish ladder, picnic shelter, lawn areas, walking path and parking area. More information about the Seahurst Beach restoration project can be found by contacting the City of Burien or by visiting the project’s website at, www.BurienWA.gov/SeahurstProject.