Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2026

The west coast's only native oyster, the Olympia oyster, once formed large beds of millions of oysters in the Salish Sea. These populations crashed due to habitat loss, overharvest and water quality issues and are largely absent from their historic range. Today, these oysters are being back by tribes, non-profits, state agencies and Marine Resource Committees working together. I'll speak to our experience and success using several strategies to restore native oyster beds on the northeast Olympic Peninsula and in the larger Salish Sea.