Race Crew volunteer for Sustainable Shorelines in Seattle

With the Clipper Race stopover in Seattle in full swing, the timetable of events is offering opportunities to get involved with a host of different activities and initiatives.

Sustainability is a topic which is close to the heart of the Clipper Race and this week, Race Crew were given the opportunity to visit Centennial Park, which makes up some of the 15 miles of the Port of Seattle’s shoreline, to learn more about the environmental and sustainability initiatives that the Port of Seattle has been working on and help out on one of the Sustainable Shoreline habitat restoration programmes.

Kathleen Hurley, Senior Environmental Program Manager at the Port of Seattle, who led the volunteering session, said: “Little by little here at Port of Seattle, we've been enhancing our shorelines to create more environmental benefits for the organisms who live and rely on the different ecosystems here.”

Race Crew were shown various ways the shoreline has been enhanced to make it more natural including a new kelp bed which homes insects, which in turn is important food for salmon, before turning their hand to some of the hands-on tasks for the shoreline.

Kathleen added: "Today the Race Crew’s work was helping to remove some invasive weeds and also plant trees and spread mulch to survive the hot summer. It was amazing what a focused hour could do. We’ve had so much weed removed and with so many trees planted - it’s made a big dent in our backlog of work to do along this shoreline.”

Dr Dianne McGrath, round the world Race Crew on board PSP Logistics, is a sustainability spokesperson who took part. Writing in her blog post, she said: "Kathleen and Jen were very generous with their time, informing us of the different projects they work on, and the impact they seek to have. Bending over underneath shrubs and trees with a handheld hoe, I was reminded of the hours I spent kneeling in the sail locker on board helping mend damaged sails. Sails - soils. The difference was in the letter and location, but not the physical activity!

For me, after nearly a month at sea, as well as doing something that would help the local waterways and environment, it was joyfully a restorative time for my soul to be on land with my hands in the soil.”

The Clipper Race will remain in Seattle until Friday 03 May when teams will slip lines from Bell Harbor Marina to embark on Race 11 bound for Panama. Check out the News Hub or Clipper Race social pages for the latest from the stopover.