Illahee State Park is an

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

located in the hamlet of Illahee, just north of East

Bremerton Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremerto ...

, on

Port Orchard Bay A port is a maritime law, maritime facility comprising one or more Wharf, wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge Affreightment, cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can a ...

, part of

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

. The word "Illahee" means ''earth'' or ''country'' in the

Native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

language Chinuk Wawa. The park was established when Kitsap County donated 13 acres to the state in 1934. The park's old-growth stand is home to one of the nation's oldest Pacific yews, which has been standing for approximately 400 years. Park activities include picnicking, camping, hiking, boating, and shellfish harvesting.

Shellfish harvesting status

The official shellfish harvesting status of Illahee State Park is maintained by th
Washington State Department of Health
In addition, environmental contaminants of the surface-water and '' Mytilus'' tissues at Illahee State Park are monitored routinely by local ecology programs.Strivens, J.E., Hayman, N., Colvin, M., Rosen, G., Frew. J., Richardson. T. 2020
ENVVEST Ambient Monitoring Program: In-Progress Summary 2009‒2019
PNNL-30285, prepared for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility under Project ENVVEST by the PNNL Marine Sciences.Strivens, JE, RK Johnston, TJ Richardson, & JA Frew. 2021
ENVVEST Mussel Watch Program In-Progress Summary‒Collection Year 2020 Update
PNNL-31990, prepared for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility under Project ENVVEST by the PNNL Marine Sciences Laboratory, Sequim, Washington. While historical monitoring has reported low concentrations of heavy metals over the past decade (2010-2020), the presence of carcinogenic

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. ...

s (cPAHs) in ''Mytilus'' tissues should be considered by recreational and subsistence consumers. PAH concentrations in Puget Sound have been highlighted by the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

as being the highest in the nation and cPAH regulatory thresholds for Washington State consumers have been calculated by the

Washington State Department of Ecology The Washington State Department of Ecology (sometimes referred to simply as "Ecology") is the state of Washington's environmental regulatory agency. Created in February 1970, it was the first environmental regulation agency in the U.S. predating ...

. cologyWashington State Department of Ecology. 2020
Washington’s Water Quality Assessment Listing Methodology to Meet Clean Water Act Requirements
Washington State Department of Ecology. Report No: 18-10-035. The following table provides Washington State cPAH thresholds (current as of 2020) for general fish consumption and available historical tissue burdens at Illahee State Park.

References

External links

Illahee State Park
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
Illahee State Park Map
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission {{authority control Parks in Kitsap County, Washington State parks of Washington (state) Protected areas established in 1934