A century ago, Paradise Cove was a bustling place, the site of a resort with 17 cabins, a post office and docks used by the Mosquito Fleet.

Now home to Camp Sealth, one of the last vestiges remaining from those early resort days are some pilings on the shore — old creosote-coated logs that once held up a dock and are still lodged in the sound’s sandy floor.

Last week the state pulled up many of those pilings, part of a wide effort by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to rid Vashon’s beaches of abandoned creosote-treated pilings, which are considered toxic to marine life. In all, the project, which is expected to wrap up this week, will remove 170 pilings from several locations around Vashon and Maury.

“It’s nasty stuff,” said DNR project manager Jordanna Black. “We’re trying to get it out of the water. … We try to do a sweep and remove as much as possible.”

Black was at Camp Sealth last Wednesday as the construction company hired for the project, Quigg Brothers out of Aberdeen, used a crane to loosen 20 long pilings and hoist the dripping logs one by one onto a barge.

Creosote has been used for more than 100 years to preserve wood for use in saltwater. Though DNR no longer permits its use, creosote-coated docks, bulkheads and pilings can be found throughout Puget Sound.

Creosote does its job well, Black explained, but over time it also breaks apart and leaches into the water, releasing what she called a cocktail of over 300 chemicals. The chemicals of most concern are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and are toxic for certain marine species, including many forage fish, which are considered vital part of the food chain. For instance, herring eggs exposed to creosote have up to a 95 percent mortality rate, and PAHs can alter the reproductive systems and cause disease in English sole.

“It just gets into the food chain,” Black said.

Creosote also contains carcinogens, and creosote-treated wood that washes ashore is considered to be a risk to humans.

“They’ll eventually break apart and end up on the beach,” Black said. “Kids build forts with them and people make bonfires.”

DNR began removing abandoned and unused creosote pilings and other debris from beaches in 2003. In 2007, the effort got a boost when then-Governor Chris Gregoire launched a campaign to clean up and restore Puget Sound by 2020. New legislation funneled millions to restoration work, with creosote removal as a high priority. Since then, DNR has removed nearly 13,000 pilings in Puget Sound, along with more than 2,800 tons of creosote debris from beaches.

Current funding for the program comes from a $1 million allocation by the state for two years of piling removal projects, money that DNR generates by leasing state-owned land.

The Vashon project will cost an estimated $162,000, including the cost to haul the pilings to a landfill. In all, 170 pilings will be removed from seven locations around Vashon and Maury, with 50 coming out of Quartermaster Harbor, a state aquatic reserve.

Black said that while creosote removal is generally considered a good thing, the state-hired barges are not a welcome sight for everyone. Some feel that pilings have historical significance or like seeing them in the water. Others regret the lost habitat for sea animals and birds, and some pilings are popular destinations for scuba diving.

On Vashon, a Gold Beach resident objected to the removal of pilings outside his home, hoping they could be used in a future dock. But a family in the Shawnee area called to ask the state to remove some pilings that were falling apart in a place they liked to swim.

“They’re just going to fall over. We’ve seen that everywhere,” Black said, adding that the state only removes pilings that are abandoned and unmaintained. All pilings taken out are either on state-owned land or the state has permission from the landowner — be it King County or a private homeowner — to remove them.

Some who spend time on the beach say the removal of these old pilings can bring mixed feelings.

“One of the first places we often go to find sea life is the tide pools formed on top of broken pilings,” said Jeff Adams, a marine water quality specialist with Washington Sea Grant who is also involved in the Vashon Beach Naturalists program. One of the beach naturalists’ favorite places to observe sea life is at the north-end ferry dock, where starfish, barnacles, crabs and other animals cling to dozens of creosote-coated pilings.

“If you build a hard habitat in a marine system, things will come to it, but that doesn’t make it natural,” Adams said. He said that in the long run it’s still more valuable to get creosote, as well as manmade structures, out of the water. “From my perspective, I’d much rather see organisms on those habitats where they belong and where they’d be without artificial structures.”

King County has also made creosote removal a priority, and a recent restoration project in Dockton included removing about 100 derelict pilings near the marina there.

Greg Rabourn, who managed the project as Vashon’s basin steward, worked with the local Audubon club to relocate purple martin nesting boxes that had been atop some of those pilings.

“We talked to quite a few people, and there wasn’t a lot of importance placed on those particular pilings,” Rabourn said. “We heard from folks interested in trying to keep things the way they are. … We also heard from a lot of people who really think this is great. It’s good progress.”

At Camp Sealth, director Rick Taylor said the staff there have been hoping to see the old pilings removed for years. Several years ago the camp tore out a long creosote-treated bulkhead that was on camp property, and it has gradually been replacing the creosote pilings on one of its docks with new steel ones.

Camp Sealth also works with DNR to study forage fish on its shore and do water sampling. It has asked for some time that the old pilings, which are on state-owned land, be added to the list for removal.

“Environmental stewardship is what we teach to kids and other people who come here,” Taylor said. “This is just another piece.”