A quiet ceremony at the Maury Island Marine Park on Saturday was hardly a reflection of the busy scene the county-owned park has been for the last couple years. Through a $2.1 million effort funded by the state, the former mining site has been transformed from a hillside overridden with blackberries and Scotch broom to an inviting park dotted with native plants and new trails.

In what’s been called the largest environmental restoration in Vashon’s history, crews with Puget SoundCorps cleared 50 acres of noxious weeks, including about 2,000 feet of shoreline, and planted 103,000 new plants such as cedar, oak and madrona trees. Twenty tons of trash and creosote logs were removed.

On Saturday, county officials and local volunteers cut the ribbon on the finishing touch, a large picnic shelter in the heart of the park, overlooking the water and Mount Rainier. The shelter’s construction was funded by a King County grant and organized by the Friends of Maury Park. And though it hasn’t been promoted much, Karlista Rickerson, founder of the friends group, said the shelter is already drawing picnickers and those looking for a cool place to relax. “We understand someone came down with a hammock and had it stretched from post to post,” she said.

Christie True, director of the county’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks, called the landscape at the park completely different than when she moved to Maury Island some years ago. “It was a gem then, and it’s even more of a gem now,” she said.