As steward and manager of 2.6 million acres of state-owned aquatic lands, including Quartermaster Harbor, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) ensures public access, protects the state’s marine waters and issues leases for water-related activities — such as mooring buoys.

Two years ago, we began working with boaters and Vashon-Maury Island community members to find ways to safely, sustainably and legally improve moorage opportunities in Quartermaster Harbor.

Why do we need a mooring buoy plan?

Quartermaster Harbor is a marine haven for wildlife and people and part of the 5,350-acre Maury Island Environmental Aquatic Reserve, which DNR designated in 2004. The protected waters support extensive spawning grounds for herring, attract thousands of migrating birds each year and provide a permanent home for dozens of species, including shellfish, heron and bald eagles.

These same waters are unsurpassed in central Puget Sound for providing safe moorage and protection for longtime local boaters and other boaters who are increasingly discovering Quartermaster Harbor as a quiet anchorage.

The scenario playing out in Quartermaster Harbor is similar to other harbors and bays throughout Puget Sound: Increased demand for access and moorage raises concerns for navigational safety as more and more boats try to squeeze into a finite space. More congestion in anchorages also threatens sensitive marine ecosystems, such as the extensive network of eelgrass beds found throughout the harbor.

We know the boating community watches out for one another. Informal, neighborly assistance has worked in the past when someone’s boat broke loose or sank. However, the best intentions of good Samaritans haven’t been able to keep up with the number of abandoned and derelict vessels and buoys that are growing more commonplace in the harbor and throughout Puget Sound.

To help address these issues, DNR developed the draft Quartermaster Harbor Mooring Buoy Management Plan. During the draft plan development, DNR met with community members at three workshops on Vashon and asked for feedback on the draft plan, which went out for public review in late November.

The draft plan accommodates buoys for waterfront residences and designates specific mooring buoy fields, primarily in the more congested areas of Dockton and Burton. Many boaters told us that we weren’t allowing for enough mooring buoys to accommodate future use. Based on what we heard, we will increase the mooring buoys from 73 to 126 in the proposed mooring buoy fields in Dockton, Burton and east of Judd Creek.

Another source of boater concern is the plan’s requirement for all mooring buoys to be helical anchor systems with midline floats. While these embedded anchor systems cost more upfront, they are better at holding boats in place and require much less “scope” (length of line or chain from the vessel to the anchor). With helical anchor systems, the harbor can accommodate a higher density of vessels. In addition, these anchors don’t crush or displace habitat and sediments.

Some suggested that other embedded anchor systems might be just as effective, and possibly cheaper, as helical anchor systems. The final plan will consider allowing other embedded anchor systems, as long as they can provide the needed holding power while allowing space for an optimal number of buoys and protecting the seafloor.

So what’s now in store? In the next several weeks, we plan to release the revised final plan. DNR will then apply for necessary regulatory permits needed to carry out the plan. And in the next few months, DNR will begin removing abandoned and derelict buoys and floating structures that limit shoreline access to waterfront property and that pose potential navigational hazards and environmental degradation.

I’d like to thank everyone who came to one or all of our workshops on Vashon or provided their feedback on the Quartermaster Harbor Mooring Buoy Management Plan by contacting the agency directly.

Together, we have an opportunity to sustain Quartermaster Harbor as a recreational boating haven, while also protecting the unique wildlife and environmental features that led to the state’s designation of the Maury Island Environmental Aquatic Reserve.

— Megan Duffy is deputy supervisor of aquatics and geology at the Department of Natural Resources.