POULSBO — Coming off the first full park development she’s overseen during her time in Poulsbo, Parks and Recreation Director Mary McCluskey isn’t taking much of a break.

The first phase of Nelson Park is now complete and all eyes have turned to the 13-acre parcel just across Lindvig Way.

“I think Fish Park will be the big thing for the next two years,” McCluskey said last week.

The park land has been owned by the City of Poulsbo since July 2002 but planning didn’t begin in earnest for about one year. Makers, an architecture and urban design company from Seattle, was hired in October 2003 to create the first planning document for what will become Poulsbo’s first nature park.

At its Oct. 6 meeting, the city council unanimously approved the completed master plan for the newly named Poulsbo’s Fish Park.

“I’m ecstatic over it,” Fish Park Steering Committee member Tom Nordlie commented of the document. “I think it’s a really neat plan and I think once the community sees that the city has accepted it, they’ll start to embrace it and it will be a tool to encourage community participation.”

The document approved last Wednesday lays out a park bisected by a 12-foot pedestrian spine, which connects to four loops containing 6-foot trails and some boardwalks when necessary. Each of the four quadrants focuses on a different habitat. Highlights include wildlife viewing blinds, native wildflower or medicinal herb gardens, salmon rearing ponds, a below-water viewing area and an educational center flanked by small community classrooms.

Parking lots are planned at the north and south ends of the park with no drive through.

The development is planned in three phases:

• Phase 1 — Estimated cost, $500,000. Includes habitat restoration and revegetation and completion of a trail system in the southern half, viewpoints overlooking slough, gateway kiosks and interpretive panels off Lindvig.

• Phase 2 — Estimated cost, $850,000. Includes development of the northern trail, restoration in north, addition of north/south pedestrian spine and rerouting north stream through a pond complex.

• Phase 3 — Estimated cost, $750,000-$900,000. Includes completion of the planned educational center at the northern end.

A matching grant from the Interagency Committee on Outdoor Recreation (IAC) Aquatic Lands Enhancement for $261,000 has already been applied for to fund the first of the three phases. The award would total about $522,000 with a 50 percent match from Poulsbo.

The Fish Park project was recently listed as ninth out of a total 17 projects recommended for approval. Those proposals will next be in the hands of the state legislature for funding in its next session, which begins in January 2005. Typically, the fund gets about $5 million each year and if that amount holds true for 2005, McCluskey said Poulsbo’s grant should be funded. If less is allotted, it could miss out.

“The question is always, will the money be there?” McCluskey said.

Nordlie said the part he’s looking forward to most if grant money is secured is the daylighting of several streams that were run through underground pipes by former property owner Weyerhaeuser. He said the action could turn what once looked like a dead lot into a living, moving, natural area again.

But both Nordlie and John Owen, a partner with Makers, acknowledged that the plan is about more than just developing one park property.

“It’s not a short term evolution,” Nordlie said. “It’s really a long term plan.”

“We’re looking at not just the park but the larger estuary,” Owen told council members last week. “If you really want to protect the wetland, you need to think about protecting it up closer to (State Route) 305.”

If Poulsbo receives the IAC grant, money will be available in July 2005. McCluskey explained that no expensive work is planned at the park until at least that time, however, Fish Park will not remain fallow in the mean time.

“Any kind of donations or volunteer work, any kind of that stuff, will be welcomed,” McCluskey said.

Fish Park Steering committee members are already working on plans for a major tree planting in November with trees donated by a local conservation group. Nordlie said they’re also working on permitting and machinery to help place stumps that were donated by Poulsbo Community Church.

“We’ll probably be going out to different service organizations as well to see if there’s ways they’d be willing to participate,” Nordlie said.