by Renee Mizar

Communications director, Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley

The ongoing Lower Dungeness River Floodplain Restoration Project is the topic of a history presentation by Clallam County habitat biologist Cathy Lear on Friday, Feb. 21, at the Dungeness Schoolhouse.

The program, presented by the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley, begins at 10 a.m. at the schoolhouse, 2781 Towne Road, Sequim.

Admission is $5 for MAC members or $7 for non-members and payable at the door. Fees support MAC programming.

In addition to addressing the history and future of the restoration project, which includes a levee setback upstream from the Dungeness Schoolhouse to recover some 170 acres of floodplain, Lear will discuss such project components as deconstructing the historical Mapes Barn and Baker House once located along the Dungeness River and restoring the areas at river’s end.

“Changes that you have noticed near the Dungeness Schoolhouse are a part of the restoration of the lower Dungeness River,” Lear said. “For a few reasons — flood hazard reduction, restoring salmon habitat and reducing sedimentation in Dungeness Bay – it makes sense to purchase property from willing landowners, decommission the structures and replant the area in native species.”

This presentation continues a winter series of local history programs presented by the MAC at the Dungeness Schoolhouse, which is ADA accessible. The series concludes on Friday, Feb. 28, with a program about Jamestown S’Klallam totems by master carver Dale Faulstich.

Faulstich also will lead a separate guided tour of the “House of Myths” Carving Shed, located on the Jamestown S’Klallam tribal campus in Blyn, at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 1. Tour admission is $20 for MAC members or $25 for non-members and payable at the door.

For details, visit www.macsequim.org or call 681-2257.