KINGSTON — As the weather warms and residents are heading into the sun, a Stillwaters Environmental Education Center project that was shelved for the winter is expected to shine again this year.

The non-profit organization has received a $2,500 grant from Kitsap County’s Surface and Stormwater Management program (SSWM) to continue work on the Beaver Pond and Wetlands Boardwalk project. The project includes creating an 800-foot trail that goes through a variety of environments, including a beaver pond and wetlands. The trailhead is across the street from Richard Gordon Elementary School on Barber Cut Off Road. The first few hundred feet of the trail, which includes a bridge over the beaver pond, has been used by elementary school children and residents for years but this is the first time the property will have a properly developed trail.

Starting in December 2003 and continuing throughout 2004, Stillwaters volunteers used money from the first grant to develop the trail entrance up to the bridge. This included unloading recycled concrete stone donated by Fred Hill Materials to create a firm foot path. Volunteers also started building the boardwalk that runs from the bridge over the wetlands, but it abruptly ends because materials and money ran out last year.

“It looked like the highway did in Seattle,” Stillwaters administrative director Naomi Maasberg said with a laugh. “It goes and just stops.”

But with the latest grant money, Maasberg expects the boardwalk and footpath to extend to an area called The Gathering Place — a 30-foot by 20-foot area in the upland portion of the property where classes can research the native plants on hand.

“We know it will go all the way to the upland gathering area,” she said.

The final goal is to have the trail continue beyond the Gathering Place to eventually circle around and connect to the entrance, so hikers will have an 800-foot loop trail.

Because a significant portion of the trail will be constructed using the latest funding, Maasberg hopes to have signage installed at the entrance and interpretive signs put on the trail at the same time so it can be utilized by classes and residents as soon as June 2006.

The money will be used to purchase materials and all the construction work is done by volunteers, she said, but she isn’t sure when the second half of the trail will be completed.