KINGSTON — Since the completion of the Carpenter Creek Bridge project in February, which Naomi Maasberg’s organization, Stillwaters Environmental Education Center, helped bring to fruition, she has a lot on her plate.

Maasberg says her new focus is restoration.

“The monitoring program has grown exponentially,” she said. Stillwaters uses “citizen scientists” to collect data from the estuary on the southwest side of the South Kingston Road bridge, previously cut off from Appletree Cove by a 10-foot-wide culvert. The bridge, financed by Kitsap County, removed the culvert and allowed the natural flow from Carpenter and Kingfisher creeks into the cove.

However, to keep up with the amount of data they’re collecting, Maasberg said Stillwaters needs more volunteers to be trained to help process the data into results.

“She staunchly supports keeping things going forward, with monitoring the vitality of that estuary, before the fish passage went in,” Kitsap County Commissioner Rob Gelder said. “She provided that leadership that, really, is ‘roll up your sleeves and get things done.’ ”

Kathy Peters, West Sound salmon recovery coordinator for Kitsap County, credits Maasberg for ensuring this project remained a priority of state government.

“The savvy to be able to connect with the elected officials that Naomi has was really impressive,” she said. “For Naomi, who’s not a scientist at all, for them to recognize [the project’s importance] is really important … They knew where to target their work.”

Peters has worked with Maasberg and her co-founder and partner, Joleen Palmer, for the last few years as they monitored the creeks and estuary in anticipation of the bridge project.

Maasberg said Stillwaters is in a period of evaluation. Thirteen years after she and Palmer founded Stillwaters as an education center, she said area residents are educated in the basics and need a challenge.

“There are a lot of green hearts in Kitsap,” she said.

Maasberg became an environmentalist after moving to Kingston. She previously worked in community nonprofits, mostly in the Lutheran Church, and woodworking. She and Palmer, a former science teacher, bought the Stillwaters property in 1992 to start a retreat center.

Maasberg said the more she and Palmer learned about the property — the wetlands and wildlife — she realized the property would be better used to educate people about the environment.

“We just listened to the land,” she said. She said she learned, sometimes through experience, that when someone treats the environment incorrectly, it’s usually out of ignorance.

For instance, large woody debris was often removed from streams and salt marshes in the last 50 years by natural resources workers, thinking the ugly logs weren’t necessary. Through research, Maasberg learned those logs provide nutrients to the water and habitat for insects, which then feed the fish and birds. One of Stillwaters’ projects is to return old fallen logs to those environments; one such endeavor took place in 2007.

Stillwaters has provided native gardening workshops, information on green construction, wetland and native plant tours and “Welcome to the Watershed” packets to new homeowners. Stillwaters offers nature camps for school-aged children, and Maasberg said now that Stillwaters has been around long enough, she’s enjoyed watching children return as young adults, some working on their graduation projects with the center.

“They’re nature kids and they love it,” she said. “We need more of those kind of people. They’re who is going to take care of the earth when we’re gone.”

Maasberg said the biggest reason Stillwaters is re-evaluating what it is able to provide and what it should focus on is because of how Kingston has changed in the last 10 years.

“Green is the new cool,” she said. “We were one of the few community nonprofits when we started. Kingston has just so grown in community involvement.”Gelder added, “The role of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) has always been an important one, but in the past several years, it has — for me, anyway — identified a heightened need to partner with those in the county.”

Peters said she appreciates the honesty in the work of Maasberg and Palmer.

“The way they have approached the place that they live in and they care about is really lovely, just because they care about it and they’re translating that into action,” Peters said. “They have taken responsibility for where they live and made a healthier place for their community.”

Maasberg said she’s proud of how the community has embraced environmental awareness.

“I’m glad we are ones people turn to when they have questions,” she said. “But I’m glad when I’m at a meeting and [I’m] not the first to bring up environmental questions about a project.”

Maasberg said of Stillwaters, “This is our baby … It’s our legacy.”