Padilla Bay

Events and Classes for all ages!

We offer monthly children's classes on a variety of estuary topics. Our adult classes are advertised in a quarterly newsletter, and cover many natural history and environmental topics. Families and individuals of any age can join summer Mudflat Safari excursions into the eelgrass meadow or help pull a beach seine to learn about the fish in Padilla Bay. Most of our classes are free, though we gratefully welcome donations to the non-profit Padilla Bay Foundation.

View Event Calendar here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/padilla-bay-national-estuarine-research-reserve-10922768887

"Since the bay is filled with sediment from the Skagit River, the bottom is very shallow, flat, and muddy. It is so shallow that almost the whole bay is intertidal. This means it is flooded at high tide but when the tide goes out, the whole bay empties, exposing miles of mud flats. This condition allows unusually large eelgrass meadows to grow. Padilla Bay's nearly 8,000 acres of eelgrass is a key reason it is protected. Eelgrass is valuable because it is habitat for wildlife and commercially-harvested animals. Eelgrass is used as a nursery by salmon, crab, perch, and herring. Eelgrass is also home for millions of worms, shrimp, clams, and other invertebrates that are food for great blue herons, eagles, otters, seals, as well as humans. In addition, these vast eelgrass meadows trap carbon in the mudflats, which keeps it from becoming greenhouse gases. This is why Padilla Bay was selected to be a National Estuarine Research Reserve."

Site: https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Shoreline-coastal-management/Padilla-Bay-Reserve

Events: https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Shoreline-coastal-management/Padilla-Bay-reserve/Education-programs/Classes-events

Kids Page: https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Shoreline-coastal-management/Padilla-Bay-Reserve/Education-programs/Kids-page