SEQUIM — Dave Parks, geologist with the state Department of Natural Resources, will lead a Rock Walk at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday.
The program will begin at 10 a.m. and is expected to last about 1.5 hours at the refuge at Lotzgesell Road and Voice of America Road.
The program is free, and the refuge entrance fee is waived for this event
The Rock Walk will begin at the upper overlook at the top of the trail leading down to the Dungeness Spit.
Participants should wear sturdy walking shoes and weather-appropriate clothing.
Parks is a licensed engineering geologist and hydrogeologist located in Port Angeles.
He will discuss the geologic history and coastal evolution of Dungeness Spit and examine the stratigraphy of the coastal bluffs west of the base of the spit.
Parks also will discuss recent research on the rates of coastal bluff erosion in the Dungeness drift cell.
Parks has studied beach and bluff processes of the Dungeness drift cell for more than a decade.
Highlights of his work can be found in his publication “Parks, David S., 2015, Bluff Recession in the Elwha and Dungeness Littoral Cells, Washington, USA: Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, Vol. XXI, No. 2, p. 129-146” which was recently awarded the prestigious Burwell Award, a national award honoring scientific excellence, by the Geologic Society of America.
For more information, call the Dungeness Refuge office at 360-457-8451 ext. 25 or email david_falzetti@fws.gov.
