A Lifetime Of Giving - 30 Years Of Stewardship at the Edmonds Underwater Park
by JD Rowe.

We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give. - Winston Churchill

These famous words from Winston Churchill seem appropriate. Bruce Higgins has made a life by giving his time, his energy and his efforts creating an underwater park for the diving community. Thirty years is a lifetime's work for most, but after thirty years Bruce is still going strong. On Bruce's thirtieth anniversary, members of the dive community, the City of Edmonds and former park volunteers gathered to recognize and honor him.

The Mayor of Edmonds, Gary Haakenson, and members of the Edmonds City Council, were on hand to proclaim this "Bruce Higgins Day" and to rename the underwater park the "Bruce Higgins Underwater Trails". The former Mayor, Gary Nelson, was master of ceremonies for the celebration. Gary, as a City councilman, was the driving force behind the establishment of the Underwater Park back in 1970. This park was the first underwater City Park in the United States. The park was designated a Marine Protected Area (MPA). This MPA status has served to make this city park a fantastic refuge for the marine population in Puget Sound. It gives the fish an area in which they can breed and multiply without fear of predation by man. The underwater park provides habitat and serves as an oasis. This oasis helps to repopulate the Sound and to greatly enhance the marine habitat. The lingcod, rockfish and cabezon population here is unrivaled anywhere else in the Pacific Northwest.

The Edmonds Underwater Park is a 27 acre diver's playground located just north of the Edmonds ferry landing. Bruce began working on the park in 1977 after the deaths of several divers resulting in the City temporarily closing the park. Bruce joined the safety committee for the park and helped write a management plan for the park. Those early stewardship efforts have continued to this day and have resulted in a world class underwater park. There are 2 miles of rope trails criss-crossing the park leading divers from one feature to another. Massive structures have been built to provide diver recreation and fish habitat. The numerous buoys in the park mark the trail intersections and the recently extended park boundary. The features here are constantly changing as new life springs forth with every season. Bruce's thirty years of stewardship have served to create an incredible underwater park.

The awards to recognize Bruce's contributions were many:

• A bronze plaque recognizing the Bruce Higgins Underwater Trails is mounted on a large rock overlooking the park.
• A letter of recognition and congratulations from United States Senator Maria Cantwell.
• The park volunteers presented him with a new dive feature, a pyramid built in his honor.
• A letter of recognition and congratulations was received from United States Representative Jay Inslee.
• A letter of recognition for his thirty years of stewardship from the Northwest Straits Commission.
• A letter of recognition and congratulations from the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI).
• The City of Edmonds has given him a parking space. There is a parking space reserved for underwater park maintenance on Saturday and Sunday from 8 AM till 2 PM.

The keynote speech was given by park volunteer Kirby Johnson. Kirby leads the Lingcod surveys at the park and is a long time volunteer. Kirby gave a great history of the park volunteer efforts and the methods Bruce uses to get things done. Safety, Security, Maintenance and Enhancement are the guiding principles which govern the park under Bruce's tutelage. The underwater park is run with no funding from City, State or Federal sources. The park budget is raised and in turn re-invested into the park by Bruce with funds from map sales ($10 at Underwater Sports) and donations from the underwater pumpkin carving contest. The great thing about not relying on government funding is that when times are tough, there is no budget to cut. The underwater park is a self sustaining effort. Bruce's often stated opinion is "The parks belong to the people; the people should take care of the parks". This attitude has served him well; he has created a working together partnership with the City which has allowed him to find creative solutions for many situations. The lack of funds and budgets requires contributors and volunteers to the park to buy into Bruce's overall philosophy. This limited budget policy tends to bring out the best in people. Manpower is the solution to almost every problem, not money.


One of the great things about the celebration was to meet many of the volunteers Bruce has worked with over the years. The volunteers are the heart and soul of the park effort. With Bruce there are no formal meetings, no motions, no club, and no officers. Discussions of current activities and future plans are conducted while working on the beach, or while towing a load out into the park. This lack of administration means that plans and actions are directly influenced by the active volunteers. If you have done any work underwater you realize that things don't always go as planned. In Bruce's words "A plan is nothing more than a baseline from which to deviate". Learning to think on the fly and problem solve while diving are two of the skills you will learn as a volunteer. Learning to do productive work underwater, working with lift drums to move massive objects, it is often so much fun that it doesn't seem like work. Volunteers who make more than about 10 dives with Bruce seem to get hooked on the activity and become long time volunteers.

Park volunteer JD Rowe presented Bruce with a model of the new Pyramid feature which the volunteers built for Bruce in honor of his thirty years of stewardship. This new feature is called Khufu. Khufu was built covertly from 4 fifteen foot long pieces of railroad iron and uses large concrete discs as bases. It rises 12 feet from the bottom and is a great new addition to the park. The pyramid is a fitting monument to Bruce and the volunteers because the nickname for the park volunteers is "the Egyptians". The name fits well; here is a group using basic tools to build massive structures on an endless plain of sand. Building structures not for an Egyptian King's afterlife but for diver recreation. The Egyptians were known for using primitive methods and man power to move heavy objects great distances to build monuments. The park is very similar, almost everything needs to be loaded into a truck or trailer, hauled to the park, unloaded, and then transported down the beach into the water. Using simple technology or no technology at all is the basic principle applied here. Ramps, levers, and rollers are typically only used for extremely heavy objects. We haven't progressed much beyond the Egyptians when it comes to using anything beyond this so the name has stuck over the years. The parallels between their efforts and those of the park volunteers are many so the name has stuck. Those of you who know your Egyptian history realize that Khufu is the largest of the three pyramids on the Giza plateau; this means that two more pyramids will now need to be constructed to complete this feature. The Great Pyramids at Giza are the only surviving structure of the original Seven Wonders of the World, it seems fitting to build a monument to Bruce with this in mind.


Bruce has high praise for the legions of volunteers who have assisted him over the decades. His detailed records show over 350 volunteers have helped in just the last 10 years. Bruce has averaged over 100 work dives per year in the park for the last 9 years and he has led dives totaling over 25,000 man hours of underwater volunteer work on the park in his 30 years of stewardship. Unrecorded are the thousands of hours of effort spent above water, preparing boats, casting concrete anchors, writing progress reports, giving advice, building displays, preparing for diving, etc. Even when Bruce is not in the water his focus always seems to be on the park. It is his lifeblood and he has likely re-built the park in his mind many, many times.

Volunteering at the park is easy. Show up at 9 AM, Saturday or Sunday at the Edmonds Underwater Sports store. Underwater Sports is a long time supporter of the park. They supply free air fills for the work dives and donate prizes for the annual pumpkin carving contest. They, the City of Edmonds, and the Egyptians are the long term partners who have supported Bruce in his efforts to make Edmonds the spectacular recreational dive site it is. Come join the effort, new volunteers are always welcome.

Special thanks are owed to a couple of City of Edmonds officials who were instrumental in this effort: City Councilwoman Mauri Moore and the Director of Parks and Recreation, Brian McIntosh.


And many, many thanks are due to the small group of Edmonds park regulars who were involved in this effort.

Dave Seets - the leader and the sparkplug of this effort. Without his drive, most of this would not have been possible.
Jim Middleton - the voice of reason, and the official videographer, who created the banner and the T-shirt design, and had the event day T-shirts made.
Steve Sprague - who was always willing to drop what he was doing and lend a hand donating time, tools and materials.
Ralph Sweet - the long time "acquisitions officer" (scrounger) who is always finding new materials to help the effort.
Peter Tang - originally thought of the pyramid and assisted in the building of it.
Kirby Johnson - our keynote speaker, the official photographer, there is currently a fine display of his photos posted at the park.
Herb Albin - a long time volunteer who assisted the efforts to build the pyramid.
JD Rowe - who never missed a work dive on the pyramid but consistently picked the worst possible weather days to work on it.

And a special thanks is due to all those volunteers who have worked with Bruce in the past and came on this special day to honor his accomplishments.