Islanders, county officials and local conservationists have banded together to help a park on Maury be “more like a park and less like an abandoned mine site,” as one Islander put it.

The 320-acre Maury Island Marine Park, just north of Gold Beach, is the former mining site of Klinkers Gravel. Marked by old mining driveways and enthusiastic populations of invasive plants such as Scotch broom and Himalayan blackberry, the park is the site of an ambitious restoration project and a newly constructed scenic viewpoint high above an unspoiled beach.

People For Puget Sound, a Seattle-based nonprofit, hopes to eradicate the prolific invasive species there and repopulate the area with native plants. A core of volunteers began work there on Sunday, when 20 people toiled under the radiant sun to rip out the noxious weeds, roots and all.

A viewpoint — constructed partly of materials recycled from the remnant dock that was demolished at the park a year ago — overlooks the dramatic and primitive park from a vantage point high above. The steeply sloping hillside is nearly as much yellow as it is green, painted by the vibrant spring blossoms of Scotch broom. And though they add color to the area, Scotch broom and other non-native plants take away much more than they give.

Scotch broom, common tansy and blackberry are among the invasive species at the park that “crowd out natives and compete for water and nutrients in the soil,” said Dhira Brown, a restoration ecologist with People for Puget Sound. She’s hoping, she said, to restore the native balance to the depleted former mining site.

She and others worked on Sunday to rip blackberries and Scotch broom out of the soil, the first step in the revegetation process.

“We’ve got to make room for natives first,” Brown said, taking a break from the tough work of lopping and root-pulling. “The goal today is to start clearing those invasives.”

She said the park, though still carrying signs of its former life as a gravel mine, is “gorgeous.”

Because the soil there is so badly depleted — “the top soil is all gone,” she noted — workers will have to put down mulch or top soil to keep nutrients in and help support native species that will eventually be planted to replace the noxious invasives.

Sunday’s efforts are part of a larger effort by Islanders and officials from King County, which owns the park, to make the primitive site more of a destination.

King County pledged $7,500 last summer to help the Friends of Maury Park, a small, newly formed group created to support the site, install picnic tables and informative signs in the park and work further on its warren of trails — an effort the volunteers hope to begin soon.

“We want to make it a friendlier place for people,” said Adam Atwell, a member of Friends of Maury Park. “We want it to be more like a park and less like an abandoned mine site.”

Despite Maury Island Marine Park’s dramatic vistas and untrodden paths, few Islanders or visitors venture there, said John Gerstle, a member of the Friends group.

“I think it’s going to be a many-decade project to restore that land,” he said.

One of the missions of the Friends, Atwell said, is to clear out invasives.

“I enjoy this park, but the overwhelming presence of Scotch broom and blackberry is a bit much,” said Atwell, whose running route often includes the park.

Scott Newcombe, who lives in Seattle, took a break from the arduous task on Sunday to explain the extraction process.

“We’re using our hands. We’re using these small pickaxes, and we’re using these loppers,” he said. “It’s tough, but we’re working on stuff with these nasty roots.”

How to get there

From Point Robinson Road on Maury Island, head south on 59th Ave. S.W. and east on S.W. 244th St. The park is about a half-mile down the road.