The public is invited to the grand opening for the new Olympic National Park Matt Albright Native Plant Center at Robin Hill Farm County Park on Thursday, Oct. 22.

A brief dedication and welcome ceremony will be at 11 a.m., followed by an open house lasting until 1 p.m., designed to give people a chance to tour the facility and talk with park staff.

The dedication will include presentations by Deputy Superintendent Sue McGill, County Commissioner Steve Tharinger and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe River Restoration Director Robert Elofson.

Olympic National Park greenhouse manager David Allen, along with other members of the Olympic National Park staff, will answer questions.

The new facility honors the memory of Matt Albright, who was the park's nursery manager for 19 years before his death in 2007 at age 51. Albright pioneered propagation methods for many Northwest native plants, many of which are difficult to grow in greenhouse and nursery settings. The new greenhouse and nursery provide an expanded and improved facility for the park's ongoing and highly successful revegetation program and for the upcoming Elwha restoration project. After the Glines Canyon and Elwha dams are removed and the reservoirs drained, hundreds of thousands of native plants will be used to restore native vegetation to the Elwha Valley.

The Matt Albright Native Plant Center is at 323 Pinnell Road on the northwest corner of Robin Hill Farm Park. Parking for the grand opening will be at park's Pinnell Road parking lot; people then will walk a short distance west to the greenhouse.