Beavers

Beavers are typically associated with freshwater environments, but scientists have learned that they also survive and thrive in the shoreline marshes of the Salish Sea. New research is revealing the vital connection between tidal beavers and salmon.

Beavers provide critical benefits for wetland ecosystems but can also alter the landscape in ways that are unpredictable for property owners and conservationists alike. New techniques are helping humans and beavers share the landscape with the goal of benefiting both parties. The following article was commissioned by the Habitat Strategic Initiative Lead (HSIL), a cross-agency team co-led by the Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife and Natural Resources.

Salmon restoration groups are learning how to work with beavers to create better salmon habitat. The process hinges on reducing human-beaver conflicts while taking a natural approach to ecosystem recovery. The beavers are happy to help. 

Freshwater habitat in the Puget Sound region consists of rivers, marshes, streams, lakes and ponds that do not have any saltwater input. Many species depend on these freshwater resources, including salmon, salamanders, frogs, and beavers.

Scientists are rethinking floodplain management in Puget Sound. Can we have our farms and salmon too?

Wetlands are recognized as critical ecosystems for biodiversity because of their disproportional use by wildlife and exceptional habitats for plants. It is their unique combination of shallow aquatic habitats and adjacent terrestrial conditions extending over a wide range of geomorphic and elevational settings that accounts for their ecological complexity and resultant richness. Because of their landscape setting, each wetland tends to exhibit unique habitat types and characteristic arrays of species adapted to idiosyncratic conditions, products of each wetland’s ecological and evolutionary history.