Tulalip Tribes banking on beavers to bolster Snohomish River
SULTAN — She was a King County girl living the high life on Lake Union.
He made his home in a cramped culvert leading to a detention pond in Snohomish.
Then, one day in August, the two beavers met at the Tulalip fish hatchery. They sniffed at one another and sized each other up. By the next morning, they were sleeping in the same lodge.
“These guys took to each other almost immediately,” said wildlife biologist Molly Alves.
Now the pair have a new home, somewhere in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. There, they’ll build new dams and transform the landscape around them.
Their meeting wasn’t an accident, but rather a match made by wildlife biologists working with the Tulalip Tribes. Since 2014, biologists Alves and David Bailey have spent their summers moving beavers from areas where they’re considered nuisances to new homesteads in the forest.
With a warming climate, tribal leaders hope the crafty rodents will play an important role in sustaining water availability and preserving aquatic species, like salmon. Scientists predict the future will bring new hardships to riverine ecosystems. Warmer stream temperatures could negatively impact fish. And more precipitation in the winter and less in the summer, combined with eroding banks and less snowpack, will lead to less water storage.
When the remaining water eagerly rushes to the ocean, the Tribes’ hope is that beavers, like the two relocated in August, can become nature’s water managers.
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My hiking partner & I spotted a little beaver dam in a stream. We waited & waited, but we never saw the builder. Thanks for the great link!