“Beaver and Salmon working together? What next?”

The beaver, at work building dams that help the salmon habitat. Photo courtesy of Greg Hood

When Greg Hood went looking for sweetgale plants in the Skagit River delta, he found something interesting and unexpected.

Hood is a senior research scientist at the Skagit River System Cooperative in La Conner, working on salmon recovery issues. Sweetgale is an important plant for juvenile salmon because it overhangs the water in tidal estuaries, providing salmon shelter and food in the form of insects that fall off the plants.

Hood found sweetgale, but he also found beavers. Well, not the beavers themselves, they’re nocturnal. But he found plenty of dams, pools, and tracks, especially near the sweetgale plants.

We’re accustomed to thinking of beavers as freshwater animals that gnaw down upland forests “like furry chain-saw gangs,” in the words of Seattle Times writer Lynda Mapes. But although beavers don’t live in the ocean, they can tolerate the moderate salinity of tidal estuaries. And guess what, the actions of the beavers benefit salmon.

Come hear Greg Hood speak about the complex interactions between plants, insects, salmon & beavers on Tuesday, February 8 at 7:00 pm at YMCA Camp Orkila on Orcas Island.

The 2010/11 Marine Science Lecture Series was created to inspire the general public and to highlight the amazing fish and wildlife of our region. Lectures are free.  Please park in the upper parking lot at Camp Orkila. Shuttle service from the parking lot to the talk is available before and after the lecture.

The lecture Series is presented by program partners The SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila. It has been made possible through generous sponsorship by Tom Averna (Deer Harbor Charters), Eclipse Charters, West Sound Marina and co-sponsorship by Barbara Brown, The Kingfish Inn and Shearwater Kayaks.