Conservation, Research and Education Opportunities International

Archive for 2015

Restoring an endemic species to native tidelands: Olympia oysters in Swinomish pocket estuaries

Swinomish Indian Tribal Community

The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (SITC) recently began a restoration project to establish, expand, and research Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida) populations on Reservation tidelands. Olympia oysters are the only native oyster to the Puget Sound region and they traditionally played an important role in tribal culture. Yet, due to overfishing, pollution, and Read more

The Skykomish Beaver Project: Building educational opportunities for aspiring ecologists

B.J. Dittbrenner, University of Washington/Beavers Northwest
Beavers are both ecosystem engineers and keystone species. As ecosystem engineers, they modify their environment through dam building to create wetland systems which reduce their predation risk and increase growth of preferred food types. Their role as keystone species results from their ability to transform a stretch of single-thread stream Read more