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2017 Spring | Education & Outreach, Natural Science & Restoration, Sustainability

Examining Mountain Beaver Herbivory in an Urban Forest

Student(s):

Justin Beach

Program or Department(s):

  • Program on the Environment
  • University of Washington

Site supervisor(s):

Tim Billo

Partner(s):

  • Friends of Seward Park

Faculty advisor(s):

Patrick Tobin School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, UW

In recent years, a dramatic decline and die-off of sword ferns at Seward Park has alarmed and puzzled concerned citizens. With mountain beavers a possible cause or stress, I set out to examine the extent of the role these rodents are playing in the park’s fern decline. I constructed and implemented four wildlife enclosures in different affected areas, designed to both keep mountain beavers out and sword ferns protected from harm. Over the course of my internship, I collected data on the health of ferns within the enclosures, and the ferns within adjacently set, unprotected control plots.