Southwest Seattle Historical Society

Words, Writers, Southwest Stories: “West Seattle Beavers: Living Their Best Life While Boosting Salmon & Bird Habitat” (Pamela Adams)

Thurs, Mar 12th 2026 at 6 pm on Zoom

Did you know that beaver dams are helping to reconnect historic floodplains?

Did you know that there are over thirty of these dams in your local urban watershed?

Explore Longfellow Creek through the lens of Pamela Adams, Seattle’s “freelance beaver detective” — a trained Beaver Corps practitioner working for human-beaver coexistence. For the past four years, she’s documented expanding beaver families in West Seattle using noninvasive cameras, uncovering how these “eco-engineers” survive pollution, habitat disruption, and limited food. Learn how their newly added dams help filter stormwater, boost coho salmon spawning, and bird populations, restoring ecological health like a furry probiotic — offering a hopeful model for how allowing a native keystone species to not only exist but thrive can improve our urban watersheds for many other species that depend on fresh water.

Words, Writers, Southwest Stories is a free monthly speaker series that highlights local authors, historians, and voices to foster a deeper understanding of our community and its people.

For more information, visit: loghousemuseum.org/blog/beavers/?mc_cid=3fc22aa97b