Project Story

Maxwelton – restoring a complex wetland habitat

Maxwelton Preserve is a wetland on the stream corridor in the Maxwelton Valley just south of Miller Lake. The preserve was donated to the Whidbey Camano Land Trust by the Orach Corporation in 1999. A year later, the Land Trust oversaw an intensive stream restoration project. Existing non-native vegetation was removed and in its place over 500 native plant species were planted to enhance wildlife habitat and provide a stream canopy. Restoration work over the years has been performed by Americorps and other volunteers.

The preserve has active beaver dams on its section of Maxwelton Creek. Beaver dams help maintain a healthy salmon habitat by creating ponds that store water which is then released over the drier summer months when the stream might otherwise run dry. However, beavers are also considered a nuisance because their dams flood pasture land and agricultural fields.

The Land Trust carefully monitors the beaver dams on the preserve to see how much they are causing the water behind the dams to rise. If the level has risen too high, some modification of the dams is performed in order to allow more water to flow through. Any modification is performed in accordance with a permit issue by the State Department of Fisheries and Wildlife. How the dams are managed changes according to the season, the activities of the beavers, the rainfall, and the impact of activities both upstream and downstream.