Animals, plants and habitat

Biodiversity in King County, Washington
Learn about the state of biodiversity in King County, Washington along with its general definition and value.

Noxious weeds
Learn how to identify and manage aggressive exotic plants degrade pastures, may poison livestock, and produce amazing volumes of long-lived seeds. Provides best practives for eradicating invasive weeds.

Native plants 
Learn how to support native plant biodiversity in your yard and provide forage for native animals such as bees to birds.  Browse photos of native trees, shrubs and flowering forbs, learn about their functional value for wildlife, get design ideas and learn how to use them in your native landscape plan, and compile a list of plants to bring to your local native plant nursery.

Salmon and trout topics
Find out how King County and partners are working to restore regional salmon and trout populations that are threatened under the Endangered Species Act, read related news, review scientific studies, sign up for volunteer events and programs, and look up reference materials such as identification drawings and photos.

Habitat restoration projects 
Learn about projects King County is working on or has completed to restore fish and wildlife habitat in damaged or degraded places.

Beavers
Learn about beavers including region-specific life history and ecology, problems they can pose for people and property, and how to solve associated problems.

Freshwater mussels
Learn about freshwater mussels and what they indicate about the streams they live in.

Stream bugs monitoring
Learn about benthic macroinvertebrates including why they're important indicators of stream health, and how King County monitors stream bugs to assess water quality and habitat quality.

• Counting bugs
  Video of a stream survey undertaken by King County Roads Division to assess pollution from roads.

Leeches!
Overview of the leech, which inhabits lakes in King County, Washington.

Sea star identification
View photos and read the distinguishing features of various sea stars (or starfish) found in the intertidal zone around Puget Sound.

Clam identification
Learn how to distinguish Puget Sound clams from photos and descriptions of their distinguishing features.