Description:
In the western benchlands of the upper Columbia Valley, the Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners (CWSP) have used a combination of in-person fieldwork, drone photography, and modeling to study the wetlands, lakes, and streams since 2023. These observations have allowed CWSP to better understand the status of these wetlands, threats facing them, and to identify wetlands that they can restore using beaver dam analogues (BDAs).  In 2025, CWSP continued effectiveness monitoring, identified additional potential restoration sites, and built 21 BDAs and 7 Post Assisted Log Structures (PALs) across four wetland sites, with more planned for 2026. In 2025 they also validated the 2023 drone wetness classification by visiting 38 wetlands that had been assessed with drone photographs, and assessed the sites based on wetland vegetation, disturbance, landscape location, and water source. They also groundtruthed the Wetland Restoration Feasibility Index by visiting 52 wetland sites included in the analysis, and recoded water source, water quality, vegetation, wetland position on the landscape, and signs of drying.

Keywords: wetlands; birds; beaver; hydrology; climate change

Authors:

Organization: Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners

Category: Hydrologically Vulnerable Wetlands

Focal Area: Columbia Wetlands

Resource Type: Report

Year: 2026