Exotic imported nutria - large rodents brought to Washington State from South America for their pelts in the 1930's - are back with a vengeance. Their voracious appetite for the stems, roots, and rhizomes of water and shoreline plants carves up marshlands, and their burrowing habit destabilizes waterside banks. Aided by an alarmingly high reproduction rate, nutria rapidly destroy habitat for water birds such as ducks and grebes; for salmon and other fish, and for muskrats, beaver, and other wetland species. Such destruction is underway in the Madison Park area of Lake Washington, in Laurelhurst and throughout Union Bay, along University of Washington shorelines, and in south Portage Bay.
Annie Stixrood (astixrood@comcast.net) of FABNIA, the Fuhrman and Boyer Neighborhood Improvement Association, recently formed a nutria subcommittee and organized meetings of concerned citizens from several neighborhoods, including the floating homes community, with representatives of the US Department of Agriculture and the Seattle Parks and Recreation. Plans are underway to secure funding from public agencies, private citizens, and local organizations in order to hire the USDA to control the population.