Editing San Juan Islands (section)

==Ecology==
The islands were heavily logged in the nineteenth century, but now have an extensive second-growth [[Pseudotsuga menziesii|coast Douglas fir]] (''Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii''), [[Pacific madrone]] (''Arbutus menziesii''), [[red alder]] (''Alnus rubra'') and [[bigleaf maple]] (''Acer macrophyllum'') forest. There are small strands of old-growth Douglas fir and [[western redcedar]] (''Thuja plicata''), mostly within long standing privately held property. In the highlands one also finds [[grand fir]] (''Abies grandis''), [[western hemlock]] (''Tsuga heterophylla'') and other subalpine trees.

The San Juan Islands host the greatest concentration of [[bald eagle]]s (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') in the contiguous United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/sajh/learn/nature/bald-eagles.htm |title=Bald Eagles |author=Rebecca Smith |date=March 30, 2015 |website=San Juan Island National Historical Park Washington |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref> [[Great blue heron]]s (''Ardea herodias''), [[black oystercatcher]]s (''Haematopus bachman''), and numerous shorebirds are found along the shore and in winter, the islands are home to [[trumpeter swan]]s (''Cygnus buccinator''), [[Canada geese]] (''Branta canadensis'') and other waterfowl. [[Peregrine falcon]]s (''Falco peregrinus''), [[northern harrier]]s (''Circus cyaneus''), [[barred owl]]s (''Strix varia'') and other birds of prey are found. In addition diving birds such as [[rhinoceros auklet]]s (''Cerorhinca monocerata''), [[pigeon guillemot]]s (''Cepphus columba'') and endangered [[marbled murrelet]]s (''Brachyramphus marmoratus'') frequent the surrounding seas.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gardner |first=Mark B. |title=Images of the San Juan Islands |publisher=Rainshadow Arts |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-9753068-1-9 }}</ref> [[Western bluebird]]s (''Sialia mexicana''), which were eliminated from the islands 50 years ago because of competition for nesting sites by non-native [[European starling]]s (''Sturnus vulgaris''), were recently restored to San Juan Island thanks to the efforts of volunteers and conservation organizations.<ref>{{cite news |last=Mapes |first=Lynda V. |title=Volunteers returning bluebirds to old nesting grounds |newspaper=Seattle Times |date=March 14, 2007 |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003616998_bluebird14m.html?syndication=rss |access-date=2011-07-03 }}</ref>

The islands are famous for their resident pods of [[orca]]s (''Orcinus orca''). There are three resident pods that eat salmon, but also some transient orcas that come to take [[harbor seal]]s (''Phoca vitulina''). Other marine mammals include [[North American river otter|river otter]]s (''Lontra canadensis''), [[Steller sea lion]]s (''Eumetopias jubatus''), [[common minke whale]]s (''Balaenoptera acutorostrata''), [[Dall's porpoise]]s (''Phocoenoides dalli'') and other [[cetacean]]s.

[[Columbia black-tailed deer]] (''Odocoileus hemionus columbianus'') are the largest mammals on the San Juan Islands, which are unusual in their historic absence of large carnivores, except for [[Gray wolf|wolves]] (''Canis lupus'') which were [[Local extinction|extirpated]] in the 1860s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Biodiversity and the Salish Sea |url=http://www.kwiaht.org/Biodiversity/Biodiversity.html |access-date=2011-07-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100223052402/http://www.kwiaht.org/Biodiversity/Biodiversity.html |archive-date=2010-02-23}}</ref> Dr. Caleb B. R. Kennerly, surgeon and naturalist, collected a wolf specimen on Lopez Island, which is now in the [[National Museum of Natural History]], probably during the [[Canada–United States border|Northwest Boundary Survey]] from 1857 to 1861.<ref>{{cite web |title=Canis lupus, Specimen #A3438 |publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History |url=http://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/mammals/ |access-date=2011-07-10 }}</ref> Also, there is a specimen of [[elk]] in the [[Slater Museum of Natural History]] at the [[University of Puget Sound]] that was collected on Orcas Island, and old-timers report finding elk antlers on both Lopez and Orcas Islands.

Before 1850, most of the freshwater on the islands was held in [[North American beaver|beaver]] (''Castor canadensis'') ponds, although the aquatic mammal was extirpated by [[Hudson's Bay Company]] fur stations at [[Fort Langley]] and San Juan Island. Remnants of beaver dams number in the hundreds across the archipelago. Gnawed stumps and beaver sign are now seen on Orcas and other islands, and recolonization by this [[keystone species]] is likely to lead to increased abundance and diversity of birds, amphibians, reptiles and plants.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Russel |last1=Barsh |first2=Madrona |last2=Murphy |title=Wetland engineers |newspaper=Islands Weekly |year=2008 |url=http://www.kwiaht.org/Education/TerrestrialBiodiversity/Beavers/assets/Wetland%20engineers.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.kwiaht.org/Education/TerrestrialBiodiversity/Beavers/assets/Wetland%20engineers.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=2011-07-03 }}{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In spring 2011 a pair of beaver appeared at Killebrew Lake on Orcas Island, but were killed to avoid flooding a phone company switch box buried under Dolphin Bay Road. These beaver likely swam from the mainland and could have recolonized the islands.

[[Sea otter|Northern sea otter]] (''Enhydra lutis kenyoni'') remains are documented on [[Sucia Island]] in the San Juan Islands archipelago. In 1790, Spanish explorer [[Manuel Quimper]] traded copper sheets for sea otter pelts at [[Discovery Bay, Washington|Discovery Bay]], for live sea otters captured north of the bay in the "interior" of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.<ref name=Kenyon>{{cite journal |last=Kenyon |first=Karl W. |title=The Sea Otter in the Eastern Pacific Ocean |journal=North American Fauna |year=1969 |volume=68 |pages=1–352 |doi=10.3996/nafa.68.0001|doi-access=free |bibcode=1969usgs.rept...13K }}</ref> Although historical records of sea otter in the San Juan Islands are sparse, there is a sea otter specimen collected in 1897 in the "Strait of Fuca" in the [[National Museum of Natural History]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Enhydra lutis Specimen #188633 |publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History |url=http://manis.mvz.berkeley.edu/pres/PresentationServlet?action=tableResults&loc=http://bnhm.berkeley.edu/manis/DwC/darwin2MaNISInfodo-100317.xml&table=true |access-date=2011-07-09 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> When the sea otter finally received federal protection in 1911, Washington's sea otter had been hunted to extinction, and although a small remnant population still existed in British Columbia, it soon died out. Fifty-nine sea otters were re-introduced to the Washington coast from [[Amchitka Island]], Alaska, in the summers of 1969 and 1970, and these have expanded by 8% per year, mainly along the outer west and northwest coast of the [[Olympic Peninsula]].<ref name=WashingtonRecoveryPlan>{{cite report |title=Washington State Recovery Plan for the Sea Otter |author1=Scott Richardson |author2=Harriet Allen |publisher=Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife |date=2000 |location=Olympia, Washington |url=http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00314/d_seaotter.pdf |access-date=2011-07-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323045918/http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00314/d_seaotter.pdf |archive-date=March 23, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Professional marine mammal biologists verified a single sea otter observed near Cattle Point, San Juan Island, in October 1996.<ref name=Kenyon/> Although the historical numbers of sea otter in the San Juan Islands is not known, the habitat for them may have once been ideal.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Back to the Future: Reconstructing the Strait of Georgia Ecosystem |author1=Daniel Pauly |author2=Tony J. Pitcher |author3=David Preikshot |journal=Fisheries Centre Research Reports |year=1998 |url=http://www2.fisheries.com/archive/publications/reports/6-5.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www2.fisheries.com/archive/publications/reports/6-5.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=2011-07-03 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In the 1890s non-native [[European rabbit]]s, an [[exotic species|exotic]] [[invasive species]], began to infest the islands as the result of the release of domestic rabbits on [[Smith Island (Washington)|Smith Island]]. Rabbits from the San Juan Islands were used later for several introductions of European rabbits into other, usually Midwestern, states. The rabbits are pursued by Eurasian [[red fox]] (''Vulpes vulpes''), another non-native species introduced intermittently through the twentieth century.<ref>{{cite web |title=Nonnative Species |publisher=Kwiaht Center for the Historical Ecology of the Salish Sea |url=http://www.nps.gov/sajh/naturescience/nonnativespecies.htm |access-date=2011-07-03 }}</ref>

On the islands is the [[San Juan Islands National Monument]] with 75 sections.<ref name="Obama 2013">[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/03/25/presidential-proclamation-san-juan-islands-national-monument Presidential Proclamation – San Juan Islands National Monument]</ref>