Mammals and Much More
Most evident of Surrey Bend's mammals is the beaver, which has fashioned much of the watery landscape over the years and still actively maintains dams, ponds and lodges here and there.
Other known residents include coyote, raccoon, river otter, mink, rabbit (Eastern Cottontail), mole (possibly all three local species), muskrat, shews (various), striped skunk, bats (from among eight species) and assorted voles and mice.
Anticipated but not recently confirmed are black-tailed deer, black bear, opossum, red fox, weaser, squirrels and chipmunks.
The tentative list of reptiles and amphibians includes long-toed salamander, common toad, Pacific treefrog, bullfrog and three species of garter snake.
Fishes found in the stream and ditches are coho and chinook, fry and smolt, chum and sockeye fry, and at least 14 other non-salmon species such as sitckleback and sculpin. Offshore, for anglers to think about, may lurk giant white sturgeon.
The main trees are black cottonwood (some of great size), red alder, paper birch, trembling aspen, Sitka spruce, shore pine, western redcedar and western hemloc. Also occuring are black hawthorn, Pacific crab apple, beaked hazelnut, western mountain ash and Pacific willow.
Important shrubs include hardhack, red-osier dogwood, salal, salmonberry, bog cranberry, Nootka rose, Indian plum, bog blueberry, Labrador tea, black twinberry and cascara.
Among the plants and wildflowers are three species of horsetail, sword fern, spiny wood fern, assorted sedges, bluejoint reedgrass, bracken, reed canarygrass, fowl bluegrass, skunk cabbage, various mosses, bur-reed and water speedwell.
