Washington Biodiversity Project

Washington is one of the most biologically diverse states in the union. This is due to the state’s diverse topography, its exposure to Pacific Ocean currents and weather patterns, and its location on the migratory path of many wildlife species.

Washington has seacoast, shrub-steppe, native prairies, parts of four major forested mountain ranges, and the huge arm of the Pacific Ocean called Puget Sound.

Washington, in fact, contains most of the major ecosystem types found in the western United States, including two found nowhere else in the world: the Olympic rainforest and channeled scablands.

These landscapes and the biological diversity they support are contained within nine continental ecoregions that extend from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Puget Sound in the west to the Columbia Plateau and Canadian Rocky Mountains in the east.

Washington’s ecoregions are defined by similarities in flora and fauna, resulting from similar soils, geology, hydrology, and landforms.

Washington’s varied landscapes and ecoregions not only support a variety of birds, mammals, plants, and other elements of biodiversity, but also a diverse cross-section of people who live and work here.

Our forests support a timber industry that continues to employ thousands of people. Farmers have converted much of the semi-arid shrub-steppe into one of the nation’s breadbaskets. And the state’s rivers and saltwater habitats still support commercial and recreational fishing.

Indeed, it is this state’s natural richness that provides much of the quality of life that makes Washington one of the fastest-growing states in the West. Those who are born here want to stay, and each year thousands move to or visit Washington from other parts of the world.

Biodiversity is defined by the Washington Biodiversity Council as “the full range of life in all its forms.” This includes the habitats in which life occurs, the ways that species and habitats interact with each other and the physical environment, and the processes necessary for those interactions. It is sometimes referred to as the “web of life.”

An ecosystem is defined as “an integrated ecological system of land, water, and living organisms in contiguous areas such as watersheds, landscapes, or regions.”

One way of measuring biodiversity is by counting the number of different native plant and animal species that live in Washington.

Our state is permanent or temporary home to:

Life Form
Approximate number of species
Mammals 140
Fish (freshwater and saltwater) 470
Birds 341
Other vertebrates 150
Invertebrates over 20,000
Native plants 3,100

As the smallest and second most densely populated of the rapidly growing Western states, Washington is in danger of losing much of its diversity of plant and animal life in our lifetimes, or the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren.

Major causes of loss are habitat fragmentation, degradation, and conversion, as well as from global climate change and a constant and rapid invasion of exotic plant and animal species.

This is especially true in the Puget Sound region, where most of the state’s population and growth is concentrated. It is also true of the Columbia Basin, the Lower Columbia River, and other areas of rapid growth and development.

Since statehood in 1889, Washington has lost an estimated:

70 percent of its estuarine wetlands,
50 percent of its riparian habitat,
90 percent of its old-growth forest, and
70 percent of its native shrub-steppe and arid grasslands.
Together, these four native habitat types have been considered among the most diverse and productive in the state.

The worldwide rate of extinction of plant and animal species is astounding. It is estimated to be 10,000 times as rapid as it was in prehistoric times, with more than 27,000 species being extinguished every year.

Although we do not fully understand all the consequences of this continual loss of native plant and animal species, we do know that a diversity of healthy, functioning ecosystems is essential for maintaining our quality of life and economic viability into the future.

Biological diversity sustains those vital natural resource industries that produce fiber, food, fuel, building materials, and medicines.

A healthy environment also provides enormous economic, health, and cultural benefits, including:

clean air, clean water, flood control, and nutrient cycling;
economic and recreational opportunities such as wildlife recreation, recreational boating, and commercial fishing;
the passing down of traditional knowledge from one generation to the next.
We don’t always know which species or set of relationships provides the link that is critical to ecosystem function. But we are painfully aware of the enormous economic and social impacts that can result from an aggressive non-native species or the listing of wild salmon or the northern spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act.

The combination of rapid growth and relatively small size makes the loss of biodiversity especially acute in Washington State. Washington’s population in 2000 was 5.8 million, and we are expected to add almost two million people by 2020.

Our population density is second only to California in the West, and the resulting stresses upon the state are great.

Only by way of a coordinated statewide effort can we sustain Washington’s rich biodiversity and the economies that depend upon it.