Snoqualmie prairie is an important to the snoqualmie indian tribe, both from an ecological and cultural aspect

The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe received a $115,385 Project Grant award from the Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Region 1 under the Tribal Wildlife Grants program (CFDA 15.639). The grant will support the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe in conducting a pilot habitat restoration project at the Snoqualmie Prairie in Washington state from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2025. Key activities to be undertaken include restoring approximately 3.5 acres of native Garry oak meadow, installing 1.8 acres of native meadow grasses and forbs, removing invasive species from 2 acres, and collecting data to inform expansion of meadow restoration to larger acreages in future phases. The project aims to preserve and restore important meadow habitat critical to elk and other species, while engaging tribal members and the community in restoring a culturally significant landscape.

Today, approximately 390 acres of open former prairie remain, in a highly degraded state and fractured into smaller remnants. The snoqualmie prairie area currently has approximately 400 ELK that are highly dependent on open meadows for survival. Other animals well adapted to open prairies include coyote, red tailed hawks, garter snakes, northwestern salamanders, western meadowlarks, western bluebirds, townsends moles and many others. Garry oaks are also known to support a wide variety of species, and OAK prairies attract a distinct group of animals different from hardwood or conifer forests. The ability of these species to persist in a landscape where only forests and urban development exist is questionable. The remaining areas of snoqualmie prairie need to not only be preserved from development and encroaching forests, but restored to full ecological capacity through the removal of invasive species and reintroduction of native plants historically present. The snoqualmie indian tribe is partnering with king county parks, the city of snoqualmie and city of north bend, and meadowbrook farms to restore snoqualmie prairie habitat through restoration efforts. The largest contiguous prairie remnant is meadowbrook farm, an area over 200 acres containing open grasslands interspersed by riparian wetlands along kimball creek, jointly owned by the cities of north bend and snoqualmie. Today these sites remain generally free of trees, due in part to a sustained mowing regimen. These lands however, are heavily infested by invasive plants and weeds, and many of the native plants historically cultivated by the snoqualmie tribe are no longer observed. Non native pasture grasses, as well as invasive reed canary grass (phalaris arundinacea) now dominate large swaths of the snoqualmie prairie remnants, with severe infestations of invasive himalayan blackberry (rubus armeniacus), canada thistle (cirsium arvense), and tansy ragwort (jacobaea vulgaris) among others displacing native species. Similarly, garry oaks now occur only very occasionally among the snoqualmie prairie remnants, with just a small number of individual mature trees known. The ecological restoration of snoqualmie prairie remnants will require a concerted effort over many years. Even after initial weed control and planting, maintenance will be necessary indefinitely to maintain established populations of native meadow species and remove invasive plants. The first phase of the project will be a pilot habitat restoration project using primary restoration activities (1) the restoration of approximately 3.5 acres of native garry OAK meadow (2) a total of approximately 1.8 acres of native meadow grasses and forbs installed (3) removal of invasive species from approximately 2 acres (4) critical data for successfully expanding meadow restoration to dozens of acres or more in later project phases (5) providing a blueprint for preserving important and rare meadow habitat critical to the fully functioning landscape mosaic of the region (6) the preservation of open meadow habitat critical to ELK and many other species, and (7) an opportunity for tribal members and community members to directly engage in restoring a landscape of great cultural importance to the snoqualmie tribe.