Always an adventure up on beaver creek, as Ian Timothy [Boone} taught us years ago. Today I’m doing a presentation with Brock Dolman of OAEC for Brown and Caldwell the nationwide environmental engineering firm that was solves water and technology puzzles across the country. Apparently one of their stalwart engineers enrolled in the California Beaver Summit and she wants her team back in Walnut Creek to know what she learned.
I’m not sure what it will mean to beavers, but it can’t be bad. Wish me luck.
Mostly True Facts visits beavers. I know they practice coprophagia but I’ve never heard it said that they eat waste right out of their butts – they are hardly contortionists – but other than this I suppose its good advertising. I wish he found time after saying how weird they are to mention all the TRULY AMAZING things beavers do as well.
Gosh don’t you wish you could watch Amy Hall’s art all unfold again at the festival? Maybe filmed by a professional in an ideal high place? Now seems as good a time as any to introduce you to Cristina Joy Valverde a filmaker working on a larger project about beavers who wanted to interview me and came down the day before the festival. She took this amazing stop motion by placing the camera atop Jon’s ladder on a lamp post and I’m so happy she did. You will be too.
A fine article came from Oregon right after the festival that I didn’t want to miss. This from Jim Anderson. When I saw that it mentioned Suzanne Fouty I sent her a copy and she was delighted that she had never met him before and knew nothing about the article. It’s wonderful to make an impression.
Thanks to the fur of the exploited beavers, fur hats were shipped to the newly created United States of America by the millions. In Europe the demand for beaver fur was so intensive that European beavers were exterminated in Russia, with only a small population surviving in Sweden and Norway. That put the strain for raw material on the North American Beaver, which — by the mid 1800’s — was almost wiped out as well. The only thing that saved them from extinction was the difficulty of finding beaver and the evolution of the fashion and clothing industry.
A hydrologist with the Whitman Ranger District of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in Northeastern Oregon, Suzanne Fouty, is on a quest to learn what beaver do, other than sacrifice their lives for sport and profit. Her findings make it clear that these creatures have an important impact on ecosystems. For instance:
Isn’t that a fine start to an article? Especially for a state that can’t decide whether beavers are worth protecting or not.
Beaver dams create ponds of varying depths, add wood to stream channels, and create side channels;
Beaver help to create viable riparian habitat and maintain water levels for healthy vegetation, increasing species diversity.
Beaver ponds elevate groundwater tables and bring about irrigation of valley floors, thereby shifting vegetation from drought-tolerant species to more diverse water-dependent species.
Beaver ponds reconnect streams and meanders, leading to a more abundant water supply and increasing riparian species diversity. The result is that the valley floor becomes an active flood plain, decreasing flood magnitudes.
Oh this shopping list of good things beavers do is impressive! No wonder Suzanne was happy that Jim was paying attention!
Elevated ground water from beaver ponds lowers water temperatures, creating better conditions for anadromous fish populations.
Stable beaver ponds will improve water quality and lead to increased woody riparian vegetation that stabilizes stream banks, increases resistance to stream erosion, and recycles nutrients more efficiently within the mineral and carbon cycles.
Water quantity—essentially controlled by the function of precipitation and snow packs—is greatly influenced by beaver ponds that elevate and store water.
As water levels and quantity increase because of beaver ponds, summer base flows will increase and be cooler.
Beaver ponds increase water stored in the ground and in plants that will slow the rate at which water leaves a watershed.
Ecosystem stability will be maintained through stable beaver ponds, even under climate change. Flood damage is reduced, and as a result, a more stable ecosystem will supply greater biodiversity.
Go, Beavers!
Go beavers indeed! Nice work Jim! And nice lifetime effort Suzanne! Let’s just hope everyone else at Fish and Game is paying attention.
What do you know? While I’ve been cocooned in a bubble of festival details the world has continued to turn and find it’s own truths to say about beavers! Whether it’s the IFLS article that notices that beaver kits are, in fact, the cutest rodents in the world or this fine article from Binngham county Idaho.
Nature likes to remodel. Hurricanes, floods, fire, and so on can change the environmental landscape quickly and over large areas.
Nature uses another tool to affect change in relatively small areas, the beaver pond. Beavers are a “keystone” species, meaning their wetland-creating activities support many other species. In lakes and rivers with deep water, beavers may use bank burrows and lodges, otherwise beavers build dams to provide ponds as protection against predators and access to food during winter. Beavers normally work at night and are prolific builders, carrying mud and stones with their fore-paws and wood between their teeth.
Cute idea. The beaver pond “Remodeling program” could be reality TV that catches on. I like where this is going.
Beaver ponds can provide nurseries for trout and salmon. They are also beneficial to frog and toad populations, likely because they provide areas for larvae to mature in warmer, well-oxygenated water. A study in Alberta, Canada, showed that beaver ponds supported almost six times more newly metamorphosed wood frogs, 29 times more western toads and 24 times more boreal chorus frogs than on nearby free-flowing streams.
Beaver dams also help songbird populations by stimulating the growth of plant species important to songbirds and generally enhancing habitat. The presence of beaver dams has been shown to be associated with an increased diversity of songbirds.
Beaver ponds help build and restore wetlands which improve downstream flood control, plant and animal biodiversity, water quality, and erosion control. A recent study of beaver pond hydrology reported increased groundwater storage and regional water balance which can certainly be beneficial during drought.
Wow that’s a lot of good things to say about beavers in IDAHO. Have you checked your state laws? Are you sure that’s legal? I couldn’t not be happier with this article.
Many ranchers value beaver ponds because they enhance water and forage for livestock. After restoring beaver, one Idaho rancher reported that his ranch and surrounding public lands experienced an increase in wet meadows, healthy riparian habitat, and floodplains that are more resilient to fire, drought, and erosion. Lew Pence, who worked for the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, said “I think beavers, in conjunction with proper grazing management, are the most economical way to bring these badly eroded riparian areas back to health”.
Additionally, a recent study concluded that increased vegetation productivity resulting from conservation-oriented grazing or exclosures and high amounts of beaver activity is equivalent to moving conventionally-grazed, low-gradient sites without beaver up at least 850 feet in elevation or increasing annual precipitation by almost 10 inches.
Wow. Jay Inslee you have made such an impression in Idaho that it’s starting to sink in. I am fully impressed. You should be very proud. Get ready for the classic “your mileage may vary” statement to make cover the lawsuits that follow.
Beaver ponds may not always be a good thing and do present some challenges. Ponds can be disruptive; flooding may cause property damage and can wash out railroad tracks and roads. When a beaver dam bursts the resulting flash flood may overwhelm a culvert.
In his book “Journal of a Trapper,” Osborne Russell reported much of his beaver trapping occurred east of the Snake River Plain. That was prime beaver country in the 1830s, and many areas still provide good beaver habitat today. If you want to view beaver ponds, the higher country stretching from Mink Creek to the South Fork of the Snake offers plenty of opportunity.
Okay nothing about solving problems or flow device but STILL. That was the best paragraphs I have read about beavers from Idaho EVER. I think that deserves a celebration. I don’t even know who wrote it. The article is titled “Connelly” but it doesn’t even say anything about the author. I did find this bio however. He’s the real deal.
Jack Connelly has lived in Bingham County for over 40 years. He is an avid outdoorsman and has hiked, camped, hunted, and fished over much of the U.S. as well as parts of Europe and Asia. Connelly worked as a biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for over 30 years. He now enjoys retirement with his wife Cheryl raising chickens and bird dogs at their home in Blackfoot.
Alright Idaho. You’ve been officially summoned to the beaver table. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Always an adventure up on beaver creek, as Ian Timothy [Boone} taught us years ago. Today I’m doing a presentation with Brock Dolman of OAEC for Brown and Caldwell the nationwide environmental engineering firm that was solves water and technology puzzles across the country. Apparently one of their stalwart engineers enrolled in the California Beaver Summit and she wants her team back in Walnut Creek to know what she learned.
Gosh don’t you wish you could watch Amy Hall’s art all unfold again at the festival? Maybe filmed by a professional in an ideal high place? Now seems as good a time as any to introduce you to Cristina Joy 
Thanks to the fur of the exploited beavers, fur hats were shipped to the newly created United States of America by the millions. In Europe the demand for beaver fur was so intensive that European beavers were exterminated in Russia, with only a small population surviving in Sweden and Norway. That put the strain for raw material on the North American Beaver, which — by the mid 1800’s — was almost wiped out as well. The only thing that saved them from extinction was the difficulty of finding beaver and the evolution of the fashion and clothing industry.
Nature likes to remodel. Hurricanes, floods, fire, and so on can change the environmental landscape quickly and over large areas.
