A first-of-its kind survey aims to paint the creatures many still view as pests in a new light — a possible ecological savior — and pave the way to protect and restore their habitat
Clad in waders and staff in hand, Conrad Ely trudged through the icy Carlson Creek, a stream meandering under mossy Douglas firs and cedar in a remote section of Tillamook State Forest.

Ely, a state beaver biologist, scanned the water for gnawed-off branches, poked at bunched up leaves and shined his flashlight under trees overhanging the riverbank.

Ely’s effort is part of a first-of-its kind statewide survey of beavers and their activity, with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife collecting data throughout the state to understand where and how the animals live. The surveys underlie a new plan to protect and restore beaver habitat in Oregon, though its success is yet unknown as wildlife officials work to change the narrative about the animals and how they should be treated.

Even in Oregon, the Beaver State, beavers have long been seen as a source of fur for a waning group of trappers and a nuisance for landowners — pesky rodents akin to rats, killed indiscriminately with little afterthought or state oversight.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When beavers COUNT you COUNT BEAVERS.

But, as climate change-induced drought and heat waves have wreaked havoc on American cities, farms and ranches, many scientists and land managers have come to understand the furry animals have ecological value. They’re nature’s engineers, as their dams, canals and channels keep water on the land and help recharge aquifers, rivers and streams.

Also, key in a state that spends millions of dollars on habitat restoration, beavers can create — for free — pools and wet areas along streams, riverbanks and flood plains that serve as high-quality rearing habitat for salmon, frogs, turtles and countless other threatened and endangered species. And while state officials have for over a decade identified beavers as beneficial in its fish recovery plans, they had not fully invested in restoring the beavers themselves until the past few years.

In 2021, conservation groups and timber companies signed the Private Forest Accord, an agreement that expanded protections for wildlife while providing regulatory certainty for timber harvests. It included new beaver protections on private forestland, such as mandating the reporting all beaver kills, prioritizing non-lethal strategies for beaver conflicts and requiring timber landowners and the state to fund beaver habitat to help fish recovery.

Okay then. That’s what I call a START. You don’t have to stop killiing beavers OR even kill less of them BUT you do have to COUNT the dead ones. I guess that’s something.

And this summer, those protections were expanded to all private property as new state “beaver bill” legislation reclassified beavers as “furbearers,” animals whose fur has commercial value, consolidating their management under the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife where they’re now overseen as wildlife not pests.

Beaver trapping is still allowed — about 1,400 beavers were killed in 2023 in Oregon by people with a furtaker’s license — but the status change means all private landowners must now take out a state permit to kill nuisance beavers. Even those allowed to bypass the permit system because they’re property is in imminent danger need to show evidence of a beaver-caused problem, not just the mere presence of the animals.

And everyone needs to inform the state when they kill beavers. The state, in turn, can track how many were killed and why, and help landowners with non-lethal co-existence measures as alternatives, including placing fences and barriers around trees and culverts or spraying repellent on trees and plants.

Yes its not nearly enough. But its a START.

The changes are part of a much bigger effort to recover beavers and restore their good reputations in Oregon, Averett said.

Last year, state officials released a three-year Beaver Action Plan, which outlines specific goals and actions Oregon will implement to help with the animals’ recovery — including guidance for how to restore beaver habitat and a focus on community outreach to educate landowners about coexisting with, rather than killing, beavers.

“We’re really hoping to build resources and tools, but also a greater community of practice around beavers and their habitat restoration,” Averett said. “And to look into what’s beaver’s potential in Oregon for helping with a climate change future.”

Oregon’s focus on fostering beaver habitat is unique as many other states still focus on beaver relocation. But scientists are increasingly raising the alarm that relocation has myriad problems — it breaks up beaver families, the beavers often don’t stick around at the new target site and new beaver families move into the habitat from which others had been removed.

When beavers COUNT you Count Beavers. The Dead ones AND the LIVE ones.

The first step to improving beaver habitat is to figure out where the animals currently live and how they use the land. Initially, state biologists are surveying about 143 miles of streams in 10 areas across Oregon, recording the presence or absence of beaver activities. The surveys will eventually help generate a list of potential restoration sites.

As he conducted surveys, Ely, the beaver biologist, hoped for a glimpse of the furry animals in the Upper Nehalem River Basin — though chances look slim.

So looking for all the places where beaver aren’t is important for noticing where they should be. Oregon has been closing its eyes on beaver trapping for far too long. If it allows itself to start counting its going to understand the hole it has dug for itself.

Oregon’s wildlife agency will spend the next year analyzing beaver survey results, with hopes of identifying beaver restoration projects.

But habitat restoration is already happening in Oregon’s farm country, Averett said, launched by landowners who once worked to get rid of beavers.

“The tide has changed and we’re seeing, especially in the dry side of Oregon, that there’s more and more research and more and more projects on the ground,” she said.

In November, volunteers with the Crooked River Watershed Council in Crook County built 38 beaver dam analogues — artificial structures that mimic natural beaver dams — at The Bonnieview Ranch, a 19,000-acre cattle operation in Post, just southeast of Prineville. The ranch runs 400 cows and raises its own hay.

A week later, the volunteers returned to plant 575 willow and cottonwood tree starts adjacent to the dam-like structures, to establish forage for the beavers. The ranch fenced off the area and stopped grazing along the creek. The project, spearheaded by the landowner with the support of the nonprofit Western Beaver Cooperative, aims to attract and restore beaver populations to the ranch.

The impetus for the work is the changing climate and the drought, said Lonny Carter, the Bonnieview’s ranch manager. In recent years, the creek that once ran freely through the ranch year-round has gone dry every summer, causing challenges for the operation, Carter said.

“A cattle ranch is no good if it doesn’t have water,” he said. “If you have water, you have grass. If you have grass, you have cattle.”

And if you don’t have beavers you don’t have water.

It’s a radical departure from how the ranch treated beavers in the past.

“We used to just kill the beavers on sight and to rip the dams out,” Carter said. “We should have never done that, lesson learned.”

Though some ranchers remain skeptical, many have seen the benefits first hand, said Reese Mercer, the founder of Western Beaver Cooperative. The volunteer-based group supports eastern Oregon’s private landowner and rural agencies in beaver recovery by helping with best practices and leveraging government grants.

“Folks are starting to soften on beavers and trying to understand how they can actually live with them,” said Mercer. “I think the recent drought has something to do with that. It’s a hard business, managing the land, and the more we can show that bringing beavers back makes good economic sense, that’s the key.”

Now that we’ve tried every other possible solution and run out of money we think maybe we could give those icky rodents a shot.

Conservationists and state biologists concede restoring beaver habitat and bringing back beavers to Oregon will take years because the land looks nothing like it used to and the food beavers prefer is mostly gone. But it’s worth the investment, Averett said.

Though beavers aren’t a panacea for climate change, their recovery will make Oregon’s landscape a little wetter — a help to both wildlife and humans as extreme heat and drought regularly scorch the region.

“Beavers aren’t making it rain. They’re not making it snow,” said Averett. “But they’re holding our water savings in the account a little bit longer … I think we’ve got a richer story to tell about beavers in Oregon that’s true to the landscape.

I am reminded of Alice eonderland and the imperious royal. “It’s an ugly creature but it may kiss my ring if it likes”

They look like rats to me but if they can make water and save me a buck I guess I can wait to kill them a little while.

Endless Pressure Endlessly Applied,