The fallout from BeaverCon Colorado has been beyond glorious. We’ve had article after article boasting about beaver benefits but this one takes the proverbial cake.
Dallas May might well be my favorite human. Ever.
The beaver effect: How nature’s engineers restore wetlands, control floods, and protect rivers
When flash floods filled Colorado Springs streets last summer, the water raged down from Black Forest all the way to Dallas May’s ranch north of Lamar.
The flood made the lengthy journey in just two days, but when it hit May’s wetlands, the water slowed way down. It took 2½ days to travel just 7 miles through the ranch, May said.
The muddy floodwaters left his property clean and clear, filtered by a wetland system created by beavers, who build their dams on the High Plains with bulrush and cattails, unlike their fellows in the mountains.
Could you design a better ad for beavers than a rancher who says their dams protected my land during the floods? I think Not.
“If it wasn’t for these beavers, there would be no water going into the (Arkansas) river from here,” May said. At twilight one day in October, May showed off several beaver ponds on his property during what is typically a dry time for waterways across Colorado. The beavers stayed well out of sight, but he described them as bigger than those in the mountains, and adventurous when necessary, venturing out of the safety of the waterways to trek across his alfalfa fields.
May also explained his philosophy for managing the ranch he’s worked since the 1980s and now owns with his family.
“Our goal is to keep everything in as natural a state as we can. … We don’t kill coyotes. We don’t kill prairie dogs. We don’t kill rattlesnakes. We don’t trap or poison anything. If God intended for a species to be here, we want it to be here,” he said. When the system is intact, it functions well. The coyotes have plenty to eat and don’t touch his cattle, he said.
I am literally swooning.
The healthy wetlands keep water flowing in the creek through May’s ranch year-round and recharge the shallow groundwater keeping the grass healthy for his cattle. The wetlands also support a vast number of birds, small fish and native grasses. A team from the Denver Botanical Gardens documented 85 different species of grass, May said.
