I was cheered to see this article but a little worried about Doug being all alone. Has BC not heard about relocating family groups together?

Meet Doug the beaver, the Secwépemc watershed recovery engineer

At the heart of Skeetchestn territory is the Deadman Watershed, a living landscape of roughly 900 sq. km of forest and grassland northwest of Kamloops (Tk’emlups).

“The Deadman Watershed has been absolutely devastated,” says Shaun Freeman, senior wildlife and habitat biologist with Skeetchestn Natural Resource corp. “What we ended up with is a lot of hydrological issues.”

In the early spring, the snowpack melts all at once, with little water retained in the upper watershed due to vegetation loss, he explains. This has knock-on effects for the entire ecosystem

Tsecmenúl̓ecwem-kt (We Repair the Land ) is a project led by Skeetchestn Indian Band to remedy this situation.

They have many partners including Thompson Rivers University, the province and the Secwépemc Fisheries Commission. But the arguably most hardworking collaborator is one you may not expect — an ancient ally in ecological stewardship known in Secwepemctsín as sqlew’uwi and in English as the North American Beaver.

Well now I like how it starts. I got all comfortable this morning thinking I was going to read a delightful yearn about how a bunch of beavers changed a watershed together. Turns out Doug is alone.

To help the land, Skeetchestn’s Tsecmenúl̓ecwem-kt project has successfully populated the upper watershed with one beaver, known as Doug, with the goal to re-introduce more over coming years.

Beavers like Doug have a natural instinct to build dams across flowing water, creating ponds to evade predators. These ponds influence local hydrology, enhancing the habitat for countless other species, including plants, waterfowl, amphibians, invertebrates and of course salmon.

“Having ponds and wetlands keeps moisture in the soil and keeps that deciduous component healthy,” which Freeman says is important because those tree species don’t burn to the extent of evergreens. This creates natural fire breaks which can stall or potentially stop a wildfire from moving across the valley.

What’s even more important is slowing down the flow rate to maintain downstream flow into the heat of summer, when low flows block fish passage and can even be fatal.

Okay. So far so good. But I’m starting to get that feeling you get when someone you don’t very much trust says a little nice thing. Like you want them to stop talking before they ruin it.

“We are trying to make sure that the streams are not just a pile of rocks when it comes to August and September because everything, including us, needs water,” Freeman says. “Healthy ecosystems require water which is why we are trying to have the beavers help us do that recovery.”

“In terms of relocating beavers, it’s a little bit more complex than just grabbing them, putting them in the truck and dropping them off,” he says. They must be set up for success.

Since the 2021 Sparks Lake wildfire, there has been good regrowth of deciduous species, including aspen and willow which are important to beavers as food and building material. Three sites with good conditions were selected for possible reintroduction.

But the timing of the beaver capture and release is critical.

“We don’t want to be in a position where we’re capturing beavers that have kits in the lodge,” he says. Which means capturing needs to happen in the late winter or early spring.

They also need time to prepare their infrastructure — the lodge, feed pile and any dams they need to control the water level — in their new habitat. If you put them in too late, the chance of successful colonization is reduced.

Yes that’s all true. So why is Doug alone?

So, the first step was to prepare the holding facility where the beavers will stay between capture and release: the beaver hotel.

In creating a good habitat for Doug the beaver, the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society was very helpful, and the team visited the Summerland beaver hotel to learn how it works and design their own.

The first guest of the Skeetchestn beaver hotel, a female the team named Willow, was not quite what they expected.

“Unfortunately, Willow decided to climb the seven foot chain link fence, as evidenced by the muddy footprints she left behind,” says Freeman, something they didn’t know a beaver could do.

WHAT? The first beaver you stuck in your holding cell was soo miserable to be ripped away from her family that she climbed the 7 foot chain link fence and jumped from that height to crawl away?

This should give you a clue about what a beaver feels about being alone and in your jail.

In contrast the second beaver they caught, a male they named Doug, was more than satisfied with his accommodations.

“He knew the gravy train was coming to him.”

There were a couple of times he was so deeply asleep the team thought, “Oh geez, Doug’s dead!” And they would have to wiggle his cage and tip him out.

Yeah Doug sounds like a real catch. A mover and a shaker. Some beavers are just lazy. Shocking but true.  Remember our 2 older yearlings who never did anything? I used to call them the useless bookends because they looked exactly alike and never helped.

.Skeetchestn is not the only community interested in the positive effect beavers and their dams have on ecosystems. Elsewhere in the province the 10,000 Watersheds Project is building Beaver Dam Analogs, an alternative to natural beaver dams which seek to mimic their effect on hydrology.

While these are an exciting technology, Freeman says they have drawbacks. Humans have to build them and, unless the analog is adopted by beavers, humans are responsible for maintaining them too.

“They are also liable if something goes wrong,” says Freeman. “But you can’t sue a beaver.”

Ha. You can sue the people that put him there.

The beaver colonies in the lower watershed that had been the targets for relocation suffered deaths over the winter. The team was not keen on taking any additional beavers from them at their current population level.

So, Doug was introduced alone to the upper watershed and he seemed to like the location the team selected, suggesting their assumptions about the habitat’s suitability for supporting beaver are very likely correct.

“He went right at it, barely leaving the site we released him from and just started building,” he says. Doug actually built two lodges.

“I think he decided the first one wasn’t up to his specifications, whatever those may be,” he says, but Doug seems much happier with the second.

Next year the team will be sourcing beavers from some of the areas where they are overly abundant.

Because you know how it is. Sometimes there are just too many and you need to spread them around. Just staple them in where ever they’re needed

“Because we do have the ability to host beavers for as long as necessary, we’re able to really start sourcing and looking at some of these other areas which have similar problems in future to and basically become the beaver hub, so to speak, for Secwepemc territory.”

They have already had offers from staff in Tk’emlúps that have some issues with beavers in high numbers. If beavers overpopulate a watershed, they can do damage, he explains.“So, we have a job for them. It may not be in the low part of the drainage, but we definitely have a job for them in the top,” Freeman says.

No. That’s not actually true. Beaver don’t destroy watersheds. They don’t keep breeding until it’s all ruined.

“It’s just a case of shifting from where we have an over abundance, putting them where we don’t have any, then letting them work their magic to help us recreate the hydrology into something that’s going to sustain the whole water table.”

Bob from Georgia reminded me this morning of our historic archive. This was first Published on January 30, 2008 in a post called “Why we fight“.

This is a letter from Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions to Heidi, but we really think it applies to everyone who has supported the beavers:

Dear “Beaverlady”, 😉

Your efforts are Herculean. It is so difficult to promote coexistence with beavers in an urban setting, especially one that is prone to flooding without beavers. Nevertheless, your efforts have given these beavers a fighting chance at survival.

Irregardless of the City’s final decision with the M. beavers I hope you can see that your efforts have had huge positive effects for not only the Martinez beavers, but also for beavers everywhere. Along with others, you personally have raised beaver awareness in the California masses. Not an easy task, and extremely important if our society is to evolve a better culture of coexistence with the animals on this planet.

I thought you should know how impressive your efforts and results have already been, because I know when a person is in the middle of a fight it is hard to see the entire battleground. I’m glad you are involved. Thanks.

All the Best,

Mike

In 2011 I was full of something resembling enthusiasm, So I worked very hard to learn how to shamble together some podcast interviews with the handful of beaver experts I could persuade to cooperate. I believe there were 12 or 14 and I released them on Sundays.. I called the podcast “Agents of Change” and was even able to get it on itunes.

Well in the 12 years since its completion the itunes scrambled and my subscription to audio acrobat and pod bean withered. The interviews were too big to save the file on the website so they went the way of the dinosaur.

They are still somewhere on my computer and someday may theoretically be in the archives but  I cut the frustrating links on the web page this weekend. The podcast is dead. Long live the podcast.

I did find this though, which made me happy for auld lang’s syne kinda sake.

I know what I’m thankful for this Sunday. Apparently a reader of the Seattle Times in Washington state is too.

Rant and Rave: Reader appreciates the beavers, salmon

RAVE to the beavers and chum salmon who live in and use Piper’s Creek in Carkeek Park! The beavers have built a huge dam and pond complex that is delightful to see in this urban setting. And the chum salmon, in large numbers, are navigating past the dams and ponds and getting upstream. And rave to the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department for having the courage and creativity to set up the exclusion fences that control pond water levels to limit flooding in the park yet still allow deep water for beaver lodging and food access, AND allow fish passage. Go check it out!

Unfortunately there’s no name given on this rave or I would track the author down and possibly marry them. Now we just need letters about how beavers are helping trout in Wisconsin and Minnesota and I will die a happy girl.