One of those places is Kingmn Island, where Friends of Kingman Island Vice       President Lora Nunn and her family like to explore along the shoreline,  he colooking for what her two children call ”beaver evidence”; trunks stripped of bark; trees felled, leaving pointed stumps; dams in the water. If they are very lucky, they will spot a beaver itself, swimming in the water under the bridge between Heritage and Kingman Islands.

“They leave significant evidence on a tree that is unmistakably beaver,” said Nunn. “The kids love seeing it.”

Funny thing, You know who else lives in Kingman Island? Dr, John Hadidian, the new retired science director for the Humane Society, You know the responsible for getting  Skip Lisle to do workshop in Massachusetts which was attended by one young Mike Callahan  so that he could learn to install flow devices himself and eventually start the Beaver Institute which has educated so many since then,

The beaver activity is proof of a tremendous resurgence. What does that mean for the District’s environment, its wildlife and its residents?

“Absolute beaver numbers are always going to be limited by the fact that they can only occupy stream channel and flood plains,” agrees City Wildlife’s Dr. John Hadidian, formerly a scientist with both the Humane Society of the US and National Park Service (NPS). “That’s something that [only] extends 100 to 300 feet from the water, depending on tributary size. “

Beavers are nature’s engineers, so well-known for their abilities that a determined beaver is the logo for the MIT athletic teams, the Engineers. Beavers dam rivers and streams to create ponds where they build their underwater homes, or lodges. In their lodges, they raise multi-generation families—babies, called kits, will live with their parents for two years, helping to raise the next yearlings.

tandTheir environmental modifications can have many benefits. Beaver dams slow the flow of water, creating new wetlands that can become the ideal habitat for birds and animals like muskrats, shorebirds and ducks as well as amphibian and plant life. The dams also act as natural filtration systems, capturing pollutants and silt before they can enter the river.

Beaver activity is tremendously beneficial to the District, said Jorge Bogantes Montero, Stewardship Program Specialist for the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS).

Excellent! I’m thrilled to know John is still standing up for beavers, even from retirement. John was an early helper in the Martinez campaign and a good friend if Sherrie Tippie]s. I consider him a founding father in my own conversion.

The AWS team was walking upstream, focused on the area’s mussel population, when they realized the path of the stream looked different.

“I said, that’s weird,” Bogantes recalled. “I wonder why that is.” Walking up to the culvert where the tributary passes under the parking lot of New Smyrna Missionary Baptist Church, they found a big beaver dam. When they returned in February 2022, Bogantes counted up to four more dams.

Many stream restoration systems are inspired by the work of beavers, he said, but the DOEE project attracted nature’s experts in engineered waterland restoration. “The beaver dams you see at Nash Run are exactly doing that,” he said, “slowing down the water, filtering nutrients, trash, sediment. It’s exactly what we need.”

“We just have to evaluate the side effects [on] the people.”