Beavers cause Flooding concerns in Reno: Residents can’t get help.
RENO, Nev. (News 4) — Leave it to beavers. The critters are causing some Reno residents to worry about flooding. And there’s little that can be done about it.
Lindie Mitchell bought her house along Steamboat Creek, on the south side of Reno four-and-a-half years ago. The water that is just a few yards from her house helped convince her to buy the house.
It was a small tiny little creek,” she said.
But now the stream is much wider and pools in places, including right next to Mitchell’s house. She said several beavers built dams and changed the water flow. Debris is now backing up behind the dams.
“It’s very fast and rapid. It flows over the beaver dam and it’s frightening. It’s rising and rising and rising every time, a little bit more,” Mitchell said.
When there’s a strong runoff, water flattens vegetation on the banks. Mitchell is scared one time the water will flood her property or her house that sits without a foundation. Mitchell said she’s tried to get rid of the dams herself.
“We try to pull it out and they just build it up within 24 hours,” she said.
Gosh darn it was just a tiny creek with birds in Reno. Why did those beavers have to come and make it wider? Now it probably won’t even dry up in the summer. Stupid beavers. Saving water with no thought for unreasonable homeowner panic. Given her worries we’re surprised by nothing in this article but THIS:
Jessica Heitt, the Nevada Department of Wildlife Urban Wildlife Coordinator, said the only option to remove beavers is to hire a professional to trap them. It’s open season from Oct. 1 through April 30.
“If it’s outside of the season they have to apply for a depredation permit,” Heitt said.
“We would usually go out and investigate the area and go and make sure there’s a significant amount of damage before we ever issue a permit.”
Can that possibly be true? Did Jessica make a mistake? Does Napa REALLY send a NDOW worker out to see whether a depredation permit is warranted? How oh how did that policy get started and when can California adopt it please? I’m pretty sure all you have to do to get a depredation permit in California is check a box or pick up the phone. Could nevada really go out for every request?
Well, there are probably less requests with fewer beavers/people and more trapping in the state. Maybe they only get asked to depredate a few beavers a year. Imagine if California Fish and Wildlife went out for all 800 requests to depredate beavers it receives every year. They’d never have time to issue fishing permits and shoot coyotes!
Let’s have a little good news closer to home, shall we?
Seldom seen visitors return to Napa River waterways
The bounty of rain we have received this fall and early winter has opened the door to some wonderful displays of wildlife in the Napa River and Upvalley tributaries.
During my visits to favorite haunts along the river between Yountville and St. Helena as well as Sulphur and York Creeks and even Garnett Creek in Calistoga, I have had the good fortune to witness the return of both the North American beaver and Chinook salmon.
Before the heavier flows began in the main stem of the Napa River, beavers had built a dam a ways north of the Pope Street bridge to provide some deeper water to protect themselves from predators and to cache food. They had yet to construct one of their lodges before the early rains began to dismantle their dam, so there is no longer any visual evidence of their presence other than some cropped vegetation along the bank with chisel-like teeth marks.
Generally, biologists and ecologists consider beaver building activity a positive sign of a waterway’s health, as their dams remove sediments and pollutants as well as enhance habitat for fish and other aquatic resources. Some uninformed folks believe that beaver dams will cause flooding and want to prevent colonization, but in rivers like the Napa that flows through St. Helena, winter flows quickly breach the dams (compare the Oct. 23 and Nov. 21 photos). If we are lucky, they will grace us with a resumption of their amazing industry and engineering skills in spring when conditions favor their return.
No less surprising than finding beavers in my figurative back yard was this year’s surge of Chinook salmon into Sulphur Creek and other tributary streams.
It’s no coincidence that you’re seeing beavers and chinook in your waterways all of a sudden. In fact if the documented and heavily researched importance of beavers to salmon didn’t exist, I doubt you’d be seeing either one. It’s because of the role beavers play for salmonids that anyone tolerates them in your county at all. Beaver dams increase invertebrates and leave safe places for juvenile salmonids to grow up. More beaver means more salmon. It’s that simple.
I am delighted that you are enjoying both their returns. Thanks for this article, Richard Seiferheld.
