Bad news for beavers spreads like wildfire, but good news trickles slowly like a fine spring rain. Still, we’re learned enough to be grateful when we see it, whether it’s in New York or British Columbia. Beavers need all the friends they can get.

Wetland enhancements help species at risk

Students from the Fernie Academy wrap trees to prevent beaver felling in the West Fernie Wetland. ERA photo

Wetlands are natural areas that are wet for all or part of the year, often located along the valley bottom beside the Elk River. Wetlands over the last 100 years in the Elk Valley have been fragmented by transportation corridors, filled in for development and drained for agriculture. People have done this without considering that wetlands provide numerous free and critical services to wildlife and us.

Wetlands soak up, slow down and store floodwater. Still water settles silt, and wetland plants, such as cattails, can filter pollutants and improving water quality. Conversely, wetlands help to reduce the severity of summer droughts as they slowly release stored water. Wetlands are places for fun and education, offering unparalleled wildlife viewing and recreational opportunities.

Many Species at Risk (SAR) in Canada depend on wetlands for survival. SAR can be plants and animals that are at risk of becoming extinct due to outside pressures on their populations, such as habitat loss or pollution. In Canada there are 521 species listed, and up to a third of these are dependent on wetlands at some point in their lifecycle. In the Elk Valley SAR that utilize wetlands include great blue heron, westslope cutthroat trout, and western painted turtles.

Hmm even this article doesn’t actually mention the animal who will make wetlands for free, BUT the elk river alliance is teaching children to wrap trees so that means they aren’t killing beavers. I think we should put this in the ‘plus column” The elk river alliance is a large organization and if they are teaching folks that wetlands matter so wrap trees instead of trapping that’s very good news!

This article from Becky Nystrom in New York is even better.

Beavers: Extraordinary Architects

Last October, I was both delighted and dismayed to discover the handiwork of beavers in a nearby wooded wetland, where the furry little engineers had constructed a barrier of aspen and birch branches and mud across a narrow culvert, damming the small stream and creating a lovely wetland in its place. It was beautiful and serene, as titmice and cedar waxwings flitted and twittered all around, and the autumn reflections of overhanging red maple, yellow birch, black cherry and hemlock danced in gentle ripples upon the surface of the newly-formed pond. On the one hand, I celebrated the creation of this new wetland as a gift of nature — wetlands provide critical habitat for fish, ducks, geese, turtles, amphibians, mink and countless other creatures, while regulating and recharging ground water supplies, reducing erosion, filtering out sediments, detoxifying pollutants and minimizing flooding downstream.

the creativity, ingenuity and adaptability of the beavers themselves, whose architectural and construction skills are nothing short of phenomenal. But on the other hand, I also grieved, knowing that these particular beavers were likely doomed — for their wetland was in the midst of property where their activity would not be tolerated by the landowners and where human concerns over flooding upstream would take precedence. No other mammal has a greater ability to alter its environment than the beaver, except for humans. And rarely will humans tolerate the competition.

It’s not often we get to see the benefits and battles laid out so clearly, thanks Becky. I especially like the next paragraph:

If human tolerance and innovative solutions are embraced, humane remedies can be found. One promising, non-lethal approach is the “beaver deceiver,” or beaver pond flexible leveler, which is a flow device which controls the height of water behind a beaver dam to prevent flooding upstream.

Ho ho! Becky is a professor at the local community college and on the board of a watershed nonprofit, so she is a good friend to have for beavers! We here in Martinez have learned to gather our ‘thousand points of light’ very carefully indeed

Yesterday, the stickers arrived for the art project at the beaver festival so we had to try them out and see if, in fact, this was a cool fun project for kids to do that showed why beavers matter.

You tell me. The top card is the blank one children will receive and the bottom shows it filled up with the stickers they will collect for learning how beavers help other species.