Remember I told you our friend Leonard Houston just presented at the Oregon Watershed Conference? Well the “beaver panel” consisted of four pretty impressive names, and I thought I’d share one with you this morning. Robert Beschta is an Oregon State Professor Emeritus who spent ten years studying the effects of returning wolves to Yellowstone.
You probably heard something about this, but one of the obvious consequences of reintroducing the predator was fewer elk and more cautious elk. For years without danger elk could roam anywhere in the park, grazing on lush new shoots along the streams and destroying the riparian border. When the wolves came back they discouraged this behavior, and willow was allowed to become dense and bushy again.
Guess who enjoyed that change?
The park went from zero beavers to seven colonies in a pretty short time, which of course meant different water patterns, different birds and different salmonids. Leonard said Robert was pretty exciting to listen too, and I could well imagine that this was worth hearing in person.
We are used to hearing about beavers making habitats for other animals. It’s nice to read about an animal making habitat for them.
