BirdWord: Beaver dams help birds’ habitats
SHASTA COUNTY, California – Special to the Record Searchlight Last October found the Sacramento River dropping lower and lower. The slough along Redding’s Cascade Park dropped to ankle-deep water. The ducks were gone. But wait, despite low Keswick Dam releases, residents along the slough noticed the water level begin to rise.
Puzzled, they followed the slough down to Cascade Park and discovered an amazing beaver dam more than 50 feet in length and 3 feet high, constructed of tree limbs and branches, twigs, grass and mud. Its height gradually increased to 4 or 5 feet. The dam survived December’s downpours and, even after our dry January, continues to hold water in a pond that extends over a quarter mile. The pond is well appreciated. Birds, like all creatures, need the right habitat. The Cascade beaver pond is creating a winter home for mallards, wigeons and other dabbling ducks. The dabblers are those who tilt bottoms-up to browse for pondweed, snails and underwater insects.
Along the pool’s edge, an egret patrols in its sharp-eyed hunt for fish, frogs,or just about any animal it can gulp down its long white neck. A steel-blue kingfisher rattles over the pond, taking advantage of the still water to spot its prey. Even a Barrow’s goldeneye, a diving duck typically found in the deeper river, has found a place to rest in the quiet pond.
This article is very good, but that picture is an all-time favorite. It says the message better than words ever could. Yes, beaver dams save water, and yes birds and fish and frogs rely on the water they save, and yes, sometimes people are smart enough to co-exist with beavers by using long-term solutions instead of just trapping.
Shasta county is closer to getting the message than most.
Of course saving water isn’t the only way beavers help birds. Zack & Rosen found that beaver chewing of trees created a natural coppicing of those trees that made more dense and bushy habitat creating ideal conditions for the nesting of migratory and songbirds. Their research showed that as the number of beavers go up, the numbers of birds go up too.
Despite this vital relationship, would you believe that beavers are routinely trapped out because they are said to be a threat to birds? Hmm…people will lie about anything to get there way I guess. Once I heard that beavers were killed at a Contra Costa reservoir to protect the “red-legged frogs”.
No. Seriously.
And while we’re listing off the things beavers are good for, we have to talk about salmon and trout. They’re in a class of fish called salmonids, and the Salmonid Restoration Federation Conference is next week. I will be presenting on beavers at the urban stream workshop on wednesday and this is my very last weekend to get everything ready. I can’t believe it’s already here. It feels like I just got back from Oregon. Go Beavers! The workshop is sold out apparently. I’m at the end of the day after Trout Unlimited and before Lake Tahoe.
