Back when the beavers first came to Martinez I imagined all kinds of happy endings with cheerful cookouts where former adversaries drank a beer with me and smile about a job well done. I dreamed that some day this would all be over and I could stop fighting for beavers because everyone would be on the same side. We’d laugh over how crazy things had gotten, braid each other’s hair and talk like old friends. I even listened to this song over and over again:
But then the city wouldn’t vote to keep the beavers even though Skip’s device was obviously working, and then there was the sheetpile and the court case and the mother beaver became ill and staff pulled up all the trees we had permission to plant and then there was never a time for a victory party. Because there was never a “Victory” per se.
And I realized the beaver battle wasn’t something you won, it was just something you prevented losing if you were very lucky by using Endless Pressure Endlessly applied. Forever. Rinse and repeat.
So yesterday when I attended the zoom lecture of Ben’s new book with secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot I wondered if there’d be any mention of the battle or even a slight allusion to his first book. Did they even read it at CDFW? I used to fantasize about emailing every member a copy.
I mean we all know you can lead a horse to water. But you can’t make it think differently about beavers.
Or can you?
I literally started crying when I realized that the minds at CDFW had actually read and responded to Ben’s masterful book which meant that they were intimately acquainted with the story of the Martinez Beavers which meant that OUR beavers and the wonderful family they raised and the heroic original matriarch we lost were an essential ingredient in the very special recipe that changed California’s mind on beavers.
There is another such exchange about the book DIRECTLY WITH CHUCK BONHAM at the end. More crying. by me. It’s great interview and lots of information about connectivity which is important. You should watch. But I was watching because privately I wondered if they had been affected by Ben’s other book and I was not disappointed.
And at the days end I got a copy of this in the mail which is this issue of Outdoor the official CDFW magazine with a six page article about beavers and how good they are and I realized we had finally hit critical mass in California. There were so many people who knew the right things about beavers it was a different world forever.
Okay. Maybe we’re not in Kansas anymore. But I’m keeping the pressure on just in case.
Hood River, Ore. November 6, 2023 — Sense of Place, will feature Beaver Power: Teaming Up with Nature’s Engineers to Restore Our Watersheds on November, 15th, 2023. This event will be offered in person at the Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River, Oregon, and via livestream.
The Pacific Northwest has long been a region where the coexistence of humans and beavers has shaped both the landscape and humans’ understanding of ecological systems, but the history is complicated. In Oregon, the Beaver State, beavers are considered a predatory species, and wide-scale trapping in the Pacific Northwest nearly extirpated them in the mid-1800s. In modern times, beavers can quickly wreak havoc by downing trees and flooding roads and property. However fresh research is revealing the ways that beavers can offer innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges. From mitigating wildfires and addressing the impacts of climate change, to actively participating in landscape restoration and promoting biodiversity. Margaret Neuman and Jeanette Burkhardt will dig into this history and explore how these industrious creatures are emerging as unexpected partners in a more sustainable future.
So I guess Canyonville isn’t the only part of Oregon that will be buzzing with beaver benefits over the next week or so. Good, It is called the beaver state after all.
As the Executive Director of Mid-Columbia Fisheries, Margaret Neuman has been a key part of growing the organization from a small start-up to an important regional partner in salmon recovery in Central Washington. Under Margaret’s leadership, Mid-Columbia Fisheries has implemented more than 90 salmon habitat restoration projects since 2005. The group also reaches more than 2,000 school students annually with field-based conservation education programs. Margaret has more than 30 years of experience in watershed restoration, including organizational, grant, and program management. Margaret helped found the Wishpush Working Group in 2018 and is excited about the benefits beavers provide in improving watershed conditions for fish, wildlife, and people. Margaret loves being in nature and is grateful to call the Columbia River Gorge home.
Jeanette Burkhardt has been working in Fisheries and Natural Resources in the Columbia Gorge for 20 years, the last 18 as a watershed planner for the Yakama Nation at the intersection of policy, planning, restoration, and education. Since 2018, she has been involved in the Wishpush Working Group, working towards more beaver-ful and resilient watersheds in the Tribe’s Southern Territories. As a self-professed plant nerd and admirer of the natural world, she has a personal and professional passion for letting nature do the work—supporting natural processes as they help us recover our impaired ecosystems and the species that depend on them.
Beaverful. Now that’s a word I like. America the Beaverful.
Event Details:
Sense of Place
When – Wednesday, November 15, 2023. Doors open at 6 p.m., presentation begins at 7 p.m.
Where – Columbia Center for the Arts, 215 Cascade Avenue Hood River, OR 97031, or via live stream
Cost – $12 tickets, information at SenseOfPlaceGorge.org
* Advance purchase is encouraged as presentations often sell out. The event and will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Sense of Place host, Sarah Fox.
Sense of Place is a program of Mt. Adams Institute, a Gorge-based non-profit that seeks to strengthen the connection between people and the natural world through education, service, career development, and research.
Love this story and that underwater shot. We need more of these…
This amazing creation was shared yesterday on the beaver management forum. Apparently it is the “Beaver Bus” that will be touring England soon. I have never been so jealous in all my life.
Apparently it’s a refurbished horse trailer funded in part by the Lower Mill Estate in England. I assume it’s a project of the Beaver Trust but I haven’t yet confirmed that. In the meantime I’ll just share what was said about it:
We recently welcomed @cotswoldlakestrust to the Estate to help them unveil their ‘Beaver Bus’. This converted horse box was created as an education trailer to teach the local community about beavers and a whole host of other animals that choose to call the Cotswolds home.Lower Mill Estate is proud to have contributed to the development of this fantastic educational resource.The beaver bus will be travelling around the Cotswolds at schools and events, so if you are in the area, keep an eye out and see if you can spot it!
How cool is that?
I think we found a new best beaver friend, in Golden BC,about 4 hours north of Spokane. Her name is Annette Lutterman and she’s a self employed PhD and Ecologist who happens to agree with us.
Every year in the Kootenays we witness more extreme wildfires, floods and drought. It turns out that a brilliant little animal that we nearly hunted to extinction could play an important role in protecting our homes and the environment from these extreme weather events.
That’s right — not only are beavers brilliant ecosystem engineers that create habitat for countless other species, they also play a key role in the fight against climate change.
Well sure. we had a whole festival about that. It’s nice that we think alike.
Beavers’ rich wetlands are like sponges; they store water during drought and make ecosystems less vulnerable to extreme weather changes. They also keep surrounding areas wet throughout so they don’t readily burn, and instead act as firebreaks.
Not only do beaver ponds resist wildfire, they also mitigate flooding by controlling and releasing water more gradually. “They slow the water as it comes down the mountainsides,” says ecologist Annette Lutterman, who has spent years researching beavers, particularly around her hometown of Golden.
These dams often work in conjunction with one another. Near Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, one beaver complex has seventeen dams in a row along one stream! Together, they allow raging spring snowmelt to be absorbed into the soil and surroundings rather than causing flooding.
Communities that have suffered extreme flood events over the past few years are concerned about logging in upper parts of the watershed because it also increases flash flooding. Beaver infrastructure helps.
Sponges and superheroes. That’s it exactly. Slow the water down and manage it safely over the long term. That’s their motto.
With only their bare paws (and incisors!), beavers shape freshwater habitat — building wetlands and marshes that are incredibly rich in biodiversity. These beaver-built ecosystems create invaluable habitat for other species including fish, mammals, waterfowl, songbirds, amphibians and insects.
Beavers have incredible foresight, ensuring their ponds have sufficient depth so as not to freeze to the bottom in winter so they can forage underwater for food all winter long. This depth also helps to regulate water temperatures during summer, which benefits other aquatic species, such as salmon, that could overheat in shallower waters.
They are also big on excavating. “They’ll dig canals going out from their pond so that when they forage for food, they can cut down a shrub and float it back to their lodge, rather than dragging it across the land. They prefer to float the food back because it’s easier, and they’re less vulnerable to predation. So they dig these canals, which are really important nursery areas for small fish,” Annette explains.
Hardly anyone makes that point about small canals and fish nurseries. Well done Annette.
Not only is the water table higher in the forests surrounding beaver activity, but the microclimate is more humid — which, in times of chronic drought, leads to healthier forests and ecosystems. Active beaver ponds also sequester an impressive amount of carbon. Each year, beaver wetlands (like our Columbia Wetlands) store about 470,000 tons of carbon globally.
Wow Annette, you are hitting all the points on our bookmark this summer. Nicely done.
Given how instrumental beavers are in protecting our landscapes — and our homes — it’s clear we should be doing our best to keep them around. North America’s beaver population has rebounded since protections were introduced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it’s still estimated to be about 10% of what it was prior to colonization, and human activities continue to threaten beavers’ survival.
One of the single biggest threats to beavers is trapping. ‘Problem’ beavers are regularly killed for impacting human infrastructure. When beavers’ handiwork floods a road or property, a permit will often be issued to dispose of the animal and destroy its habitat. If they compromise industry (by burrowing into the rail-bed within the wetlands or threatening a piece of road, for example) CP or the Ministry of Transport will hire a trapper to get rid of them.
Annette has tried to inquire as to how many permits are given out annually to kill beavers, but the government has refused to provide any information. Beavers are frequently trapped or killed illegally without permits as well, sometimes just to use the castoreum (castor sacks), or their meat as bait for hunting.
Hydroelectric dams pose another significant threat. Young beavers stay with their parents for about two years before venturing out to find habitat of their own, usually a few kilometres away. They’ll settle on what they think is a normal water body and try to establish a new lodge. But when water levels change quickly – from water being let out of a dam or building up inside it – the young beavers are wiped out.
Well I’m not that worried about hydro dams. Beavers are pretty darn good at floating. Even newborns. But this last section is straight from my heart!
How can we help beavers help us?
Practices can and should be in place to mitigate beaver conflict. Research has shown that relocation can be effective when done properly. There are also ‘beaver deceivers’ (aka pond levellers) which only allow beaver ponds to reach a certain depth, preventing flooding upstream. These contraptions trick beavers into thinking that no water is exiting their pond, simply because the flow is silent. They were developed based on an experiment done years ago to better understand where beaver’s instinctual desire to block water comes from. Scientists recorded the sound of running water on a cassette tape, played it on dry land near the stream overnight, and came back to find that the beavers had packed mud and sticks on top of it.
Much is left to be done to protect beavers and their ecosystems here in BC. “We’ve got all kinds of mountain bike trails and new roads and infrastructure that’s being built, and we have to figure out how we can adapt to that so beavers can come back,” Annette says.
As communities, we can anticipate locations where human-beaver conflicts may arise and pre-emptively install levellers that both meet beavers’ needs and mitigate flood risk.
If you happen to hear of a beaver conflict, inform people about positive alternatives to trapping or dam destruction. Suggest pond levellers or point them in the direction of helpful resources. Most importantly, share your knowledge: tell your friends and family how invaluable beavers are, and explain how they help preserve landscapes and homes. Now more than ever, it is time we stopped working against beavers — and started working with them.
12th Martinez Beaver Festival 2019. Photo by Cheryl Reynolds 6/29/19.
