BDA’s AND MUSICAL BEAVERS IN WYOMING

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, BDA's August 18, 2025

The only time I’m really impressed by a BDA article is when the author makes it clear that the idea is that building these tiny dams with volunteer labor is only going to work if it convinces furry little flat-tailed labor to take over the job.

Give it up for Wyoming and the Cowboy Daily.

With Beaver Population Dropping In Wyoming, Artificial Dams Rise In The Bighorns

It is thought there are fewer than half the beavers in the Bighorn National Forest now compared to about 15 years ago, and to make up for their work, wildlife officials have built more than 150 artificial dams. It’s not clear why the beaver population is declining.

It is thought there could be fewer than half the beavers in the Bighorn National Forest now compared to about 15 years ago, and to make up for their work, wildlife officials have built more than 150 artificial dams, or “beaver dam analogs.”

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Forest Service have also worked together to reintroduce beavers to the area.

It’s not quite clear why the beaver population has been declining.

Gee I wonder why. Maybe you could stop trapping and shooting them and give them a chance to do their jobs?

The recent decline in the beaver population is troubling, Cundy said.

“The beaver population in the Bighorns has experienced a decline over the past several years,” he said. “There is not a numerical population objective for beavers in the area, but Game and Fish is concerned about the decline and is working with the Bighorn National Forest and other partners to identify causes of the decline, conduct habitat improvement projects and increase the population where possible.”

Officials haven’t pinpointed a cause for the decline, but they have some ideas.

One might be the encroachment of conifers (such as pine trees) into riparian areas – the vegetation-rich habitats along creeks and streams.

“Increased conifers in an area can compete for sunlight, water and nutrients with more desirable riparian vegetation such as willows and aspens,” Cundy said.

Other factors might include long-term drought and grazing and browsing by livestock and wildlife affecting willow and aspen growth, he said.

Sure, It;s the trees and the drought. That’s what’s killing off your beaver population.

If there’s one thing I have no patience for its places that allow beavers to be killed and then try and move other beavers that might have been killed onto the landscape to try and make them do their job. Stop with the musical beavers already.

Deal with the ones you have and allow them to make the changes that can keep your landscape habitable.

BEAVERS SHOW CORN MAZES ARE FOR SISSIES

Quebec Has A Sprawling Water Labyrinth With Over 6 km Of Canals For You To Explore

‘Tis the season to get lost in corn. As summer comes to an end and harvest season approaches, fields across Quebec have been carved up for your enjoyment. Several corn mazes have already popped up across the province. But Éco-Odyssée in Wakefield breaks the mold.

There, you can embark on a journey through a sprawling water labyrinth, wandering between marsh and forest.

The maze is actually inspired by the beaver.

“The concept of the water maze came to” founder and beaver specialist Michel Leclair “from the beavers that he worked alongside for 35 years,” the Éco-Odyssée website explains.

“The beaver, upon settling in a habitat, digs a network of underwater canals that are similar to a labyrinth. This network allows it to move around throughout the entire year in order to find food and wood to build dams.”

This looks entirely delightful. The only sentence that confuses me is “beavers dig a series of Underwater canals“.. Underwater? Were you expecting viaducts instead?

Michel LeClaire has been working with beavers since Reagan was president. Both Mike Callahan and Skip Lisle traveled to Canada once upon a time to learn from him. I do not think every single one of his ideas holds true today but he is page one on the story of human adaptions for coexistence.

His latest invention looks absolutely magical. So very much better than a corn maze.

WYOMING IS LETTING BEAVERS BE BEAVERS (SOMETIMES)

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, BDA's August 18, 2024

I am not always excited about stories where people make BDAS and pat themselves on the back for acting like beavers after killing all the real ones. But this story gets it right. Enjoy!

Beavers do it best. Humans recreate the animal’s engineering to restore a waterway in Sweetwater County

If you’re too busy to listen, here’s my favorite part:

Lush, green vegetation is surrounding the creek. There’s large pools of water. Baby ducks swimming. Fish darting.

“We built a small beaver dam and that was probably a foot or so,” Walrath said as he pointed it out. “Then the beavers have built a four to five foot dam, kind of on top, and now it’s nearly up to grade of where the stream used to be historically.”

Nick Walrath stands in the oasis-like part of the project. This is where they built the first imitation beaver dams and have had success in vegetation growth, stream restoration and beavers moving back in.

That’s the vision: Build the man-made dams. Restore the waterway’s health. Have the beavers take over. It’s a cycle Walrath thinks could play out over the next decade or so.

As long as you promise to let them make whatever changes to your vision they see fit.

STAIRWAY TO BEAVER HEAVEN

heidi08 Beaver Chewing June 8, 2024

These photos were shared by Peter Pappas in Vermont yesterday and then re-posted on the New England Wildlife page. He had this to say about them:

Vermont. Beavers hard at work. Changing water levels encouraged beavers to do their chewing along length of fallen log I believe:

or the

For the record, we’ve talked about it and think he might be right. The differe t heights or “Stairs” might be because of water level changes. We have watched young kits practice chewing by all gnawing on a different part of the trunk at once in the water, bit this seems different.

Let me just take this moment to exclaim how MUCH I love beavers.

MAYBE ‘EPHEMERAL’ JUST MEANS ‘WITHOUT BEAVERS’?

heidi08 BDA's November 20, 2023

Beaver dam analogs tend to be more popular than beaver themselves but I guess that’s okay because after people get the grants and volunteers to install them and they wash out or need repairs and have to be repaired folks start asking “How do we make it last” or “How do we make it look like that” or “Who can we get to make repairs this time?” and there is pretty much only one answer to those questions.

Beaver Dams

Beaver dam analogs–catching on in Idaho. -Landowners and conservation professionals are excited about a new type of woody structure that mimics beaver dams. The benefits are similar – they store water, slow down runoff in streams, and enhance fish and wildlife habitat. They’re called Beaver Dam Analogs or BDA’s for short. Bruneau Rancher Chris Black worked together with a number of conservation professionals to install some BDA’s on his private land on Hurry Up Creek, a tributary of Deep Creek.

“I’ve wanted to get beaver in here for years but it is an ephemeral stream,” Black says. “There’s enough willows to make good food for them and everything, but there isn’t enough water for them to stay.” They’ve put in about 10 structures so far, and more are planned in the future.

Hey I’ve got a crazy idea Mr. Black. Maybe if the stream had beavers in it it wouldn’t BE ephemeral. Did you ever think of that?

“It just benefits a whole host of wildlife species and that’s why Fish and Game is really interested in this,” says Chris Yarbrough, habitat biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “It’s a low-cost way to get a lot of bang for your conservation buck.” The Life on the Range crew visited two very different projects on opposite sides of Idaho to learn why BDAs were installed, how they were built, and what benefits may occur.”

Maybe the word ephemeral itself is just a fancy way of saying “A stream that isn’t maintained by beavers yet.”

Did you ever think of that?

One last thought,

Many sympathies to Mr. Jimmy Carter this morning who slept alone for the first time in 77 years last night. When I think of Rosalynn’s death I remember the Methodist words of John Wesley.

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.