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.

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.

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.

BEAVERS CHANGE THINGS

heidi08 BDA's, Beaver ecological impact November 9, 2023

This was nice to come across. Enjoy!

Between the removal of the dams downriver that will force colonies of bats to be relocated to allow the salmon to return upstream or the creation of fake beaver dams to inspire the little engineers to help improve water quality and fight forest fires, water is a hot topic in the Klamath Basin. Beavers in particular will change the way our water system works and on Monday we have an interview we shot with Gus Wathen who is in charge of the team on the Sun River building man-made beaver dams to help inspire beavers to return the the region and help restore our rivers. Here is that interview!

SONOMA WOULD LIKE BDAs – NOT Bs

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, BDA's October 14, 2023

We received word yesterday from the city of Martinez that we were awarded a grant for our next beaver festival, which is always nice to know. It’s like a legitimacy stamp on our forehead and gives us the courage to march forth another year. This article from Sonoma by Bill Lynch seems to imply their considering beaver wisdom as well.

Musings: Sonoma Valley beaver analogs coming?

I was happy to read in a recent edition of the Index-Tribune that the Sonoma Ecology Center and those concerned with Sonoma Valley’s groundwater sustainability are considering the merit of creating man-made beaver dams on Sonoma Creek as a way to help boost groundwater supplies and other benefits that come from having more water in our creeks.

I first wrote about this idea in May of 2017 after returning from Scott Valley, where the Scott River, a relatively small tributary of the Klamath River, meanders through an area that was once heavily mined for gold and is now mostly devoted to cattle ranching.

Of course you’re aware that having a discussion of the value of BDAs means that you’re quite naturally going to provoke a discussion of the actual BEAVERS themselves right? According to my records Sonoma has killed beavers about 12 times in the past decade and I’m not entirely sure you deserve BDAs until you fully commit yourself to the animals they might encourage.

While we were there for the fishing in the ponds, the property owners told us that they were working with a local organization to restore fishing in the nearby Scott River. They said that the river is slowly being brought back to life thanks to a small, but determined, group of local residents who formed the Scott River Watershed Council (SRWC) in 1992.

The river, which dried up during most summers like Sonoma Valley’s creeks do now, was no longer suitable for trout and salmon fry (nor are our creeks.)

The more I heard about the project, the more I wanted to learn.

Fortunately, Dottie and I were able to meet with Betsy Stapleton, local chairman of the SRWC. She told us that several years ago, the group began constructing “beaver dam analogs,” which are human-made structures that mimic natural beaver dams, store water and create habitat for all kinds of local species, including steelhead trout and Coho salmon. Over time, these natural-looking dams create pools where fish can survive.

I agree Betsy is admirable. She has done years of hard work trying to coaxe her neighbors to see the value of saving water by saving it’s stewards. In fact there’s even a movie about her…

Betsy took us to the river and showed us some of the work her group has done on the creek, including putting in dams. The results are impressive. The beaver analog dams are actually working. There’s lots of water and all that it supports, including fish in places that were once bone dry all summer.

Betsy said that she and the SRWC committee receive a lot of support from local residents, including the ranchers, who see the benefit of having a healthy watershed in their area.

They understand that these man-made virtual beaver dams are able to preserve large areas of fresh, clean water in which Coho and trout fry are surviving. Every season, the fish count goes up.

Just remember that there is just one thing that builds perfect BDAs over and over without grant money or fundraisers. And it has a flat tail.

It seems to me that our local grape growers would feel the same way about Sonoma Valley’s watershed. Fortunately, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Beaver analog dams have already been built in other places like Scott Valley, with measurable success. I hope this idea turns into real action here.