I’ve been frustrated with Utah’s beaver relocation program in the past but this was very close to cheerful. The only missing piece is a discussion of how difficult and expensive relocation is for both humans and beavers and how flow devices can be used to coexist.
PARADISE, Cache County — Agencies from around the country are looking to Utah for a new program designed to help preserve our outdoor spaces, and it all has to do with the beaver.
Beavers have been touted as an efficient and natural climate change mitigator
I’d say that beavers are PROVEN to be excellent at repairing riparian systems that we have damaged and if we work along with them and decide not to keep doing things that harm the environment, the climate will soon began to improve for all.
Great talk by Ecologist Mark Beardsley on process based river restoration on Sarah Koenigsberg’s Vimeo site:
Take a picture of this day and mark it on your calendar: Utah has just realized that even when beavers are relocated at incredible cost and effort NEW beavers can still move in! This must come as a huge shock for some.
ST. GEORGE — Last year, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources relocated several beavers from the popular recreation area known as Grandpa’s Pond to remote places of Utah for wetlands restoration projects.
St. George News made a recent trip to the public park, known for a level half-mile trail that loops a pond filled with birds of multiple species, located five miles southwest of Hurricane. At least two new trees are gone, the stumps showing large teeth marks and several more trees are wrapped in chicken wire fencing after being damaged. It seems the beavers didn’t want to leave.
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Wildlife Program Manager Teresa Griffin confirmed state officials are working with Hurricane City Parks and Recreation staff on a solution for the current problem of beavers at Grandpa’s Pond. Beavers are often trapped and relocated by wildlife officials in Utah. When this happens, the animals receive a small antenna implant for tracking purposes, if they are large enough, Griffin said.
Did I know this? I didn’t know they got transmitter but I suppose it makes sense. I’ve never been wildly comfortable with anything about the beaver relocation program in Utah.
“None of these beavers are ones we have trapped in the past,” she said said of the beavers at Grandpa’s Pond. “We moved most of the beavers up near Bryce Canyon to a remote area near the Sevier River, or another site where they were horse-packed into the Pine Valley wilderness to help repair the damaged watershed after a fire that occurred about four years ago.”
Ohh you mean you got NEW ones even after all that work? It’s almost like all that trouble wasn’t worth it. I mean compared to wrapping trees and installing a flow device which would have allowed the old beavers to stay and keep away those NEW ones.
“Grandpa’s Pond has some complicated issues since it frequently has people and dogs nearby,” she said. “So if we did set a live trap in the area, it would be somewhat dangerous because of the spring-loaded nature of the live traps.”
Yeah we wouldn’t to catch a child or a dog. That might interfere with our whole funding stream.
Thomas Biebighauser, a wildlife biologist and wetland ecologist for Wetland Restoration and Training, completed more than 6,000 wetland restoration projects in many states, including Utah, during his career spanning four decades. From his home in Kentucky, he said that while beavers present problems for many landowners, they are also great for the surrounding habitat.
Many times he was watched as owners buy a secluded property with a stream, then spend both time and money lining the stream with expensive trees. The beavers love this, the property owners are usually “not so happy with the end result.”
“But if you love to fish, beaver ponds are great places for trout to reproduce,” Biebighauser said. “If you love to watch birds, you will see ducks, geese, herons, and many new species you have probably never seen. These ponds also reduce the chances of severe flooding and they restore groundwater by recharging the aquifer. I know many ranchers who have grown to love them once they realize the benefits.”
Thomas! I’m liking you! Let’s have less ‘musical beavers‘ and more letting people like you talk to the crowds. I think it’s a better investment.
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Griffin said property owners can wrap a tree’s base in chicken wire to stop beavers from chomping on them, but if problems persist they can apply for a removal permit. In rare cases, a lethal permit may be issued.
“With the proximity of the Virgin River, it may be an on-going problem,” she said. “It seems wildlife really enjoy the nice parks we intend for humans.”
Both Griffin and Biebighauser said those hoping to see a beaver at Grandpa’s Pond would have the best opportunity at sundown, and walk quietly. Those who get spooked by a loud sound may have lost their chance.
“It will sound like a gunshot — it will be loud,” Biebighauser said. “That is the sound of a beaver’s tail slapping the water to warn others of danger.”
Yes. Exactly like a gun shot. Except nothing dies. Instead things spring to life and reproduce on an unbelievable scale. It’s funny how that happens.
Turns out I am not the only one anymore who has mixed feelings about relocating beavers. It’s a hard slog getting housed and released into some new neighborhood with minimal resources. The survival rate isn’t great, but it’s better than the survival rate of being trapped in a conibear. Most of this article sounds fairly sensitive to a beavers needs, which is better than I’ve come to expect.
A growing number of land managers and ranchers are noting the perks of having a beaver-in-residence, and are inviting the animals to find a home on their property — with the help of the team at the Relocation Center. The group traps nuisance beavers, evaluates them at the facility’s “beaver bunkhouse” and releases them again into the wild, by invitation only.
First-year Wildlife Ecology and Management student Hailey Simko attended a release in the high Uintas of a recently-trapped beaver family — two adults and two kits. She accompanied the team from the beaver bunkhouse on a 3½ hour drive into the backcountry, with the animals carefully bermed by ice and their cages covered in wet towels to keep them cool and to minimize stress.
“It was awesome to see what this kind of interaction with animals was like in the field,” Simko said. “They were treated with a lot of care and attention and released in what seems an ideal location.” “They seemed so calm and at home it was actually a bit anticlimactic to see them swim away after the release,”she said.
Well I think they added that paragraph just for me. Good job. Yes beavers are calm. They take things very much in stride. You know what’s NOT calm? People worried about beavers. Could you maybe pack them in ice blocks? They are way not calm.
The center offers landowners grappling with problem animals an alternative to lethal trapping. At their new home, beavers have the chance to create wetland habitat, increase biodiversity, improve water quality and even store water to minimize the impacts of droughts, floods and wildfire.
“It’s a win-win-win,” said Becky Yeager, volunteer coordinator at the Relocation Center. “We are saving the beavers, keeping their family intact as much as possible, and putting them in an area where they can restore habitat.”
A Beaver swims upstream after being released into the West Fork of the Blacks Fork River in Northern Utah. This Beaver was one of four that were released on Sept. 3 by USU’s Beaver Ecology and Relocation Center. (Photo Credit: USU/Taylor Emerson) Volunteers from USU’s Beaver Ecology and Relocation Center help transport two cages of Beavers to the bank of the West Fork of the Blacks Fork River in Northern Utah. The Beavers were relocated from the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge after they were trapped there by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. (Photo Credit: USU/Taylor Emerson)
As much as possible? What does that mean? We tried for a night to catch everyone but if we left someone behind that’s on you? What is “as much as possible”. Who decides what’s as much as possible? I have a chem test on Monday so that’s all I can do. Is their a manual where I can read what that means? I thought Utah was full of Mormons. I don’t think their religion says people should follow God’s rules as much as possible.
A bit of nice work by the ever impressive Eric Robinson. The whole budget is still in a stage of flux so I assume we’re waiting to learn the fate of the beaver part. Fingers crossed.
