Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Category: Beavers and water



I’d just like to pause a moment here and point out that this article is not from Washington or my mother. It is from UTAH. The home of many contrasts from Jebediah Smith to Mary Obrien. At the moment I’m thinking the scales are tipping in beavers favor.

Can mimicking beavers help save the Great Salt Lake?

SALT LAKE CITY — About five years ago, Willy Stockman’s home on the bank of Emigration Creek became a wildlife hotspot.

In the summers of 2017 and 2018, elk, coyotes and turkeys started showing up in her backyard where she’d never seen them before. Huge elk herds came down the canyon and started occupying her and her neighbors’ yards.

Though the creatures were a sight to see, it was a symptom of a big problem in the canyon: A severe drought meant upper parts of the canyon had no water, so wildlife were venturing further down-canyon in search of a drink.

“Parts of Emigration Canyon went dry and had never been dry before,” Stockman said. “People were putting out big bins of water, because there was no water. … And it’s all part of the big problem.”

Stockman, along with other residents of Emigration Canyon, formed the Emigration Canyon Sustainability Alliance in 2019 to improve water quality, increase stream flows and protect wildlife through groundwater studies, septic system planning and other actions.

One method the group is exploring to help improve the health of the Emigration Creek watershed involves mimicking another wildland creature — the North American beaver.

Well well well. The chickens come home to roost. Now lets just HOPE that when you immitate beavers well enough to actually GET BEAVERS to take over you don’t kill them when they arrive. Okay?

For many ecosystems, beavers are a keystone species, meaning other animals and plants in the ecosystem couldn’t survive without them. The industrious rodents’ dams create crucial wetland habitat for other species and help raise the water table so plant roots get a steady supply of water.

Beavers have been reintroduced for decades to restore riparian areas adjacent to waterways, improve stream health and create wetland habitat for birds and insects, according to the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. But some of these areas are too degraded or damaged, with steep, eroded stream banks and a lack of vegetation, to support beavers’ livelihoods.

Beaver dam analogs, essentially human-made replicas of natural beaver dams, provide benefits to ecosystems and waterways that the buck-toothed burrowers would add in areas that beavers can no longer inhabit. Humans install wooden posts in the stream channels and then weave willows to fill in the gaps.

Well of course they don’t do it as long or as well as ACTUAL beaver dams but sure, if you can get folks to think they’re a good idea, and then notice how much work they are to maintain, and then agree to subcontract to actual beavers. well then it’s okay. Alls well that ends well.

Completed analogs are designed to kickstart the natural processes of preserving floodplains, restoring wetlands, supporting native vegetation, reducing downstream sedimentation, improving water quality and reducing erosion. Analogs can also improve streams enough to once again make them habitable for real beavers.

In Oregon, one study found that analogs increased the amount of groundwater near streams where they were installed, and that they helped restore riparian areas by stimulating willow growth.

A study in California found that analogs added complexity to streams that had previously been lost. The study also found that the analogs helped connect streams to other waterways through floodplains.

Another Oregon study, commissioned by the U.S. Forest Service, found that analogs improved habitat for fish and other wildlife, and that they can muster the return of real beaver populations on agricultural lands.

An unfunded study in California by Perryman et al found that if biologists like playing in the mud so dam much they should be learning to install actual flow devices to all beavers to stick around and do this work themselves.

The loss of beaver dams in areas where they’ve historically been present are tied to some of the same issues of suburban sprawl and agriculture expansion that affect the Great Salt Lake’s dwindling water level, according to Hafen. Urban areas on the Wasatch Front probably had more beaver dams before they were developed for human habitation. And agriculture often uses land that might otherwise be suitable for beaver habitat, he added.

“I think there are a lot of situations where installing (analogs) or encouraging beavers to build dams could be helpful, ecologically or ideologically,” Hafen said. “But I think you also have to take that on a case-by-case basis, consider what the goals are for restoration, what the restoration needs are and how those things are going to impact the surrounding landscape.”

Even though beaver dam analogs might not directly raise the water level of the Great Salt Lake, Stockman believes they can be one part of the process of improving the health of the lake’s watershed — and helping those elk, coyotes and turkeys avoid her backyard for greener pastures up-canyon.

“Sometimes I’m thinking of Utah as … a dry orange. It’s not as if you don’t have water anymore — you can stick a straw in it, suck it out, put the water in a reservoir. But in order to get a better fruit, you have to take care of a tree, and a tree is a watershed. That’s where our water is coming from,” Stockman said. “I sometimes think that there is too much focus on seeing the water and not realizing that it’s all of it. We need to address the actual health of the watershed. And so the (beaver dam analogs) are one way to do that.”

Well sure. The salt needs beavers as much as everywhere else. We all know that.


The very best thing to do with beavers is to do nothing and let them choose where they want to be. The very second best thing might be this.

Modern-day trappers are using beavers to fight the effects of drought

A partnership between governmental agencies and university researchers has modern-day trappers searching Utah for beavers. But they aren’t after pelts. Instead they’re using the large rodent to lessen the effects of drought. From KZMU in Moab, Justin Higginbottom has more.

Sandbach is one a number of modern-day trappers searching the state for beavers in a partnership between governmental agencies and university researchers. But they aren’t after pelts. Instead, they’re using the semi-aquatic animal to lessen effects of drought in the region.

In Sandbach’s time trapping she’s gotten to know quite a few of the large rodents.

“It’s interesting, they really do have different behaviors. We just released our last one… He was super aggressive like the whole time. He was a big male. He was kind of scary. He would hiss and lunge at us,” says Sandbach.

But the beaver today is calm with her back turned. Sandbach named her Ice Baby after finding her in the cold waters of a high-elevation canyon. Ice Baby had contributed to an impressive complex which the land’s owner thought was getting out of control.

Although Ice Baby now finds herself some 60 miles south of her home waters, she’s actually lucky.

“Before this project, usually the solution would be lethal removal,” says Sandbach.

Now the hope is that Ice Baby will go to work for the state. Prolonged drought is drying up sections of this river and threatening its fish, including three endangered species. Sandbach and others think beavers can help.

It’s a nice story with a fun little audio clip that I can’t figure out to embed. Click on the headline to go listen for yourself.

Although Ice Baby now finds herself some 60 miles south of her home waters, she’s actually lucky.

“Before this project, usually the solution would be lethal removal,” says Sandbach.

Now the hope is that Ice Baby will go to work for the state. Prolonged drought is drying up sections of this river and threatening its fish, including three endangered species. Sandbach and others think beavers can help.

 


Spoiled for choice is a phrase that I don’t often get to use describing beaver news. But this morning, I’m very very spoiled. Maybe its because BeaverCon 2 starts next week. Or BeaverFestival 13 starts in 17. But days. But whatever it is. I LIKE IT.

Check out the article this morning from GRIST.

Your new neighbor flooded your yard. What now?

To protect Jubilee Farm, Haakenson is looking to an unlikely ally: Beavers. Because it turns out, beavers might actually offer some real protection against climate impacts like flooding and wildfires — if people can learn to live with them.

Farmers and beavers don’t often get along. Even Haakenson has had his share of conflicts with the local family of beavers who regularly turn his field into what he calls “Lake Jubilee.”

“The beavers have their goal in life and I have my goal in life,” Haakenson said. “My job is to farm and there is some friction there. But if I were to remove the beavers, more beavers would just come over because it is like a beaver paradise.”

Okay this article is about a farmer in Washington State so I bet you can already guess how it ends.Turns out the thing a farmer wants less of   there is floods. And what can help with that?  I’ll give you a hint. It starts with a “B”.

“It was all without beavers in mind. Without thinking about how they could affect our infrastructure, our roads, our yards, our driveways, our homes, our farms,” said Jen Vanderhoof, a senior ecologist for King County in Washington state. “They weren’t here. And we didn’t have to think about them.

But in the last few decades, beaver populations have started to rebound — only to a fraction of their previous levels, but enough to cause trouble when they flood properties, wash away roads, or chew up trees.

“People are always like, ‘We didn’t used to have beaver problems,’ or ‘We didn’t used to have beavers and never saw beavers here before,’” said Vanderhoof. “But things are changing and they’re not going away at this point.”

“A lot of people get kind of irate about beaver dams, because beavers have one joy in life: and that is stopping water,” said Haakenson. “They probably have other ones. I’m sure they lead rich inner lives. But they really like stopping water from flowing.” 

I believe I said it myself in the urban beaver handout with the title “Recess is over”. You may not have seen beavers in your creek or stream before. But you’re going to keep seeing them now. Better figure out how to live with them.

Now, as rising global temperatures make rainstorms more intense and frequent, Haakenson thinks that beavers’ ability to stop water might be able to actually help his farm. 

To understand how that might work, let’s take a trip to a hypothetical creek. Like a lot of creeks, it’s just a single narrow channel. During winter storms, water rushes downstream. During summer, the creek dries up to a trickle. Climate change is making those floods and droughts even more extreme. 

But here’s what happens if a beaver moves in: The beaver builds a dam, and water starts to back up into a pond. During a flood, a lot of that water can get stored in the pond, and in the soil underneath the pond, where it permeates through the ground and eventually comes out downstream. During summer droughts, when everything on the surface is usually dried up, there’s still water stored in the ground under the beaver pond, creating a lush oasis in an otherwise dry landscape. 

An oasis that can even stand up to wildfire. One recent study looked at five streams that were hit by wildfires, comparing damage in areas with and without beaver dams. In every single case, the stream sections with beaver dams experienced only a third of the fire damage. All this matters, because climate change is contributing to more severe droughts, fires, and flooding, and beavers can help communities with those problems, just by doing what they do. 

Ohh I sure love a beaver article that just ticks through the list of their benefits. It’s like those old movies where the smitten songwriter sits down at the piano and starts singing praise to his beloved standing at the other side of the piano. “Go, on…Please, tell me more.”

“I feel like it’s going to be the thing that eventually the farm will go under because of – flood water,” Haakenson said. “The flooding is getting worse. The beavers might actually be able to help with that.”

One study estimated that on the Snoqualmie River, more beaver dams upstream could help store over 6,000 Olympic swimming pools worth of water. 

On his farm, Haakenson keeps an eye on the dam, trying to keep it from overtaking his field. But beyond that, he pretty much lets the beavers do their thing. 

“There’s kind of two ways to approach nature, and one is to fight it and the other one is to try to figure out how to coexist,” Haakenson said.

As beaver populations return, more people are following that strategy: Using tools like pond levelers or fences to protect the things that matter to them, but also letting beavers be when they’re not hurting anyone.  

Ohh my goodness. This article just keeps getting better and better. I better pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming.

Americans are used to a world without beavers, but that’s changing, whether we like it or not.

Sure, beavers can be frustrating. But if we can learn to get along with these giant aquatic rodents, they might even turn out to be helpful neighbors.

I don’t know. Storing cleaner water. Preventing flooding. Creating biodiversity. Removing Nitrogen. Preventing Fires. Sequesting Carbon. Raising groundwater. Would you really go SO FAR as to call them helpful?

“The Farmer and the Beaver Should be Friends!” I’m working on new lyrics right away!

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Let’s just say this couldn’t happen to a better county, or, as fate would have it, at a better time.
If you don’t hit play on this video you will be very lonely at the water cooler.


Beavers bring relief to drought-stricken California

FOX Weather’s Max Gorden discusses how beavers are making land more resilient to extreme weather in The Golden State.


Now this is what I’m talking about. I like everything about this article except for the huge sight around mentioning its inspiration.

Restoring Riverscapes and Beavers in the West

Lands managed by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are often misunderstood, and their conservation values underestimated. However, as the single largest federal public land manager, BLM has a critical role to play in addressing two inter-related crises—biodiversity collapse and climate change. Key to fighting both challenges is the restoration and protection of freshwater resources. And, now, with the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, BLM has access to new funding it can use to invest in natural infrastructure, restoration, and building climate resilience. (more…)

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