A team led by Ducks Unlimited is currently assessing areas in B.C. where beavers — which were historically over-trapped to make room for engineered dams — could wind up replacing them. (Submitted by Robert Perkins)
Members of a Canadian conservation organization are working on a project to increase biodiversity and healthy wetlands in British Columbia with the help of beavers. Ducks Unlimited Canada is mapping areas in the province where beavers can replace artificial dams once they’ve been decommissioned.
“Beavers are a keystone species,” said Jen Rogers, a master’s student at Simon Fraser University working with Ducks Unlimited Canada. “They’re considered ecosystem engineers.”
“The team is currently assessing areas across the province where beavers were historically over-trapped to make room for engineered dams.”
Many of those artificial structures are now decades old and due to be replaced. The team hopes to restore the beaver population, not only to replace the dams but to provide the added value of restoring biological diversity to the landscape.
Roger Dunlop, a biologist and the manager of lands and natural resources for the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, says bringing the beavers back would have a positive domino effect on other parts of the ecosystem.
He has been monitoring Gold River water levels since the 1950s and is concerned about the increasingly low levels. He blames the change on reforestation.
“We’ve replaced [old-growth forests] with young, rapidly growing super tree plantations that require much more water,” said Dunlop. The water loss has, in turn, caused a decline in freshwater species, and as warmer months approach, the risk of drought increases.
He says that reintroducing beavers can “rehydrate the landscape,” giving it a break from overuse. Beaver ponds help surrounding land absorb water, allowing it to resist droughts and floods.
“If you think about it, forestry in B.C. is really overgrazing, just at a larger scale,” said Dunlop. “The blades of grass are just trees, right?”
Dunlop says his expertise as a biologist informs his work, as does his identity as a member of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation. He says First Nations communities involving themselves in biodiversity work is important.
“They’re exercising their right to take better management control of this particular landscape that’s really been over-harvested,” he said.
Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Painted trees are seen along Rosss Landing on Tuesday. The trees were painted with nontoxic latex paint with sand added to deter beavers from chewing on the trees.
Chattanooga beavers are especially eager this year to acquire building materials for their dams from Ross’s Landing, where the city’s Parks and Outdoors Department is taking unusual measures to manage the damage to the trees along the riverfront.
The parks team recently planted new trees along the riverfront at Ross’s Landing, and team members chose to plant bald cypress trees because beavers usually leave those alone. But the trees repeatedly were being damaged or taken down completely, sometimes within 24 hours of planting, city of Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors Communications and Marketing Director Brian Smith said in an email.
The beavers’ chewing can damage or kill the trees and cause them to fall onto the nearby playground and path, making them a safety hazard, he said.
The parks team tried several methods to deter the beavers from gnawing on the trees. Team members put fences around them, but the beavers climbed the fences and continued to chew. Then they put hot sauce on the trees, which kept the beavers from chewing them, but the sauce washed off in the rain.
Park staff cannot trap and relocate the beavers, because according to state law, beavers must be euthanized if trapped, Smith said.
Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Painted trees are seen along Rosss Landing on Tuesday. The trees were painted with nontoxic latex paint with sand added to deter beavers from chewing on the trees.
The best solution they settled on — which is recommended by the Humane Society of the United States — was to paint the trees using nontoxic interior latex paint diluted with water and mixed with sand, which irritates the beavers’ teeth enough to encourage them to look elsewhere for a snack.
An interview with Suzanne Fouty and Adam Bronstein
Suzanne Fouty has been exploring the issues of water and the return of wolves in the West for over 30 years, the contributions made by beaver to ecosystems for over 25 years, and the synergy between beavers and wolves in restoring stream systems for over 10 years.
Her work on wolves began in 1990 at Yosemite Institute where she gave weekly presentations to students on the pending return of wolves to the West and some of the social questions in play related to livestock grazing and ranching on public lands and wolves.
She worked for the Forest Service in eastern Oregon as a hydrologist and soils specialist for almost 16 years before retiring in 2018. Since retiring she has been deeply involved in five recent efforts to close federally-managed public lands in Oregon to beaver trapping and hunting as a proactive response to climate change and biodiversity loss.
Suzanne was included in the PBS Nature episode “Leave it to Beavers” and featured in the film “The Beaver Believers.” Her writing and presentations have been primarily for the general public to share how beavers and wolves contribute to preparing communities for climate change via stream and wetland restoration, and the social and political obstacles getting in the way of those contributions.
Adam Bronstein is the director for Oregon and Nevada with Western Watersheds Project, a non-profit conservation organization working to protect and restore public lands and wildlife throughout the West. He is the host of Wilderness Podcast and also serves as board president of the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance in Bozeman, Montana, working to protect the remaining wilderness-quality lands of the Custer-Gallatin National Forest.
Topics
History of Beaver trapping and hunting on public lands
The requested executive order to close federally managed lands to beaver hunting and trapping
Drought and flood management with Beavers on the landscape
Below are some posters that you can post on your favorite social media sites to let more people know about the petition and why it’s important to treat us as a partner and not as a product or problem!
Take a look at the whole article. There’s a recent interview with Ducks Unlimited Canada‘s Jen Rogers and Roger Dunlop from the Mowachat/Muchalaht First Nation by CBC’s Gregor Craigie that you can listen to, plus a couple of links to past posts about how dam important and brilliant we beaver folks are!
