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.
One of the very smart things our friend Virginia Holsworth in Fairfield has done in an effort to protect the beavers in Laurel creek was to sign up the laurel creek beaver community for the creek “Cleanups”. This means they get city recognition, an official sign, improved community , a great opportunity for education, a better sense of ownership in keeping the beavers home clean, and at the end of it all a cleaner creek.
Research says that urban wildlife increases a sense of Community Cohesion, and this is exactly what should happen. Recently her very talented husband Kyle just drew this for the next clean up. Isn’t it perfect?
6 years ago I was approached by Mike Pinker Americorp Watershed Steward Intern for the city of Gresham (near Portland) and working on a short film about beavers and why to coexist with them. He asked if I would share footage and of course I did. It was so long ago now it is kind of startling to see our beavers in this film, but Gresham has learned some things. I guess the arc of environmental justice really is long. But it bends towards beavers.
A decade ago, the city of Gresham faced off against mother nature with a conundrum on its hands — what do you do when beavers drastically change the water flows around a multi-million dollar facility?
The city, in partnership with other groups, had built the Columbia Slough Regional Water Quality Facility in 2008 to treat stormwater runoff from 965 acres of commercial and industrial land that was flowing untreated into the local waterways. But after it was completed between North Columbia Boulevard and the Columbia Slough, there were concerns about the facility not working as well as advertised.
And then the beavers came.
A family of the critters built an extensive series of dams along the terraces and berms leading up to the facility, changing the flows of the slough and further stressing those whom had heavily invested in the water quality building.
“There were a lot of heated conversations trying to figure out what do with the beavers,” said Katie Holzer, Gresham’s watershed scientist.
Well of course there are always concerns when beavers become neighbors. But there aren’t always smart ecologists on hand to talk about the good things they do. I wish every city had more of them. Just watch this film and imagine if they had worked for Martinez instead.
But then a series of decisions made this community more appealing to beavers. Partnerships between the city, local watershed councils and Metro Regional Government led to the reclaiming of large swaths of land along Johnson Creek. More trees and natural areas were protected, and busy development was kept away from the riparian corridors.
The push to buy the land as part of FEMA’s 100-year floodplain plan led to the happy coincidence of enticing beavers back. Now along Johnson Creek, 20 of the 21 known dams are located on public land.
“Beavers like a large area not affected by lights with wide open spaces to wander,” Wallace said. “The public lands provide an open space that does not provide any interruptions.”
And a changing of the mindset to figure out how to adjust to beavers, rather than trap and kill, led to an explosion within the population.
“We learned that we can work with and coexist with the beavers — it’s more successful than trying to remove them,” Holzer said.
Ya think? When Mike approached me I remember thinking he was in fairyland but he assured me that there were still lots of beaver naysayers. It’s never easy to learn something new. At least they had smart helpers.
Part of that is learning what makes beavers tick, and how to work around their idiosyncrasies. The city hired a beaver consultant, Jakob Shockey, at the start of the new year to come up with solutions. His main task was keeping beavers away from older culverts across the city, as beaver dams were causing flooding and blockage issues.The expert taught the city that hearing the trickling sound emitted by the culverts trigger a response in beavers to build a dam — a natural urge led by the desire to build their structures where two bodies of water meet.
“Now we are trying to get them away from hearing that sound,” Wallace said.
Oh I hate that people are stuck on that old trope. Do you really think deaf beavers don’t build dams? Of course they do. And so do beavers that live in such noisy urban environments that they can’t even hear that trickle. Beavers have lots of ways to be triggered to dam. The feeling of water pulling. The smell of water churning. Beavers might even be able to smell UNDERWATER, and who knows, it might smell different when you have a leak.
Plus there’s there’s that whole innate thing where beavers being rehabbed in someone’s dorm are known to dam the hall with magazines and tennis rackets. That’s not stimulated by the sound of running water,
“We embrace the beavers — our landscaping has always been to go with the flow, so they fit right in,” Zyvatkauskas said. “Each season is something totally different.”
The beavers build their dam in July when the creek gets lower and it becomes difficult for them to swim easily. Zyvatkauskas watches them in the evening and early dawn groom on the bank, drag logs to build the dam, and swim in the creek. At night, she can hear them gnaw on wood to keep their teeth sharp, or chortle amongst themselves.
“You get to see something extraordinary every day,” she said. “They have as much of a right to be here as we do.”
Now that’s more like it, Watching beavers is a great way to get on good terms with them. And for them to grow on you. Ahem.
Beavers are considered a keystone species, which have a large role in maintaining the structure of an ecological community. That has been a focus of Holzer’s studies. She has been amazed at the rate with which bringing beavers back to East Multnomah County has returned local waterways to a more naturalistic manner, undoing the artificial channels that were being created.
“I thought the timescale would be decades, but with beavers, it’s happening in 2-3 years,” she said.
Studies are showing the dams are lowering the temperature of streams, crucial for fish that rely on cool waters to spawn. Near Zyvatkauskas’ home, she has seen deer and coyote cross the dam like a bridge; ducks swim in the new pond; and even river otters using it as a waterslide to play.
“We are seeing native wildlife do well again now that the dams are back in our system,” Holzer said.
Gresham officials are continuing to refine its policies around wildlife. But the lessons taught by the beavers haven’t been lost. The mantra is manage, rather than removal, and Holzer and Wallace are continuing to study local species. Because who knows what the next savior of a multi-million dollar facility will be.
Let’s hope it sticks around. They say when you do something long enough it becomes a habit. Why not make Gresham’s habit of living with beavers something to teach other cities?
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!
One of the very smart things our friend Virginia Holsworth in Fairfield has done in an effort to protect the beavers in Laurel creek was to sign up the laurel creek beaver community for the creek “Cleanups”. This means they get city recognition, an official sign, improved community , a great opportunity for education, a better sense of ownership in keeping the beavers home clean, and at the end of it all a cleaner creek.
A decade ago, the city of Gresham faced off against mother nature with a conundrum on its hands — what do you do when beavers drastically change the water flows around a multi-million dollar facility?
“We embrace the beavers — our landscaping has always been to go with the flow, so they fit right in,” Zyvatkauskas said. “Each season is something totally different.”
