Two fine articles appeared yesterday in defense of our favorite hero. The first is from the World Wildlife Federation’s Blog post. It has one of my top favorite photos that isn’t ours. The second is from a group called EPIC in Arcata that I hadn’t heard of until last week when Eli Asarian of Riverbend Sciences sent them my way regarding depredation permits. They were considering the impact of beavers on salmon and wondering whether depredation permits took that into account. I don’t know if I was helpful, but I think you’ll agree that something about the article suggests I made a lasting impression of sorts.

Repairing the beaver’s reputation – and our freshwater ecosystems

Engineering for nature comes naturally to beavers. Though they can sometimes pose real challenges for the people who share their space, their dams and the resulting ponds can help restore vegetation, combat climate change, rebuild fish habitat, reduce pollution by capturing sediment, and build resilience against floods and droughts by storing water and slowing the pace of racing streams and rivers. Without beavers at work, most of the biodiversity we associate with wetland habitats – the fish, birds and bugs – would all disappear.

Throughout Alberta, there’s a growing demand to find solutions to human-wildlife conflict. And in the North Saskatchewan Watershed (Alberta), where the threats from habitat loss and fragmentation and pollution are ranked “high” to “very high,” beavers are damn important. With some help from WWF-Canada’s Loblaw Water Fund, the Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society, also known as “Cows and Fish,” is working to repair the beaver’s reputation, and, by doing so, the freshwater ecosystems it calls home.

Cows and Fish is repairing this rodent’s rep, and reducing human-wildlife conflict, by raising awareness about the important role beavers play in riparian health in their “Living with Beavers” workshops, like this one on Dec. 7.

While the beleaguered beaver may never be welcomed as an ecosystem saver, Cows and Fish is offering communities practical solutions for coexistence so that beavers and their dams – along with the core role they play in wetland health – don’t have to be removed.

Hurray for Cows and Fish! For my money they are the most persuasive unsung beaver advocates on the planet. Not appearing in any PBS documentary or publishing a coffee table book but making a real difference by talking to one farmer at a time, over coffee, in meeting, and putting out excellent resources that make sense to the average viewer.

This is one of their drawing from the impressive “Beaver: Our watershed partner” by artist Elizabeth Saunders.

Now onto the story from EPIC, which stands for Environmental Protection Information Center. See if you can spot possibly my subtle influence.

Why Beavers are Worth a Dam!

Beavers are a keystone species, playing a critical role in biodiversity and providing direct benefits to surrounding ecosystems as well as fish, wildlife and people. Dams created by beavers create wetlands that help decrease the effects of damaging floods, recharge drinking water aquifers, protect watersheds from droughts, decrease erosion, stabilize stream banks, remove toxic pollutants from surface and ground water and many threatened and endangered species rely on the wetland habitat c

reated by beavers. They also produce food for fish and other animals, increase

habitat and cold water pools that benefit salmon, repair damaged stream channels and watersheds, preserve open space, and maintain stable stream flows.

Consequently, incised stream channels, altered streamflow regimes, and degraded riparian vegetation limit the potential for beaver re-establishment. For these reasons, preventing further habitat degradation and restoring degraded habitats are key to protecting and restoring beaver populations.

It’s a great article, with excellent science to back it up. It even has links to the FOIA data from Wildlife Services obtained by Executive Director Tom Wheeler which is what I was asked about last week. It ends with a wonderful plea on behalf of beavers.

Beavers Need Help

While the North Coast Region has a beaver deficit, every year hundreds of beavers are killed in California’s Central Valley by Wildlife Services, a federal agency tasked with (lethal) “removal” of “problem” or “nuisance” animals because landowners view them as a pest. The Department of Fish and Wildlife also issues depredation permits for landowners to trap and kill nuisance beavers on their property.

Instead of trapping and killing beavers that are unwanted in other regions, it is imperative that a relocation program is created, so that beavers can be relocated to North Coast rivers and other places to help restore streams and wetlands. Beaver reintroduction is a sustainable cost-effective strategy, but we need to work with stakeholders to navigate the political, regulatory and biological frameworks to safely restore their populations.

Well, I don’t disagree with that sentiment. Our review of depredation permits has never seen one from Humbolt county in three years, which implies they mostly aren’t there. Eli did tell me about a few sites that have beavers along the Klamath, so fingers crossed they’ll flourish eventually. But you know me, I’m never as happy about moving beavers as I am about working to let them stay right where they are.

And about that headline, I’m not saying my brain is the only brain this has ever occurred. And I’m not saying folks don’t get subliminal influences that just stick in their heads but they don’t realize they saw it somewhere else first. I’m just saying the timing is eye-popping. Eli introduced us on 12-08, and I wrote Tom about our depredation permit review that same day and sent this summary graphic. He replied a couple days later, saying it was a great design and that he had been planning to do the same.