So much of Tom Dickson’s article is wonderful, bitterly surprised by all the good things beavers can do when he was sure they were trouble for the past 50 years. I can imagine him gruffly standing in the stream and shaking his head. The article should be called “We’ll I’ll be dammed”.a;
He is helped in his conversion by beaver stalwart Torrey Ritter. And thank god for Torrey because he’s making the kind of difference in Montana that only a true insider can make.
While building a dam, beavers set in motion a whirlwind of ecological actions. Ducking under alder branches, Ritter shows me where the stream has backed up and spread amoeba-like across the floodplain. The weight of the pond, he explains, presses water into the earth, where microbes filter out heavy metals and other pollutants. The underground water flows downstream in subterranean channels, cooling as it goes, then seeps to the surface, in many cases increasing summer flows and lowering stream temperatures.
These wooded wetlands absorb powerful floodwaters, reducing their destructive force and checking erosion. Snowmelt from sur- rounding mountains is captured, stored, then slowly released during the summer when downstream areas need it most. What some are now calling “Smokey the Beaver” can thwart wildfires by creating lush wet areas that slow or even extinguish flames. “Beaver wetlands also act as a type of Noah’s Ark, where small mammals, frogs, birds, and other animals can escape fire,” Ritter says.
Excellent Torrey! Preaching the beaver gospel to the unconvinced and newly curious! Its an uphill batter but you’re the man for the job, I have faith in you.
The additional water above and below ground benefits ranchers, farmers, and communities in other ways. For instance, just north of the Montana-Alberta border, the city of Lethbridge is using beaver activity to in- crease water supplies during drought. And in Idaho, ranchers like Jay Wilde are partnering with state and federal wildlife biologists to “re-beaver” creeks and hold back more water for livestock. “When you see the results, it’s almost like magic,” Wilde told Beef magazine.
Not surprisinglThis y, all that extra water and vegetation is a boon to fish and wildlife. Species that share beaver-made wetlands include moose, deer, otters, mink, muskrats, great blue herons, cavity nesters like wood- peckers and wood ducks, fishing birds such as ospreys and kingfishers, bats, waterfowl, frogs—even sage-grouse, which lead their chicks in summer to green meadows sur- rounding beaver ponds to find insects..
You really convinced him Torrey. He had to check ALL the references because he totally didn’t;t believe y0u at first, Jay Wilde and Joe Wheaton. He’s still shaking his head even as he types I think;
Fish benefit from increased streamflows and oxygenated upwellings of cold water below beaver dams. Deep beaver ponds, which don’t freeze solid, provide winter refuge. They also trap sediment that other- wise would wash downstream and cover spawning gravel. According to David Schmet- terling, head of FWP’s fisheries research unit, when snowmelt on steep rivers like the North Fork of the Blackfoot gushes downstream each spring, it scours the streambed. “We’re finding that beaver dams there actually pre- vent spawning gravel used by bull trout and westslope cutthroatrout from washing away,” he says.
Okay.. This is where the rubber meets the road, He seems convinced that beaver dams are good for SOME fish in SOME places but not all of them. He’s not to sure about the results of evolution still apply,
Dams can also prevent salmonids from swimming upstream to spawning waters. In Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last holdouts of Arctic grayling in the Lower 48, beaver dams have both silted spawning areas and blocked spring migration.
Yet beavers and salmonids co-evolved for millions of years. Before European set- tlement, the West was awash in beavers and coldwater fish species. Why are the industri- ous rodents considered a threat today?
Historically, if a beaver dam blocked or silted in one spawning tributary, salmonids could still reproduce in countless others. Not anymore. Habitat loss and warming temper- atures have shrunk Montana’s bull trout population to a small percentage of former numbers. Grayling loss is even greater.
Beavers aren’t bad for trout and grayling everywhere, just in certain critical streams. Though FWP fisheries crews still remove some beaver dams, “studies in Montana are showing more and more that the benefits to trout and grayling usually far outweigh the detriments,” Schmetterling says.
Ahh Tom. You were soo close. Never mind. There are only to kind of people in the world, People who know the truth and people who haven’t been convinced YET,
In a West plagued by wildfiresand drought, it makes sense to create more wetland complexes like this one—though not where they give ranchers and fisheries biologists heartburn. Obviously, beavers can’t bring more rain orease summer droughts. But by keeping more water on the landscape and underground, they can help. “They just need a nudge in the right direction,” Ritter says.
NUDGE NUDGE NUDGE. That’s what beavers need. And for the people I’m thinking SHOVE.
