We are apparently in a strange beaverless news cycle because the only articles that have come my way the past few days are trapper stories not even worth a mention. This of course doesn’t mean there’s nothing to talk about. I spent yesterday working on the fish summary from my beaver talk at SARSAS this month, and thought I’d share some of the slides.
I plan on using the lawsuit as a framework for talking about why beavers matter to the good salmon and steelhead lovers at SARSAS. Since they’re in Placer county, (the one with the horrific honor of killing the most beavers in the state), that seems a great place to start, I’m using the summary of reasons why beavers matter to salmon from letter of intent to Wildlife Services, which was very well done.
I was quite struck by the point that beaver dams attenuate flow and mitigate flooding so that the lucky fish can spend less energy swimming against the current and can spend that energy EATING instead. It was Michael Pollock himself who told me that the fatter a salmon is before it swims to the ocean the safer it is. (IE more things will fit in its mouth and there are fewer mouths it will fit into!)
So beaver ponds are better places to eat and also have more to eat in them!
More food mean more juveniles survive. And more babies live to become more adults.
Beaver ponds also contain the most water and the coolest water throughout the summer. And even recharge the ground water so that ponds are sustained through drought events as well.
So, to sum up, beaver dams create more and better behaved water to support salmonids and more food to sustain them while they’re there. I’m using the summary of reasons why beavers matter to salmon from letter of intent to Wildlife Services, which was very well done.Several of the fish that benefit are on the endangered species list, so every time you trap beaver you’re technically breaking the law.
It’s a pretty compelling argument, and I actually can’t decide if I’m surprised Wildlife Services is just laying low hoping it goes away before it hurts them.
Hopefully I can talk the good folks at SARSAS into starting a parallel action in their area. We just want folks to consider the fact that removing a beaver dam has friendly fire casualties associated with it.
