Nice to see Estes Park remembering beavers fondly. Wasn’t it just a few years ago that I wrote about them ripping out a beaver dam to put in a bike trail? Now they are fondly wishing they had beavers. My how the memory hole drains.

Bringing Back Beaver

In the time of Enos Mills, and until relatively recently, beaver were abundant in the Estes Valley, Tahosa Valley, and in many parts of North America. Locally, there were beaver dams and lodges at Lily Lake and along Fish Creek. There were also beaver colonies in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), creating and maintaining habitat for many other species. A good example of a thriving beaver colony can be seen from Fish Creek Road, west of the intersection with Rockwood Lane. But now, beaver are rare in this area. What happened? Outside RMNP, trapping, grazing, logging, and human settlement took its toll on beaver populations. Inside RMNP, overgrazing by ungulates like elk, and now moose, eliminated willow habitat beavers depended on and turned the marshes into dry meadow.

Over grazing and over paving you mean. It’s like eating a box of popcorn. There’s always more where that came from and you never think a single piece might be your last. I mean you never stop to think, hey if we damage the lodge of those beavers and drive them away we might not get any more for a decade, and maybe some day we’ll miss them, or our children’s children will miss them…

Beaver are considered a “keystone species” because, without them, the ecosystem would look very different. In RMNP, for example, beaver dams created marshy areas that retained water, served as fire breaks, controlled flooding, allowed for healthy growth of willow stands, and supported many species of animals. Without the beaver, these marshy areas become dry meadows, poorly adapted to changing climate conditions. Think about recent fires threatening the Estes Valley, two of which were stopped near Bear Lake Road as they moved through Moraine Park. Dry meadow lands provide fuel to a fire compared to the marshlands that existed there in the past.

Now, in this time of increasingly common drought and fire, RMNP is working with some success to bring back beaver by fencing in areas where willow once grew – and now grows abundantly once again. The fenced areas, called exclosures, are intended to keep out the elk and moose while allowing regrowth of the willows that provide a food supply for beaver and allow them to repopulate the area.

I’m glad you making sure there’s food available for the beavers you wish would move back. It’s good to want beavers, even if it takes a while to get there. Maybe you should have a conversation with Sherri Tippie about relocating some on your doorstep?

In his time, Enos Mills, who died just over one hundred years ago on September 22, 1922, made an exhaustive study of beaver, not only here, but in many parts of this country and also Canada. Locally, he spent hundreds of hours at Lily Lake, in Moraine Park, and on his own property, near the property now owned by Mary and Sue Childers, which was recently preserved with an amended conservation easement, held by the Estes Valley Land Trust. On the Childers property, he documented beaver behavior, character, social habits, and building methods. He reported spending nights tied to the branches of a spruce tree so he could observe the beaver in their nighttime and seasonal activities. He was clearly so enamored of their industry, intelligence, skill, and teamwork, he would refer to them as “people,” their offspring as “children,” their front paws as “hands.” He published his findings in “In Beaver World,” still available in the Estes Valley Public Library.

Nice to remember the fantastic work of Mr. Mills. It makes this a fine opportunity to share this reading of our favorite beaver experts reading his extraordinarily prescient last chapter.

I have to say, this is probably the very best thing to ever come out of covid.