Beaver restoration would reduce wildfires
By Ralph Maughan
More effective and less expensive than logging, beaver also provide fish, wildlife and flood control benefits.
After almost every large wildfire or fires that do significant damage to structures, people ask for proactive measures. One idea that is rarely mentioned is to keep the stream bottoms green and raise the humidity. How could this be done? Let’s restore beaver to the creeks of the Western United States. This is much less expensive than cutting out or clearing potential fuels. It also has significant fish and wildlife benefits. We can often add flood control too, plus the recharge of aquifers.
A string of beaver ponds up a drainage is like a permanent fire break. The ponds not only enlarge the area covered with water, more importantly, they increase the portion of the creek or streamside area (the riparian zone) that stays green all summer. They raise the ground water level. Beaver ponds also increase the humidity of air in the drainage. The result is fewer hours in a day when wildfires can burn hot and hard.
Well said, professor Maughan. We reviewed a column of his not too long ago, and I approached our Idaho beaver friend to see if they were acquainted. Not yet – was the answer. Dr. Maughan seems to be a new voice on the beaver stage. Road to Damascus moment? Or movement from active to emeritus professor changed the list of topics he could address? I’m going to guess the latter and keep pestering him with invitations to come to the State of the Beaver conference next year. You know the raging fires in Idaho burned through the famous Sun Valley and BEAVER CREEK right?
Idaho’s general attitude towards beavers is a ‘shoot first ask questions later’ policy. Not unlike the one reflected in this comic strip: Mark Trail by Jack Elrod. His lovely wildlife drawings have captured attention of readers for many years and his plots unfold over days or weeks. I encountered in the Sacramento Bee and my father would call me to make sure I read when an issue featured you-know-whats. In one chapter it followed the adventure of a young dispersing beaver, through danger, past crocodiles, back out of a trap, and into the whiskers of a new mate where they started their homestead. They thought their future was bright until the land owner reacted predictably:
It’s a comic strip remember so there are no hats or perfume are made on the pages. As it happens, a raging fire breaks out near the remote land and several adjacent structures go up in flames. The crew on hand is working valiantly to put out the blaze but it’s hard work with no water lines and a limited supply of pumping stations. Alert readers could guess what followed next.
Beaver ponds save the day again! Maybe Dr. Maughan reads this comic strip too?
Additional fire related benefits of beaver are that their ponds offer remote, dispersed water storage reservoirs that could be used by firefighters during fires. Areas with beaver may serve as refuges for all animals during a fire.
Go read the whole article and tell Dr. Maughan that beavers are a good subject to write about! Idaho has a lot of homework to catch up on, but he’s making a great deal of headway. There are a whole bunch of people in Idaho that are scratching their heads this morning, and that’s definitely a start. (And thanks to B.K. in Georgia who gave me the heads up on this article in the first place or I might have missed it.)
