Each November we see a rash of beaver-flooding articles as cities across the hemisphere (who have waited all summer to respond to a beaver dam) suddenly panic and worry that it will cause damage. (Hey, now who does that remind me of?)

But this November started with one of the best and most complete articles I’ve seen about why to coexist with beaver, which isn’t surprising since it comes from our friends at Cows and Fish and the Miistakis Institute.

  Leave it to beavers

BANFF – Beavers are nature’s engineers but have long been persecuted for the damage they do to human infrastructure.

A multi-year program involving the Miistakis Institute, a research institute specializing in evaluating complex environmental problems, and Cows and Fish Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society, wants humans do a better job living with beavers.

The long-term plan is to help beaver populations recover, but first, researchers hope to convince land owners and managers about the benefits beavers create for watersheds and the ecosystem as a whole in a bid keep them on the landscape instead of killing them.

Goodness gracious I love how that sounds. Don’t you? Honestly if I had to pick one organization to donate all our resources to when I die it might be Cows and Fish. They are consistently at the forefront of beaver management policy and yet somehow they can manage to communicate to pretty rugged folks and not appear overly invested in beavers themselves.

That’s where Miistakis and Cows and Fish come in.

They’ve been engaging and educating landowners on the tools available to help them coexist with beavers, which is Canada’s national emblem. They include pond levelers that regulate water levels to minimize risk of flooding, and culvert protectors, which include exclusion fencing, to create a barrier and prevent beavers from plugging culverts.

Kinas said these are some solutions to some of the challenges that may arise, noting every site is unique and every tool varies in its effectiveness. “Surveys have found that there is support for co-existence with beavers, but things must be addressed,” she said.

See that’s the kind of “let’s see attitude” that connects with ranchers. I would just march in and say that if a flow device didn’t work it’s because it was installed wrong. Which might still very well be true. But wouldn’t get the same kind of results.

Researchers say that recovering beaver populations will help increase and stabilize water storage at a watershed scale, which will help with adaption to climate change.

Beaver structures capture water and slow the movement of water downstream, allowing for groundwater to recharge. Ultimately, this means two to ten times more water in streams with beaver ponds versus those without, researchers say.

“We all know flood and drought are becoming more frequent and more severe. Beavers are not the silver bullet to this problem, but they can certainly help us,” said Kinas.

“Not only do they mitigate for drought, but they mitigate for flood as well.”

Kinas said beavers have been known to decrease stream velocity by 81 per cent. “This is really important because it recharges the aquifer so that when you put in these beaver dams they act as speed bumps so the water actually has a chance to soak back into the ground,” she said.

This is an excellent article by the way and you should go read it all. It talks about beaver families and grizzly bears trying to break into frozen lodges.  Cathy Ellis did an excellent job putting this together. She even mentions the work being done in the Western US!

Other jurisdictions, including several western states in the United States, have been convinced that allowing beavers to do their thing on the landscape has had significant, positive effects on their freshwater supply and watershed health.

A number of western states have also been using beavers to improve water supplies, restore fisheries, adapt to climate change and bring back endangered species that depend on the habitat that beavers create.

“They have a really progressive approach to using beavers,” said Kinas, adding work has helped salmon and trout populations, leopard frogs and trumpeter swans, for example.

Ha! Since we always talk about the good work they’re doing to persuade folks down here it’s funny to have them mention our good stuff to persuade folks up there. Kind of like when you and your best friend both lie to your mothers and say “Stacy’s mom says she can go”.

To encourage beavers to reestablish in areas where they have been extirpated, Miistakis plans to build beaver dam analogues, essentially a fake beaver dam that’s sometimes referred to as beaver mimicry.

These dams constrict water flow, encourage vegetation regrowth, and provide a positive signal to encourage beavers to build there.

“Our goal with this pilot project is to actually put these on streams where beavers once were before they were trapped out of the area,” said Kinas, noting there’s evidence of relic beaver dams. “If you build these, they will come back and maintain them for you.”

Isn’t that just the best article? The great photo was in the national wildlife federation blog, but it certainly applies. I love how its completely unrelated to Ben’s book in anyway. We are fighting this battle on many fronts, and our friends in the frozen north are doing  one heck of a job.