We are very close to entering a new chapter with beavers. If I had to pinpoint a trigger I would say that the California Beaver Summit made the recent budget proposal possible, and the New Mexico Beaver Summit made the California Beaver Summit possible. We are all standing on the shoulders of giants. New players doing new things with better results. I was thrilled to see this article today.

Town of Taos badgered about beaver dam damage

A bird watcher who frequents the wetland area in Fred Baca Park recorded an atypical sighting on Monday (May 23) when says he spotted a Taos public works crew removing part of a beaver dam on the southern edge of the marsh, dramatically lowering the water level.
“They were just finishing up with a backhoe when I got here around 9 a.m.,” said birder Charlie Woehler, who immediately alerted the Taos bird-watching community. “It’s nesting season, so it’s bad timing.”
Ben Wright, land projects director at the Taos Land Trust, which owns the property adjoining Fred Baca Park to the east, explained what happened.
“It’s a recurring problem because the dam dams up the water, and if the water gets too high debris collects, and the rising water level in theory threatens the [sewer] pipe,” Wright said, adding that beaver will likely fix the dam within a few weeks.
“They’ve done this periodically, and they’re trying to solve a problem, but by removing that dam it’s compromising the habitat for many species, including one that is federally-endangered,” Wright said, adding that he sent a letter to Taos officials on Monday in which he asked them to work collaboratively to identify “coexistent strategies.”

A mayor asking crews to work with coexistence strategies? Wha-a-a-a? That’s a wild idea. I mean it’s almost like he suspects that there might be a better way to do this than hire a backhoe for hours and pull out sticks.

Taos Town Manager Andrew Gonzales did not return messages left this week seeking comment for this story, but during the Taos Council’s Tuesday evening (May 24) meeting, Mayor Pascual Maestas addressed the situation at Fred Baca Park after Councilor Nathanial Evans acknowledged receiving Wright’s letter. Maestas pledged to contact Taos Land Trust regarding the issue, adding, “I will be their beaver mediator.”
Nature’s industrious dam builders, beaver are infamous for causing flooding and interrupting the flow of streams and ditches. But on the Rio Fernando de Taos in Fred Baca Park, and along streams across the country, dams built by the buck-toothed semiaquatic creature also create wetlands, a valuable habitat. The marsh in Fred Baca Park is used by countless species of animals, aquatic creatures and a lot of birds, including the federally-listed southwestern willow flycatcher.
“It’s really important habitat,” said Tom Jackman, another birder who frequents the park. “There’s birds breeding here that were unheard of in Taos county up until recently, particularly Virginia’s rail,” a kind of coot that favors marshy areas. “A buddy of ours discovered Virginia’s rail breeding here four or five years ago. We report all our bird findings through something called eBird, and people came from Albuquerque and all over the state to see it.”
Any mayor who VOLUNTEERS to be a beaver mediator gets the vote in my book! Wowowow! Maybe i’m moving to taos.

Wright said Taos Land Trust hopes to work with the municipality and state wildlife officials on a solution that reduces the beaver-based conflict between important habitat and municipal infrastructure.
“I talked to someone at Game and Fish [Monday] about a system that will allow the water to be stored and released,” Woehler continued. “Its called a pond-leveling system. Beaver are conditioned, when they hear running water, to plug it up. These systems allow water to escape without making any sound, so beaver don’t notice its happening. It’s something that has been implemented and successful.”
Darren Vaughan, with the Information and Education Division of the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish, said the state wildlife department provides technical assistance and guidance for the installation of pond levelers “and other beaver mitigation techniques for both private and public lands.”
“We continue to look for avenues by which we can help mitigate the issues caused by beaver activity, while also keeping them on the landscape to let them provide the positive impacts they have on habitat and wildlife communities,” Vaughan said, adding that pond levelers “work by ‘deceiving’ the beaver into thinking their dam is intact and holding back water, while in reality there is a pipe installed through the dam that allows water to flow and draw the water down to an acceptable level.

Mayors looking for strategies and recommending pond levelers! Am I dreaming? Have I died and woken up in heaven? Are there beavers in heaven?

“I talked to someone at Game and Fish [Monday] about a system that will allow the water to be stored and released,” Woehler continued. “Its called a pond-leveling system. Beaver are conditioned, when they hear running water, to plug it up. These systems allow water to escape without making any sound, so beaver don’t notice its happening. It’s something that has been implemented and successful.”

Darren Vaughan, with the Information and Education Division of the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish, said the state wildlife department provides technical assistance and guidance for the installation of pond levelers “and other beaver mitigation techniques for both private and public lands.”

“We continue to look for avenues by which we can help mitigate the issues caused by beaver activity, while also keeping them on the landscape to let them provide the positive impacts they have on habitat and wildlife communities,” Vaughan said, adding that pond levelers “work by ‘deceiving’ the beaver into thinking their dam is intact and holding back water, while in reality there is a pipe installed through the dam that allows water to flow and draw the water down to an acceptable level.

“Beaver activity and beaver dams are a common source of conflict and damage in many parts of the state,” Vaughan added. “A single beaver dam can hold back acres of water, and if the dams breach or fail — which is not uncommon in New Mexico during high-flow events like spring snow melt or monsoons — all of that water can rush downstream and cause flooding and damage to roads, bridges, buildings, crops. Additionally, water levels may rise behind the dam, causing flooding. Beaver try and dam any moving water, which includes acequias.”

Someone at Fish and Game recommended a pond leveler? You want to hear a funny funny joke? When a handful of Martinez residents called CDFG about these devices they were told to a man “Those things never work”. Isn’t that a funny joke?
We really are in a new world.

Steven Fry, facilitator for the Rio Fernando de Taos Revitalization Collaborative, which includes the Town of Taos, Amigos Bravos, the U.S. Forest Service and the Taos Valley Acequia Association, among other members, said in a statement to the Taos News that the Collaborative “is supportive of beaver restoration and cohabitation in the Rio Fernando Watershed,” adding that “Beaver are indigenous to this area and are a keystone species, meaning their presence positively benefits all other species in the watershed.”
According to Fry, wetlands make up just two percent of the total Taos County landscape, but “80 percent of all species use these areas at some point in their lifecycle.”
Fry said cost-effective beaver mitigation strategies have been employed elsewhere in Taos County to reduce the risk of flooding and allow beaver to remain on the landscape.
“This approach has successfully been demonstrated at the Taos Canyon RV Park, where beaver historically caused flooding that impaired roadways and private property, but is now serving as a demonstration site for how living with beaver can be cost-effective and valuable to our landscapes.”