Real Trout fishermen are usually good friends of beavers. There are a few stupid ones that blow up dams but if they are worth their salted cod they know that beaver ponds are the best place to fish.
TALKING TROUT: The good, the bad and the beaver
In a recent TU National on-line newsletter there was an article called “Be the Beaver” detailing work that Lizzie Stifel participated in, in Northeast Oregon headwater tributaries, including streams in the North Fork John Day and Grande Ronde river basins. The work was with the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and Trout Unlimited. Lizzie is a TU intern.
The project was to place manmade structures that mimicked or resembled beaver dams
Quoting Lizzie from the article: “In Oregon, our crew forged this connection through a relatively new type of restoration tool: beaver dam analogues (BDAs). Water that backs up behind BDAs recharges the floodplain and increases the wetted width of the stream flow. Essentially, a BDA creates a porous wall of sticks, logs, and leaves that slows the flow of water in one part of the stream and retains much of this flow behind the ‘dam,’ allowing some of this backed-up water to seep into the floodplain. This beaver-like engineering helps promote channel aggradation, or in other words, prevents channels from incising into themselves and away from the natural floodplain.”
Well sure BDAs are popular until their popularity is tested by getting actual beavers. Then how do they fair?
The BDAs that have been and are being built in Oregon and other areas with high altitude, and that are located much farther north than Georgia, have been very beneficial to trout, giving the fish places to live and to feed. Many areas of Oregon suffered from devastating forest fires of recent times. Again, quoting Lizzie, “While many square miles of forests were devastated, after the burn, scientists discovered occasional patches of land that looked untouched in many cases due to beaver dams. Where many streams became troughs of black slush, the waters near beaver dams were clear and still harbored trout.”
Beavers are not always welcome in heavily populated areas and in close proximity to farms. Homes near beavers often lose favorite trees and shrubs. Smaller young trees are often first to go, as well as things from the garden such as green beans, apples, potatoes, lettuce and broccoli. My friend Steve, who lives on the river, complains of beavers every year.
Beavers in locations such as Oregon and northern areas such as Minnesota and Maine can be of great benefit to trout and other salmonids. In Georgia, the beaver ponds on most streams help with flood and sediment control and provide great habitat for all types of sunfish and other warm water fish.
Hmm. That’s confusing. So beavers from one side of the country to the OTHER side can be a great benefit to trout and other salmonids. But in Georgia they only help warm water fish? Is it a latitude thing? Are you saying that in the southern states beavers make the water so warm that trout can’t benefit from them?
I’m putting on my thinking cap and I can’t pull up a single southern study on beavers and trout. Can you? I better ask Ben or Michael Pollock.
