We are apparently in a strange beaverless news cycle because the only articles that have come my way the past few days are trapper stories not even worth a mention. This of course doesn’t mean there’s nothing to talk about. I spent yesterday working on the fish summary from my beaver talk at SARSAS this month, and thought I’d share some of the slides. I plan on using the lawsuit as a framework for talking about why beavers matter to the good salmon and steelhead lovers at SARSAS. Since they’re in Placer county, (the one with the horrific honor of killing the most beavers in the state), that seems a great place to start, I’m using the summary of reasons why beavers matter to salmon from letter of intent to Wildlife Services, which was very well done.

I was quite struck by the point that beaver dams attenuate flow and mitigate flooding so that the lucky fish can spend less energy swimming against the current and can spend that energy EATING instead. It was Michael Pollock himself who told me that the fatter a salmon is before it swims to the ocean the safer it is. (IE more things will fit in its mouth and there are fewer mouths it will fit into!)

So beaver ponds are better places to eat and also have more to eat in them!

More food mean more juveniles survive. And more babies live to become more adults.

Beaver ponds also contain the most water and the coolest water throughout the summer. And even recharge the ground water so that ponds are sustained through drought events as well.

So, to sum up, beaver dams create more and better behaved water to support salmonids and more food to sustain them while they’re there. I’m using the summary of reasons why beavers matter to salmon from letter of intent to Wildlife Services, which was very well done.Several of the fish that benefit are on the endangered species list, so every time you trap beaver you’re technically breaking the law.

It’s a pretty compelling argument, and I actually can’t decide if I’m surprised Wildlife Services is just laying low hoping it goes away before it hurts them.

Hopefully I can talk the good folks at SARSAS into starting a parallel action in their area. We just want folks to consider the fact that removing a beaver dam has friendly fire casualties associated with it.

UPDATE:

I just had a phone call with Dr. Jimmy Taylor of APHIS in Oregon. He confirms that WS represents only a small portion of the legal take of beavers. Land owners who have concerns can legally kill beavers without a permit. And agencies who want to get rid of beavers can also use private trappers. Wildlife Services is the easiest target, but by no means the biggest. Also they keep records of the method and number taken, and have to report accidental take, while others don’t.

This is mostly a symbolic shot across the bow.

A little over two months ago you might remember reading here that something BIG happened in beaver world. It was in Oregon where two powerful conservation groups declared they were going to sue wildlife services because they were damaging the salmon population by continuing to trap beavers. Remember that? It was a wild move that had never been done before and it was a big, big deal.

Guess what news broke yesterday?

Threat of lawsuit halts efforts to kill beavers in Oregon

PORTLAND — The U.S. government will temporarily halt a little-known beaver killing program in Oregon, where the rodent is the state animal, appears on the state flag and is the mascot of Oregon State University.

Beavers once played an important role in the state’s economy, earning Oregon the nickname “the beaver state.”

Environmental groups have threatened a lawsuit alleging that the practice of killing the animals reduces the number of dams that create deep pools that are ideal habitat for young, endangered coho salmon.

In a letter released Wednesday by a coalition of environmental groups, the government said it will further study whether the actions violate the Endangered Species Act.

Wildlife Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said in the Dec. 27, 2017, letter it would “cease all aquatic mammal damage management activities” directed at beavers, river otters, muskrats and mink.

Wildlife Services killed more than 400 beavers in Oregon in 2016 as part of a federal effort to control damage to agricultural fields, timber land and roadways caused by flooding that resulted from beaver dams.

Whoo hoo? A moratorium on beaver trapping! I’m not exactly sure what this means for all the beavers in Oregon, but you can bet I’m going to find out. (In California it wouldn’t mean a heck of a lot because there are plenty of folks that trap beaver besides Wildlife Services). Our counting usually shows APHIS only counts for a third of all the beavers depredated in the state. I’ve asked if Oregon is different and will let you know the answer. For now be grateful that this puts SQUARELY in the public eye the important relationship between killing beavers and harming salmon.

In fact this news broke yesterday in Houston of all places!

Environmentalists say killing beavers to mitigate damage to private agricultural interests harms the environment — particularly endangered salmon species — because the dams help salmon, another Northwest icon.

Beavers are “nature’s engineers,” and their complex dams form deep pools in bubbling streams that shield young salmon and give them a resting place to fatten up as they migrate to the Pacific Ocean, said Andrew Hawley, a staff attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center.

The dams also have been shown to reduce turbidity in streams and maintain stable water levels — even in drought — by blocking and slowing the flow of water. “Instead of going in and just killing them, there are options for live-trapping them and figuring how to move the family units into other areas. Let them do what they do best,” he said.

“They do exactly the type of restoration work that the biologists say we need to do for salmon and coho and steelhead recovery, and they do it for free — and better than we could ever do.”

If you want to support these litigation beaver warriors, send them a little love here: Western Environmental Law Center and Center for Biological Diversity. You know I don’t break out this award ceremony for just any old news story, but this one deserves it. I have already heard from several lawyers watching this case and thinking about launching their own in their respective states.