Damming Loss

Sam Illington is a senior lecturer in science communication at the university of Western Australia and writes a poem every week about some new research reported. Of course today’s is about the dymanic impact beavers have on amphibians. But you guessed that already. Thank you Sam for lending your pen to our favorite hero for a while.

This poem is inspired by recent research, which has found that beavers may help amphibians threatened by climate change.

In this new study, researchers identified 49 sites within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, located in the southern Washington Cascade Range of the northwest United States. By looking at study sites that did and did not contain beaver dams, the researchers found that sites with beaver dams contained almost three times more variety of species than the undammed sites. They also found that certain types of amphibians, particularly those that develop more slowly, such as red-legged frogs and northwestern salamanders, were found almost exclusively in the dammed sites. The results of this study indicate that beavers could play a pivotal role in ecosystem restoration, management, and climate adaption, especially in those regions that are expected to undergo significant drying episodes brought about by climate change.

Well we knew beavers were something to sing about, but it’s nice to see other folks catch on.  Time for some further appreciation of all things beavers, this time from North Star in Colorado where they just installed a trail cam to catch a glimpse of our heroes.

Pitkin County aims to learn more about eager beavers of North Star

While beavers reside on the nature preserve east of Aspen year-round, they have to wait until late fall to build dams. At least two dams spanning the width of the river were constructed in November.

All that effort goes down the drain, so to speak, when spring runoff swells the Roaring Fork and destroys the engineering marvels.

It is a cycle that has been repeated for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Now, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails is launching a research project to learn more about the most industrious residents of North Star.

“We’re here to try to set up a camera and see what happens over the course of the winter,” Liza Mitchell said while hiking through the closed preserve one recent sunny afternoon.

Will someone please explain to me why people like to write about beavers as if their dastardly plot has been “Curses foiled again” every time a dam washes out in the spring? Beavers don’t WANT the dam. They WANT the water. And when the spring comes they don’t need it for a while. Their work of keeping the pond deep enough not to freeze solid is done. Their work of making cover for their house so they have a safe space to bring new lives into the world is done. They did everything they set out to do, correctly.

Sheesh,

The study said the population at North Star appears to have increased in recent years, paralleling the improved health of the riparian ecosystem.

“The current density of beavers appears to be sustainable and beavers are likely improving ecological conditions at North Star,” the study said. “Beaver cutting stimulates vigorous sprouting in willow and beaver and willow can persist indefinitely in a stable equilibrium.”

What a coincidence! I mean you’re creek gets healthy just around the same time that beavers move in and get established. What are the odds! That’s like a pretty big coincidence. Do you think they have some kind of radar that tells them when places get better so they can move in right away? Hey you don’t think maybe they’re CAUSING that improvement do you? I mean backing up water. increasing invertebrates, stimulating plant growth, making homes for frogs and turtles, bringing dinner to all those birds, otters, and mink.

The dams haven’t survived spring since the explosion of stand-up paddle boarding, so there hasn’t been a conflict with river runners encountering an obstacle. The 2020 management plan prohibits removal of beaver dams or lodges. If obstacles survive into summer, the open space program will consider the surrounding terrain and provide information on how to negotiate them.

Meanwhile, the open space program hopes the motion cameras reveal some winter- and spring-time secrets of their flat-tailed friends.

I like the 2o2o plan. Let’s stick to it. Probably there were no paddle boarders last year because the whole place was shut down with Covid, so I’m hoping you’re lucky streak holds for 2021.

I can imagine paddle boarders would greatly resent having to portage;