Beavers are having some good press in the pacific northwest, as they usually do. Check out these cheerful tidings from Oregon, Colorado and British Columbia.
Letter to the Editor: Protect the beavers
For too long Oregon’s lack of beaver management has ignored sound science. Current hunting and trapping guidelines frame beavers as a nuisance species, which ignores overwhelming evidence of their key role in creating and maintaining aquatic ecosystems. Beavers are a keystone species, a species that other wildlife depend on. Humans also need beavers to improve our water quality, provide healthy streams for endangered salmon, mitigate pollution from wildfires and stem the effects of climate change.
In September, conservation groups sent a petition to increase the size of protected public lands throughout Oregon for beavers. This petition, which would amend current hunting and trapping rules, leaves half of the Beaver State open to trapping and hunting, while allowing beavers to thrive on federally-managed public lands where the benefits of their presence would be maximized.
Okay, you got my attention. Making room for beavers is always a good idea.
This petition, if adopted, would require the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to honor its own mission statement regarding indigenous species, and begin monitoring beaver populations so that we can make informed management decisions.
By permanently closing commercial and recreational beaver trapping/hunting on federally-managed public lands and the waters that flow through them, we allow these creatures to provide essential ecosystem services for the 4.2 million residents throughout the Beaver State, in addition to creating and maintaining homes for aquatic life.
— Sristi Kamal, Portland
Nicely done! Sristi is the director of the Oregon branch of Defenders of Wildlife, which apparently believes that beavers belong in every western state but California. No squeak of support for the golden state beavers just yet, but I’m hopeful it will come. In the meantime we can just bask in our neighbors glow.
Here’s some beaver glory from Colorado, passingly discussed in the rejoice about reintroducing wolves.
JIM CRUMLEY: Colorado went to Biden, but it’s also gone back to the gray wolf
IF YOU missed the US election last week, the result in Colorado was as follows: Joe Biden: 1,753,416 (55.3%), Donald Trump: 1,335,253 (42.1%)
So Colorado’s nine electoral events went to Joe Biden. Why mention Colorado? Because if you did miss the US election, you will also have missed the fact that on the same day, the state also voted for the reintroduction of wolves, which, in the pageant of North American history, is arguably more newsworthy than the admittedly entertaining spectacle of Donald Trump getting his comeuppance. Gray wolves on the way back, Trump gone. It’s what you might call a win-win situation.
Ahh, once the predator is gone, the wolves can come back! Of course we know that one of the things they will do is keep the elk away from the water and let the willow grow. And surely you know what happens then,,,
It’s five years since I wrote Nature’s Architect, my book about the reintroduction of beavers, forgive me if I quote myself, because it’s relevant to all of the above:
“Few landowners and farmers think in the long term. Fewer still are willing to acknowledge that nature may know more than they do about land management, about marshalling natural resources…about using wetlands to mitigate against flood and drought, about the wisdom of biodiversity, about the folly of monoculture. Beavers do all that.
I knew I recognized his name from somewhere. His book is sitting on my beaver shelf as I type. We need to make space for very important species that might inconvenience us. Like wolves and beavers.
Even British Columbia understands why beavers matter.
Golden West Bench Recreation Use and Wildlife Habitat Study
Wildsight Golden is working in collaboration with local recreation groups to develop a study that focuses on the intensity of recreational land use and potential cumulative effects on wildlife and their habitat along the west bench of the Columbia River in the Dogtooth Range. The objective is to develop a better understanding of our current recreation “footprint” in this area and help us to avoid compromising the distribution and sustainability of wildlife populations or the integrity of their habitats over the long term.
Continued protection of important wetland habitats along the west bench is also an important element of this work. We need to make sure that recreation trails are designed and used in a way that allows beaver colonies plenty of room to work their magic with wetlands.
Well of course, Let beavers do what beavers do, and send in your biologists to count the successes. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Oh and happy anniversary to the brave Englishman who took a chance on American soil 35 years ago and voted in his first presidential election yesterday. It’s been a wild adventure.
