THE GORGE — Since 2018, a small group of individuals from different agencies and organizations have joined together to discuss one particular aquatic rodent: the beaver. Together, they’ve created Wishpush Working Group, an organization that focuses on retaining, restoring and rehoming beavers and the wetlands they create.

Their core steering committee includes Yakama Nation Fisheries, Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group, Underwood Conservation District and Mount Adams Resource Stewards.

“[Wishpush Working Group] grew organically out of some conversations that were being had between these different parties,” said Jeanette Burkhardt, Southern Territories Habitat Project at the Yakama Nation Fisheries. “Beavers benefit from the resources that we are all working to conserve and enhance and protect.”

Isn’t that  just lovely? Well to paraphase a president, ask not what you can do to benefit beavers, ask what beavers will do to benefit you. Your job is to stop killing them and tell your neighbors to do the same. They’ll do the rest.

The geographic scope for Wishpush Working Group is defined as the southern territories of the Yakama Nation in Washington State — the North Bank Tributaries to the middle Columbia River.

Burkhardt noted that the name Wishpush is the English written approximation name for the beaver name in Yakama creation stories; this is to recognize the importance of beavers in the tribal culture of this region and that they are an integral piece of the landscape.

“There’s a growing recognition that they are a keystone species — many other wildlife, plants and species use or require the wetlands that beavers create,” Burkhardt said. “It’s a number upwards of 70% of the species in Washington state use beaver complexes or beaver-created wetlands.”

She explained that beaver dams create wetland ecosystems which offer ideal conditions for vegetation and shrubs to grow. This then attracts various types of wildlife to the area for breeding, protection, and foraging, creating a biologically diverse wetland ecosystem.

The additional benefits of beaver complexes include assisting with absorbing floodwater runoff and water filtration, though Burkhardt also cited Emily Fairfax’s research on how beaver wetlands help create drought and wildland fire resilience patches in a landscape.

There you go, I’m so old I can remeber when Yakima meant a roofrack for my subaru to hold our canoe. But I like the Wishpush working group better,

Wishpush Working Group is working to mimic these beaver-created wetlands in a technique known as low-tech process-based restoration of riverscapes. The goal is to deepen the water and allow riparian plants to grow over time, which would be able to sustain and restore the beaver population. Areas for prioritization are chosen using the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool, which helps identify locations that are likely to, and historically have, been able to support beaver populations.

Yakama Nation Fisheries has selected 11 locations in total for low-tech process based restoration projects, three of which were completed in 2023.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has a pilot beaver relocation program to train individuals how to trap and relocate beavers into portions of watersheds that are out of harm’s way from humans and man-made infrastructure.

All hail Wishpoosh.