I was prepared for this report to say something begrudgingly nice about beavers but I never expected the final paragraph. Has their been a revolution and I wasn’t notified?
Leave It to Beaver
Beavers have special talents and a never-ending will to dam flowing water. This insatiable desire has tormented the human race for centuries. For the most part, beavers have only done what comes natural to them. It’s man’s desire and actions that has resulted in the ongoing struggle and conflicts between man and beaver.
Granted, beaver activities can interfere with man’s efforts to manage land. For instance, a planted forest or agriculture crop flooded by a newly constructed beaver dam; a manmade pond damaged by beavers undermining the earthen dam; a flooded road resulting from a culvert plugged by beavers, or trees girdled and cut down by beavers for food or materials to repair dam site and home. However, these actions simply result from what a beaver must do to survive.
In the beaver’s defense, its actions are generally beneficial to the environment. Actually, the beaver can be termed a keystone species. Impoundments created by beavers damming a stream evolve into valuable wetlands that provide habitats that support a complex biodiversity of plant and animal life. In addition, the dam site and created wetland trap sediments, excess nutrients, and pollutants (toxic pesticides and other toxins). These are broken down and decomposed through metabolic processes, resulting in much cleaner water flowing downstream. Beaver ponds also minimize runoff from heavy rainfall easing downstream flooding and soil erosion. Not only does the dam site complex slow the forces of water during periods of heavy rainfall, it also retains a reservoir of water that helps maintain a constant downstream flow during periods of drought.
Even that is nicer than what I expect from the state. A great photo and a respectable paragraph and about beaver benefits. I shouldn’t be so surprised, Alabama is the state where the largest fine was ever given for removal of a beaver dam that compromised the famed and endangered watercress darter.
Beaver ponds increase wildlife carrying capacity by providing a valuable water source during long periods of drought. Rich, moist soils associated with these sites produce an abundance of lush nutritious plant species, which are consumed as food or used for cover by many different wildlife species. There is certainly no dispute the wetlands created by beavers result into a valuable life sustaining ecosystem complex from which our environment greatly benefits.
Learning to live with beavers is usually the best way to retain peace of mind and reconcile human and beaver conflicts. Removing beavers entirely from an area is very difficult and, if accomplished, it is a good bet that the unoccupied wetland will be inhabited by other beavers living up or down stream from the site. The total removal of beavers can result in the loss of very beneficial wildlife habitat.
Now that’s some good beaver karma. If only their neighbors in Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee felt the same way! Let’s hope is the start of a southern wave, check this out.
Flooded property or roads may be easily corrected by the installation of a cost effective beaver flooding control device. If it is impossible for you to “leave it to beaver,” call your nearest Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries district office for help.
