Well yes Idaho, we can learn to think of beavers in a new way. And we can solve problems not just relocate them. Truly.

More states are rethinking beaver management to help these furry engineers thrive

More states are exploring new ways to manage beavers. Corday shared a summary of the trends in a presentation to hundreds of beaver enthusiasts at the third BeaverCon conference in Boulder this week.

Having a proactive statewide management plan, she said, can help educate the public about the importance of sustaining beaver populations, outline goals for their recovery and help foster coexistence with communities.

“A statewide plan can lay the foundation for how you do those things,” said Corday.

For example, the plans can lay out processes for relocating beavers from places where they’re causing trouble to areas where they can thrive.

“In some cases, being able to translocate them up into the watershed where they could do so much benefit and have so much less risk of conflict,” she said.

Yet, just a few states have beaver management plans. Utah adopted one in 2017 and, as a result of state legislation, California is drafting one now. Colorado wildlife officials signaled earlier this year that they were beginning internal work on the state’s first beaver management plan, which could be drafted over the next couple of years.

Wow! I truly didn’t imagine the day that I would read about the beaver convention on NPR.  I guess we really aren’t in Kansas anymore, toto.