The Beaver Chronicles

Chapter 3

The 2011 field season for the Lands Council Beaver Project is in full swing.  The beaver team started out by setting up vegetation and beaver impact monitoring procedures at sites where we are putting beaver or doing studies.  We also followed up on sites from last year, and confirmed that most of last years relocated beavers are still in place and active!  We are still enhancing methods to measure magnitude and a timeframe to beaver-based watershed restoration.  Our studies will help establish predictability to beaver activity attributed to our relocations and other restoration activities.   A summer intern, Michele Larson, has been helping Joe and Amanda with data collection and habitat monitoring.

Most recently the beaver team has trapped and relocated a family of four (July) and a family of seven (August) "nuisance" beavers to suitable habitat in the Colville National Forest.  The total count including last years beavers is up to 39 beavers in 6 family units!  These were all moved from areas where they are causing property damage to where they can build wetlands and ecosystem services.  In the process we have been taking larger steps toward building relationships and collaborations with state agencies and stakeholders to form a statewide beaver management policy.  With each success we move a little closer.

We have at least two more relocations scheduled for this year, as well as more habitat monitoring. Additionally, we hope to get through the permitting process of installing beaver proofing mechanisms- such as "Beaver Deceivers" and other flow control devices.   So stay tuned for the next chapter, and the second half of our field season!

  Chapter 2

The Lands Council's Beaver Project has made some amazing strides since the last edition of The Beaver Chronicles. After our initial monitoring and equipment purchases in the summer, Team Beaver, including Joe Cannon, Kat Hall, and Amanda Parrish, went to work trapping and relocating nuisance beaver to their new, carefully-chosen environments.

Because beaver mate for life and maintain a strong family unit, a critical part of relocation success lies in trapping the entire family and releasing all members at once. Team Beaver worked tirelessly through weekends and holidays to ensure that entire families of nuisance beaver were trapped in a timely manner. Family members were placed in a temporary holding facility in Amanda's backyard until the entire family was captured, where they had a faux lodge, a freshwater trough, plenty of cottonwood, and some plush granite flooring! Caring for these critters in such close proximity re-defined our definition of cute; these sensitive, social rodents are gentle, playful, and protective of their kin. Talk about family values!

We live-trapped a total of 28 beaver from four separate families in only a month. These beaver went to four different relocation sites outside of Republic, Chewelah, Newport, and Valley, WA. Of these families, two are already maintaining dams and lodges near the release locations while the other two are most likely at work further upstream. In addition to these four relocation sites, Team Beaver has also begun monitoring vegetation and water quality at two sites where beaver colonies are already present but have not begun dam building. With these six sites under our belt, the Beaver Project has surpassed its 2010 goals!

We will continue monitoring all sites to gather data on the ecosystem effects of beaver dams. We've already begun scouting relocation sites for 2011, when we expect to relocate another five nuisance beaver families. Stay tuned to see how the environmental community reacts to our research when Joe and Amanda present at the annual State of the Beaver Conference, held in Canyonville, OR this February…

Chapter 1

Thanks to financial support from the Department of Ecology, SeaWorld, the Anderson-Rogers Foundation, the Kenney Brothers Foundation, Patagonia, Inc. and the Royal Bank of Canada, the Beaver Solution has been making some real progress! Last month, we purchased equipment that will allow us to monitor water quality, water quantity, and vegetation; and now the fun has begun. We've started this monitoring at each of our four sites, located in Mead, Republic, the Colville National Forest, and the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge. The measurements-including water quality parameters like pH and temperature, as well as water volume and existing vegetation-are important to show the conditions at each site prior to beaver re-introduction. We will continue all these measurements following re-introduction to see how beaver have had an effect.

In addition, we've contracted with a local driller to install groundwater monitoring wells, known as "piezometers," at two of our sites. Beaver dams "pool" water behind them, allowing more water to be stored underground; yet few people have been able to quantify that effect. We hope to add a piece to this puzzle by monitoring groundwater levels before and after beaver re-introduction.

Finally, our relocation permits were approved last month by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. This is huge news! Team Beaver is now authorized to live-trap and relocate throughout the state. Stay tuned to hear how we're working with local trappers and other beaver restoration groups to make this happen!