What Can Beavers Do?

The Beaver Solution: Solving our Water Storage Dilemma in Eastern Washington

Eastern Washington needs more options to manage its water due to increasing demands from downstream users and a changing climate.  During spring runoff when water demands are low, water runs downstream providing few benefits.The inability of our streams and rivers to store spring runoff has resulted in reduced flow in the Columbia River when peak water demand occurs in the late summer and fall from farmers, cities, and salmon.

The Washington State Legislature created the Columbia River Initiative to find new water storage options to meet downstream water demands. In 2003, The Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) investigated several locations for new dams on canyon tributaries to the Columbia River. The proposed dams would pump water into the reservoir in the spring and release it in the summer, but could cost up to ten billion dollars and flood thousands of acres of farmland and wildlife habitat.

The Lands Council is seeking to answer these questions by researching a unique alternative – The Beaver Solution – reintroducing beavers to build dams to store spring runoff. While this may sound a little farfetched, the principles are sound. Historically beaver numbered in the millions in Washington, but through trapping beaver were almost wiped out by the late 1800's. Today, it is estimated that there are roughly 50,000 beavers in Washington; a far lower number than the historical levels.

The Lands Council believes that we can find suitable locations for beavers to create natural dams that store spring runoff, eliminating the need for an additional large storage dam in the Columbia River Basin. The water behind beaver dams, including the surrounding ground water, is slowly released naturally to increase flows in the late summer. A grant from the DOE is partially funding our research and we are working with landowners to find locations to reintroduce beavers throughout Eastern Washington. This study will identify physical locations for beaver dams based on the best suitable habitat for beavers, provide estimates of water storage potential, and address the social and economic benefits, including opportunities for water banking and conservation easements.

Photos from top to bottom: (1)dam complex near Bonaparte Lake (2)measuring a beaver dam at Liberty Lake (3)beaver in water - taken by Mark Baker