Montana Beaver Working Group
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Connecting people and sharing resources to advance the beaver's keystone role
in watershed health
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A January thaw gives beavers a chance to emerge through ice holes and glean some fresh cuttings, as seen in the feeding area on the lower right of this photo. They're probably a welcome treat compared to soggy roots or cached wood, but there's no telling how long the chance for such choice fare will last. Photo: Rob Rich
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In 2017, the Montana Beaver Working Group shared a formative workshop, with a field trip on the property of the late conservationist Paul Roos, in the Upper Blackfoot River Valley. This experience not only sparked shared learning about beaver mimicry, but it also served as a catalyst for statewide beaver restoration planning. Photo: Alec Underwood
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The Montana Beaver Working Group's Keystone Role
Over a decade ago, the Montana Beaver Working Group was born. It grew out of the Montana Wetland Council, when members realized the beaver’s benefits were distinct and vital enough to deserve their own focus. The primary goal was to create and execute a statewide plan for beaver management and restoration, and that motive continues to drive the group today. As a network of stakeholders keen to learn and make improvements, working groups have long precedent in the conservation community. But just as beavers offer outsized advantages to the biodiversity of the habitats they shape as a keystone species, beavers attract wide-ranging human participants who care about those impacts. From its earliest days, the Montana Beaver Working Group has grown, not only in numbers of people involved, but also in the number of places that people live and work around the state, and beyond.
This newsletter currently connects nearly 300 people, representing a broad and diverse readership interested in the efforts of the Montana Beaver Working Group. Some of these people work for nationwide nonprofits with beaver in their names. Some don't work for beaver-themed nonprofits, but do work at broad scales, like Trout Unlimited, The Wilderness Society, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund. Others work for watershed groups across the state, streaming in from the likes of the Big Hole or the Clark Fork, the Gallatin or the Bitterroot. There are those representing land trusts and colleges, and there are self-employed consultants and writers, trappers and ranchers, hunters and anglers. There are those in public service to all Montanans, devising solutions in the alphabet of state agencies, including the DNRC, DEQ, MTNHP, and FWP. There are those who work for the USA, in the USGS, BLM, USFWS....and the USFS, serving on national forests ranging from the Lolo, Flathead, Kootenai, Helena-Lewis & Clark, Custer-Gallatin, Beaverhead-Deer Lodge, to the Caribou-Targhee. And there are those from other sovereign nations: the Blackfeet, the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, the Okanagan.
The point of this abridged litany is this: YOU are the Montana Beaver Working group, one among many in a diverse cast of characters devoted to restoring the beaver's keystone role in watershed health. Your work, knowledge, experience, and curiosity enrich this group, and you demonstrate how the beaver brings all kinds of people, places, and organizations together. Together, Montana Beaver Working Group members have convened and committed to a bold action plan, with statewide goals, nuanced strategies, and continued updates. Together, you have read these newsletters, and many of you have responded with stories, events, and resources to inform and inspire others (not only others in this group, but other groups, like the emergent Colorado Beaver Working Group). We continue to welcome your presence and contributions, and we can't wait to see this effort diversify, grow, and achieve new things together in 2022.
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Ranching with Beaver
Zoom
6pm MST, February 15, 2022
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Dung beetles, birds, grasshoppers, and....beavers! The World Wildlife Fund’s Sustainable Ranching Initiative team has been hosting a Ranching with Wildlife Winter Webinar Series, and beavers will be the focus in their fourth event. Restoration ecologist Amy Chadwick, active throughout Montana on low-tech restoration and beaver conflict resolution, will be the featured speaker on February 15. You can learn more and register here.
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Beaver Con 2022
Building Climate Resilience: A Nature-Based Approach
Hunt Valley, MD
June 14-16, 2022 (NEW DATES!)
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Registration is open for the second, Maryland-based BeaverCON event, which builds off the successful State of the Beaver Conference hosted in Oregon in alternating years. BeaverCON 2022 will feature a presentation on Montana's work to restore beavers and resolve conflicts, as well as panel discussions, demonstrations, and networking opportunities with the beaver community. Conference hosts have changed the dates and are taking precautions for COVID-19 safety. Learn more here.
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Beavers Offer Lessons About Managing Water in a Changing Climate, Whether the Challenge is Drought or Floods
Christine E. Hatch, The Conversation
January 20, 2022
If you seek clear, compelling insights from scholars and practitioners who are directly engaged with the research they describe, The Conversation is meant for you. This inspiring outlet has offered strong coverage of water issues for years, and a new article shows how beavers can help moderate extremes on either end of the hydrology spectrum. With thoughtfully linked sources, images, and a compelling overview video, this article will ensure that you are in the know.
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This simple yet compelling diagram is from the new study showcasing the powerful legacy effects of the beaver's ecosystem engineering on the landscape. The caption notes this is a: "Visual representation of general beaver-created surface water patterns through time in low-gradient systems. During recolonization (a), beavers selectively build dams in areas that result in larger ponds that store more surface water. As beavers expand on the landscape (b), they progressively create smaller ponds as availability of larger sites declines. At this stage, beavers also often build dams within large ponds (top pond, b), creating multiple, smaller ponds in the process. Although beavers may abandon ponds, dams at abandoned sites nonetheless often store surface water (middle pond, b). Once beaver populations have stabilized (c), density-dependent mechanisms and patterns in pond site availability and decay/recovery drive beavers to build still smaller ponds through time. The steady accumulation of ponds generates a mosaic of patches at various stages of ecological succession, ultimately resulting in a steady increase in the total number of ponds storing surface water and an increase in the proportion of beaver-created surface water that is stored within abandoned ponds."
Image: Johnson-Bice, SM et al. 2021. Relics of beavers past: time and population density drive scale-dependent patterns of ecosystem engineering. Ecography.
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Beavers Support Freshwater Conservation and Ecosytem Stability
University of Minnesota - Duluth
January 4, 2022
"If we only had more data" is a common quip among ecologists seeking to connect observations across space and time. But, thanks to decades of repeated aerial photography, and the stunning wetland observations we can make from above, we actually have tons of data to explore the beaver's landscape-scale impacts. In a recent study from the University of Minnesota - Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute, scientists have evaluated how beaver population recovery influenced surface water dynamics in relation to population density over 70 years across multiple spatial scales (pond, watershed and regional) in northern Minnesota.
With this unprecedented dataset, across a region that is rife with diverse beaver impacts, the researchers have been able to demonstrate the beavers' vital contributions to ecosystem resilience and stability. Drawing on nearly 800 digitized photos over the seven decades of inquiry, they could not only detect the positive impacts of the beavers' expanding surface water storage network, but also the powerful role of abandoned ponds. The resulting mosaic of dynamic habitat holds significant promise to increase surface water storage and promote freshwater conservation efforts in forested ecosystems. For more insights from this landmark study, check out the research brief from the University of Minnesota - Duluth, and the actual publication from Ecography.
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Nonlethal Strategies for Addressing Beaver Conflicts
Recorded Zoom Webinar
December 9, 2021 at 9:30-11:00am MST
Webinar recording link: here
Presenters:
Torrey Ritter – Nongame Wildlife Biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Region 2
Elissa Chott – Beaver Conflict Resolution Specialist with the Clark Fork Coalition in Missoula (partner in the Montana Beaver Conflict Resolution Program with National Wildlife Federation and Defenders of Wildlife)
Overview: Beavers are incredible engineers whose impacts shape entire ecosystems. However, those engineering capabilities can also lead to major conflicts with human infrastructure. In this webinar, Torrey and Elissa highlight how nonlethal beaver conflict resolution can be more efficient and cost-effective than repeatedly trapping beavers out of conflict hotspots. Their presentation not only explores particular tools and techniques (including costs, labor, and other logistics), but it also demonstrates why these nonlethal solutions are directly tied to the effort to restore beavers to areas of their historic range for the ecosystem services they provide. The presentation had a great turnout, and the recording features a robust, engaging Q&A discussion among presenters and the audience.
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TNC-WY recently held a workshop on beaver dam analogues, and they have continued to empower other practitioners with this low-tech, process-based restoration tool. The top photo, courtesy of the Sheridan Community Land Trust, highlights some smiles, hard work, and immediate water storage benefits at one such event. The bottom photo, courtesy of TNC-WY's own Carrie Peters, showcases a nearly completed BDA at the Heart Mountain Ranch Preserve near Cody. |
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Building Like Beavers: Restoring Wyoming Streams
The Nature Conservancy - Wyoming
December 9, 2021
Low-tech process-based restoration doesn't stop at state lines, and The Nature Conservancy has been an exemplary partner for beavers in Montana and Wyoming. On the Red Canyon Ranch near Lander, The Nature Conservancy - Wyoming (TNC-WY) has been especially active, installing dozens of beaver dam analogues on land devoted to biological diversity, open space, and conservation-based cattle grazing. Red Canyon Ranch draws on Utah State University's BEHAVE program research in livestock foraging patterns to improve ecosystem health, but now this preserve can also demonstrate improvements to water quality and quantity with BDAs. Fortunately, beavers are already busy at the TNC-WY's Tensleep Preserve, but positive outcomes at Red Canyon Ranch have inspired additional BDA work where beavers are lacking at other TNC-WY preserves, as well as public and private lands with partners around the state. Check out this new video to learn more!
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Colorado Beaver Summit
Recorded Presentations
October 20-21, 2021
Diverse partners supported Colorado Headwaters' hosting of the inaugural Colorado Beaver Summit in late October 2021. It was an impressive virtual event drawing a wide array of participants and presenters, and it certainly affirmed the vital role of beavers in restoring resilient watersheds in the American West. You can learn more and find recorded presentations, reports, and other resources from the event here.
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Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes Training
Utah State University Restoration Consortium
Ongoing
For those looking to grow their LTPBR skills before the 2022 field season, don't forget the four-day, five-module virtual workshop from summer 2020 is now available for free. Thanks to generous support from the National Resources Conservation Service's Working Lands for Wildlife Program, and a grant to Pheasants Forever, all five modules, associated presentations/lectures, learning exercises, and more are all easily accessible, for free. If you're interested in learning more about low-tech, process-based restoration of riverscapes at your own pace, check out this robust, engaging collection of learning tools here.
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Please send photos, stories, upcoming events, and other resources to:
Rob Rich, National Wildlife Federation
MT Beaver Working Group newsletters are posted online and can be found here.
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