Beavers may be good for the environment
By Samantha Clark, Santa Cruz Sentinel
Californians are crossing their fingers for more rain after three punishing years of drought have left streams, rivers and wetland parched.
One animal has the potential to restore these dry landscapes.
With their industrial buck teeth and flat tails, beavers and their dams offer a defense against drought, a solution to reversing the effects of climate change. The rodents are known as ecosystem engineers. And they once populated most of California (and the Bay Area) until fur traders nearly wiped them out in the 19th century,
“This state has lost more of its wetlands than all other states, and beavers can rebuild those wetlands,” said Rick Lanman of the Institute for Historical Ecology in Los Altos. “Knowing that it is native should help guide restoration efforts.”
Beaver dams bestow benefits to the environment that we humans can’t easily copy. They turn land into a sponge for water. Their gnawing and nesting promotes richer soil and slows down water, improving imperiled fish habitat. Their dams raise water tables, nourishing shrubbery alongside streams that stabilize eroding banks and add habitat for birds and deer. They also help the endangered California Red-legged frog.
Good article. PBS recently had a show that detailed how beavers impact an ecosystem. Fascinating!
The forest service and fish and game have been eradicating them and destroying their dams? it is amazing to see the hypocrisy in both of these agencies! Today it’s bad tomorrow it’s good?? Let’s eradicate all the fisheries and bring back a non native species that will flourish…..oh wait they aren’t flourishing, now no fish in Fallen Leaf? Let’s restore rivers back to their original flow, oh wait that’s not the original flow?? Let’s put a giant pile of dirt at Sunset Stables under the guise of restoration! If I had a pile of dirt like that, I would be fined millions. Hypocrisy every where you turn. CTC and Forest Service do what ever they want and nobody questions, why?? A PHD doesn’t come with common sense! BMP’s, really…..what’s the point when there is a giant pile of dirt less than a 1/2 mile from the watershed. Just common sense
Beavers are good for the environment! Same goes for the bears, coyotes, raccoons, squirrels and all the birds and native fish.
It’s MAN that has made a mess of things! Re-routing rivers, destroying wetlands and century old marshes, clear cutting old forests and polluting what was once a pristine lake with clear streams running into Tahoe and other surrounding streams and lakes in the Sierras.
Yet government agencies ,giving approval, and developers with deep pockets, continue to log, build roads and put in more hotels, housing tracts and shopping centers.
It’s lookin’like we are facing an uphill battle to save what’s left of Old Tahoe. Help if you can!!!
Hmm, my girlfriend saw the PBS documentary on beavers and said it was AWESOME!!! OLS
Yes joby… That sunset project is going to destroy a beautiful ecosystem, fishery and displace tens of thousands of native pearshell mussels. All this and The beaver could do their job for them…
Tahoe Resident, that IS an all-too-common problem here at Tahoe; heck, in El Dorado County, for that matter. Everybody wants to slam the door shut after THEY arrive.
The difference between an evil developer and a good environmentalist?
A developer wants to build a house in the woods.
An environmentalist already HAS a house in the woods.
If you expect actions of agencies (especially the FS it seems) to be logical and scientifically based, you’re dreaming.
If there weren’t all these cock-eyed projects going on (you know, do it one year and undo it the next) our friends at the FS might have trouble justifying their
positions.
What sucks is that the environment, wildlife habitat and scenic beauty all suffer. It might not be so bad if the agencies were actually acting on real science with an ear to public input.
State Parks is breaking up beaver dams too. I don’t know if they are killing the beavers.
If the dams are destroyed the beavers die. FS has left them alone so far this year. In the past I have witnessed them shoot the beavers and destroy their homes. Must have been a hired gun, all dressed in black and no insignias. I wanted to yell at him but I don’t argue with a man with a gun.
He was probably the guy from Wildlife Services. Ironic title for the agency that kills “problem” wildlife like beavers, coyotes and so forth.
Hikerchick when you get a good job, and buy a home and a beaver decides to build a dam that floods your home, you will probably have a different take on beavers. The people around Trout Creek get flooded from beavers. And I know, you and others want them to just loose their life savings and investment in their homes, but probably its more realistic to make sure beavers don’t build dams where they can flood dozens of homes.
Or maybe try not to build a house in a flood plain?
The USFS are here to protect the forests? That’s what I thought as a young man and I wanted to go to work for them. The USFS is here to SELL the trees, not save them. Wildlife agencies are here to protect wildlife. Not!! But with enough money in “donations” or what I call bribes, you can wipe out any habitat and species you want. The TRPA? Same thing, pay them some big bucks and you can build anything anywhere.
It’s too bad so many regulatory agencies and environnmental groups are in existence just to line their pockets and do what they said they were going to do.
Tahoe resident, Yes I bought my first house here 40 yars ago when I was 20 years old. That old home was built in 1949. And after a 30 year mortgage ,I paid it off! I had no control over its construction or the developement of Sierra Tract. I do like to voice my opinion about all the vacation homes and abandoned homes here in So. Shore. Happy Holidays, OLS
Amen to that ols
Moral, please tell me of a house that was ever put in danger from a beaver dam? Trout Creek runs through a ravine. Its not possible. If there were there could be a true concern. I’ve lived here a while dams create great habitat. They claim beavers are non native show me the science to prove that. They once stated Aspens were non native since have retracted that. Building in an SEZ is illegal the few homes that were are either gone or protected. This is not a partisan argument, it is common sense. Allow nature to thrive!
Ok, let’s stop with the “Ebola Scare tactics” folks.
The US Forest Service is part of the Agriculture Department. Get it… the Department of Agriculture. So, if a Tree is deemed agriculture, it is cut down. If a fish is deemed ok for fishing, it is stocked in lakes (as was done decades ago.) If someone complains about beavers creating ponds that are flooding a persons land and they complain about it, they are eradicated (as was done not so long ago behind Lucky/Payless on Trout Creek.)
The timber industry wanted road built to harvest timber on Forest Service land. Miners wanted mineral rights for pennies on Forest Service land. Fisherman wanted fish stocked on Forest Service Land. Ski Resort wanted to clear cut mountains for ski runs in the forests. Ranchers wanted Wolves exterminated in the name of “livestock” protection on public land. Elk hunters wanted Bison exterminated in the name of “elk herd” for hunting on public land. It goes on and on.
Hasn’t anyone else ever had the giardia cyst (aka beaver fever). It can ruin a human life. Dogs get it from drinking out of the river and then take it home to the family. The treatment for it is a poisin.
The beavers are out of control on the Upper Truckee and have denuded the banks in many areas. I cringe when I see a little kid wading in the river. Why is it that humans are not considered in the equation?
@littleone….humans not considered in equations? Really? Seriously?
That being said…I am a experienced backcountry hiker(35+ years) and I have NEVER given myself giardia. I am also smart, careful and… lucky.
I’ve never ‘given myself giardia’ either.
But a little over 30 years ago, I got it because it was in the El Dorado Irrigation District’s water system!! They had (do they still?) open ditches supplying water to areas of Camino and Pollock Pines.
Giardia is NASTY and it takes years for it to really go away.
STPUD abandoned their only surface water supply over 20 years ago because of giardia concerns. They only use well water now.