Completion Form

2022

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has acknowledged the importance of having beavers across the landscape in order to maintain the health of our ecosystems and our watersheds. ,  We continued to release beavers to our Indian Creek beaver restoration area this year. We relocated an additional 11 beavers this year to Indian Creek. Including the 17 that we relocated last year, we have now released 28 beavers into that watershed. By the end of June 2022, there were still 4-5 active beaver complexes that we could identify. There may be many more that we have not been able to locate. The complexes have also increased in size since last year and are re-shaping the floodplain. We are seeing many young cottonwood and aspen shoots popping up near the dams where larger trees had been cut by the beavers and where the water table has now risen, because of the beaver dams.  We purchased additional trapping and handling materials to help with the capture and relocation of beavers. We also paid USU for their help in trapping and keeping beavers in quarantine. We had difficulty getting approval for new release sites, but spent a lot of time trying to identify new sites that our wildlife section felt would not have nuisance issues in the future. We have identified a half dozen new sites and we are continuing to work to make sure that there will be no issues with releasing beavers to these sites.

This project used actual live beavers as a restoration tool in a strategic way to improve watershed health. By targeting certain watersheds where the potential human conflicts are minimal and where beaver populations do not currently exist or are low in number we can have dramatic positive impacts on watersheds.
Beavers historically numbered between 60-400 million in North America and inhabited every single water body that had vegetation growing nearby. Historical distribution in Utah would have likewise been in every single water body all across Utah.  Though historic numbers ranged in the hundreds of millions, beavers were nearly completely extirpated from much of North America by the 1900's.  Around this time, efforts began to protect the species, and the reintroduction of beavers to places they were trapped out from began. Much of these efforts have been successful and population numbers today range between 6 to 12 million. Despite this success, however, many areas are devoid of beavers in Utah where they historically occurred. Because we now know how critical beavers are to maintaining the health of our watersheds and fish and wildlife populations we did this project to restore beavers to a watershed that has had erosion damage and loss of aquatic species. 
One of the important ecological functions that beavers perform is in the construction of their dams they help create a diversity of stream habitat types. For example, the dams help to slow water down and build deep ponds that would otherwise just be small creeks or fast flowing rivers. This slower moving water provides rest areas and refuge for fish so they are not constantly battling fast flows. They also create little eddies and side channels that increase the amount of habitat for fish and amphibians species. Smaller fish can utilize the eddies or shallow edges of these pools for escape from predatory fish. Beaver dams also provides places where fish and amphibians can breed and lay eggs. This is especially important for toads and frogs that need shallow slow moving water to lay their eggs in and where tadpoles can develop. The diversity of habitat will also provide more vegetation and food for fish and amphibians, which will allow fish to get larger and more prized by anglers. The increase of wetland habitat will provide more habitat for small mammals, and birds that nest and forage in willows, aspens, and wetland vegetation. Sage-grouse have also been shown to benefit greatly from the wet meadow habitats that are created which provide more food for their chicks. Moose will particularly benefit from beavers, as they love to wade and forage in their ponds. As climate change, parasites, and disease threaten the health of Utah's moose populations, the need to restore beavers is all the more critical to bolster their body conditions. Mule Deer, especially in the more dry locations of the State, will benefit greatly from the restoration of beavers, as they will be able to find water longer into the summer and have better quality summer range to protect them against harsh winters. These desert or remote deer herds are becoming increasingly valuable as deer herds near urban sprawl are suffering from the loss of habitat. Beaver dams are a better alternative to guzzlers since they are natural, cheap, and self-maintaining.  Elk will also benefit from beavers, as they require lots of water in the summer and will have more vegetation to increase size. Several WAP species like the little brown myotis bat will benefit from beavers. Bats are benefited by creating a diversity of water habitats where it is easier for bats to eat insects and drink water from a larger surface area. Also, it should increase the amount of insects for bats to eat. Livestock similar to wild ungulates will have more water and vegetation to forage on and this project will support our local agronomy and economy.   
Beaver dams can have huge improvements to water quality and quantity by slowing down otherwise high flows in spring, which will allow water to flow longer into the summer and reduce the amount of erosion and down cutting. This can be especially beneficial for streams that do not flow year round. By slowing the flows and recharging ground water aquifers, ephemeral streams can actually flow year long and extend the amount of connective stream habitat for fish and wildlife. When water is slowed down it also allows sediment to drop out of the stream flows and settle which will improve water quality for downstream users. Sediment build up behind dams can also repair incised or down-cut streams and restore historic floodplains.  The restoration of these floodplains will deposit soil and provide water to create mesic meadows.  It will also reduce the amount of sediment that will enter and clog water facilities, pipes, irrigation systems, and fill up reservoirs. 
Beavers can also help other threats we face from wildfire by naturally thinning forest tree stands, creating larger riparian areas to serve as green strips, and catching sediment in post fire runoff.

Robert Edgel

08/10/2022 09:18:16