Project Details

This project will utilize some construction of man made beaver dams (BDAs) to improve habitat. But its main focus is to begin utilizing actual 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 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 are proposing this project to restore beavers to three watersheds in central Utah where beavers are not currently found or are low in numbers. The UDWR has created a priority list of watersheds for beaver restoration based on on the ground biologist knowledge and the BRAT model. We have selected the three highest priority watershed on the list to begin these restoration efforts based on current habitat quality and low potential human conflict. 
One of the important ecological functions that beavers perform is in construction of their dams they help create diversity of stream habitats. 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. With potential drying of our climate and the increasing demand for water resources from population growth, it is essential that we do this project to maximize our water yields. 
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. 
For all these reason and more this project is essential in our efforts to restore Utah's watersheds.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

1. By not doing this project we will continue to see devastating erosion and down-cutting of streams that will cost more money to repair in the future and possibly cross ecological thresholds. Beavers can fix damaged streams through their dam construction. These watershed are extremely valuable to hundreds of thousands of water users. 
2. We will potentially have larger catastrophic fires in the future that could otherwise be stopped or slowed down by larger riparian zones that beavers create. These fires can have devastating impacts on the ecosystem since they are unnaturally large. The impacts can be almost impossible to repair back to pre-fire conditions and will take decades. 
3.These fires can destroy key fish populations and cross ecological thresholds that will be difficult to return from. From these fires we often lose the opportunity to have quality angling opportunities in these streams for many years. Beavers can capture more sediment and slow runoff which will reduce the damage to these water bodies post fire.  
4. We will not have as healthy fish and amphibian populations that could be attained by the diversity of habitat that beaver ponds provide. Every year that we do not do this project we move further away from desired conditions.
5. We are seeing many frog and toad species begin to disappear from habitat loss and other threats. By doing this project we will help increase available habitat and places where amphibian species can be safe. By allowing these species to decline we risk having to spend millions of more dollars to bring them back and potentially could lose these populations completely. 
6. Beaver dams will help store more water in watershed where humans and animals can utilize it. By not doing this project we will continue to see degradation of many watersheds and by doing it we will be able to repair many damaged watersheds in a very cost effective way. 
7. Also, this may be a very in expensive way to increase our water storage capabilities for human consumption instead of building large reservoirs and dams that have many negative impacts that cross ecological thresholds never to return. A series of several thousand small natural beaver dams could have equivalent water storage as a multi-million dollar reservoir construction project. This will be essential in protecting Utah's water resources moving forward.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

Utah Beaver Management Plan
This project will address the following objectives and strategies of the Utah Beaver Management Plan
1. Increase awareness of and appreciation for the role of beaver in Utah's ecosystem by stakeholders (landowners, educators, recreationsists, sportsmen, water rights holders)
We are doing this by sharing this proposal with sportsman and land managers. Establishing at least one showcase beaver management area in central region (Starvation WMA).
2. Improve understanding of all UDWR and other government agency employees involved in beaver management and assure consistent transmission of information and application of management actions. Once again just by proposing this project and the collaboration involved in accomplishing our objectives we will be fulfilling this objective of the plan. 
3. Maintain reproducing beaver populations within their current distribution in appropsiate habitat. We will be diong this by augmenting populations that are dwindling. 
4. Work to improve riparian habitats associated streams and wetlands in as many suitab;e tributaries as feasible through translocating beaver into unoccupied suitable habitat on public and or private land. 
5. Fascilitate and promote beaver assisted restoration activities and expansion of existing beaver populations in areas that beaver are already present, habitat exists to already support them and human beaver conflict is low and or easily mitigated.

Utah Moose Management Plan
1.  Population Management Goal: Achieve optimum populations of moose in all
suitable habitat within the state.
2. Habitat Management Goal: Assure sufficient habitat is available to sustain
healthy and productive moose populations.
3. Recreation Goal: Provide high-quality opportunities for hunting and viewing of
moose.

Wildlife Action Plan
1. Under the threats, data gaps, and action section of the plan it identifies a list of Essential Conservation Actions.  It states the need to restore and improve degraded wildlife habitats. species and others.
2. The habitat type that this project is located in as identified in the WAP is the aquatic scrub/shrub type, forested aquatics, and riverine. We will be improving the habitat in this key habitat and addressing the threats to this habitat type.
3. The plan identifies sediment transport imbalance as a medium threat to this habitat type and this project will help to reduce sediment transport by stabilizing the banks with vegetation and rocks. 
4.It identifies channel down-cutting as a high threat and this project will help to remove the channels in the stream and make a more subtle gradient. This project will raise the water levels to restore the floodplain and reduce this channel down-cutting. 
5. The plan mentions a management strategy that this project addresses to help improve this habitat type through 1.( restoring more natural water and sediment flow regimes) 
 WAP Ch. 7-1; Mountain Riparian Habitat, criteria and score totals (ch. 7-8) 3rd highest priority statewide.
Ch. 6-15; Western Toad; threat -

Statewide Mule Deer Management Plan

Habitat Objective1:  Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and
enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts
Habitat Objective 2: Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a
minimum of 500,000 acres of crucial range by 2019.

Statewide Elk Managment Plan
1. Increase forage production by annually treating a minimum of 40,000 acres of elk
habitat.
2. Maintain sufficient habitat to support elk herds at population objectives
and reduce competition for forage between elk and livestock.

Statewide Turkey Managment Pan
Objective 
Increase wild turkey habitat, quality and quantity, by 40,000 acres statewide by 2020. This project will help us to increase lots of quality habitat for turkeys since they are are located where we plan to do the project and beaver dams will greatly benefit them.

Treatments lie within Central Region UPCD/UWRI focus areas.

UDWR Strategic Management Plan
Objective R2 Maintain existing wildlife habitat and increase the quality of critical habitats and watersheds throughout the state.
Objective R4 Decrease risks to species and their habitats through integrated implementation of the WAP, 
Objective C6 Increase hunting and fishing opportunities

Uinta Forest Plan - 2003 Land and Resource Management Plan, Uinta National Forest: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detailfull/uwcnf/landmanagement/planning/?cid=stelprdb5076960&width=full
-Plan sites management of riparian areas (pg 2.2), management of aquatic species (pg 2.3), wildlife (pg 2.5), and vegetation (pg 2.5).

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

In Hailey, ID it was documented where a fire did not burn the riparian area where there were beavers dams (See photo under documents). By protecting the riparian area it provided a refuge for wildlife and livestock to escape the fire. As well as it protected the fish and amphibian populations from dying from increased water temperatures. 
Beaver colonies and their dam complexes will spread water and wet areas over a larger area. This will widen the riparian area and serve as a larger fire break. Firefighters can use these riparian areas as green strips and places to help fight fires. These natural green strips will slow fire from spreading and may even stop fires completely.

For post fire recovery and resilience of the ecosystem beavers provide many benefits as well.  Beaver dams will help catch sediment and excess run off post fires that are extremely detrimental to fish populations and infrastructure.

Beavers are also good harvesters of wood. They are cheap forest thinners and will help to remove fuels and keep the forest healthy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

One of the main objectives of this project is to increase water quantity and improve water quality. 
Currently in areas where the stream-bank has been stripped of vegetation due to erosion, resulting in more downcutting, this leads to further erosion and diminished water quality. This project will help to raise the water levels and allow for more vegetation to be growing near the water to stabilize the banks. This will help increase the water quality and quantity in the system.  This project will also slow the flow of water which will decrease the amount of erosion that will occur in big flood events. Slowing the water will also increase the quantity of water that is able to seep into the soil and benefit the system.

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. With potential drying of our climate and the increasing demand for water resources from population growth, it is essential that we do this project to maximize our water yields.

Water enters groundwater upstream, besides, and downstream of beaver dams, which will sub-irrigate into the aquafers and retain more water in the watershed then would be lost if remained on the surface. It will then later re-enter creeks/streams downstream as cooler seeps, which is critically important to cold-water fish, e.g., salmonids. This colder water and subsurface movement will reduce the amount of water loss to evaporation. In addition to increasing water quantity in the watershed and for donwstream users and water rights holders it will improve water quality.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

According to the Beaver Restoration Guidebook (Pollock, M.M., G.M. Lewallen, K. Woodruff, C.E. Jordan and J.M. Castro (Editors) 2017. The Beaver Restoration Guidebook: Working with Beaver to Restore Streams, Wetlands, and Floodplains. Version 2.0. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon. 219 pp. Online at: www.fws.gov/oregonfwo/promo.cfm?id=177175812) it is important to prepare beaver release sites with good habitat prior to release. This will encourage the beavers to stay at the site and protect them from predators. One of the key things that they need is to have a series of at least 3 beaver dams with ponds about 1 meter deep. We will construct these dams in a way that will be as low of an impact as possible. 
Where we do need to use posts and traditional BDA construction techniques we will construct them based on design techniques using the ICRRR beaver restoration principles. The basic construction techniques include the use of sharpened lodgepole fence posts, approximately 3-4" diameter, which will be driven into the ground with a gas-powered hydraulic post pounder. The posts will be driven to a depth of approximately 1 m into the streambed. The posts will extend about 1 m above the channel bed depending on the stream. The posts will be spaced approximately 0.5 - 0.8 m apart. We will then weave willow branches or other tree branches that are available onsite between the posts to create a
structure that will mimic a beaver dam.
The concept is that the dams will last until sediment has built up behind the the dam. Riparian and emergent vegetation begins to grow and the stream channel aggrades and floods. We will place dams about 30 - 100 m apart, depending on factors such as gradient and degree of incision. Where appropriate, postless BDAs will be utilized.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

We will monitor the benefits that beavers and the BDAs have on improving the health of the watershed.  Rapid Stream-Riparian Assessment (RSRA) surveys have been done prior to BDA construction and beaver re-introduction (see attached). The RSRA generates a score for water quality, hydrogeomorphology, fish and aquatic habitat, riparian vegetation, and terrestrial wildlife habitat. This method was selected because it is a time and cost efficient means to monitor restoration projects. 
In addition to this in depth monitoring we will also take multiple photo points and record video of the watershed before the project begins. This will help us to document visually as well as through written data the changes of the ecosystem. 
Visual inspection during post-treatment site visits will be used to determine effectiveness of treatments.  Maintenance will be performed as necessaryon dams and subsequent releases of more beavers until we reach the desired objectives outlined above.  Movements, density, and survival of beavers will be monitored using wildlife motion sensor cameras, dam complex surveys, and other low cost methods. 
UDWR biologists and USFS biologists have already conducted electro shocking fish surveys before and after project to monitor benefits to fish populations. UDWR biologists will also conduct amphibian surveys before and after project. Big game species are continually monitored and some deer, elk, and moose may be collared in close proximity to project and any changes in these movements in relation to this project will be documented.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has partnered with Wild Utah Project to help with monitoring release sites to collect stream health data. The hope is to be able to demonstrate positive results. We also partnered with USFS which is the primary landowner for our release location. The central region UDWR  completed a priority list of the 25 highest priority watersheds where beavers should be trans-located to first within the central region. This list was created by getting input from multiple local aquatics and wildlife biologists within the UDWR of where they thought there was a need to restore beavers. Then we did an analysis based on the BRAT model to rank them based on habitat suitability and potential conflict. Then we all met and discussed which ones on that list needed to be ranked higher or lower based on which ones would have the least amount of potential human conflict and where need is greatest.  
This stream was on that list. Once we reach desired objectives we evaluate where the next stream to begin working will be. 
The UDWR will also be partnering with Wild Utah Project to help with monitoring efforts and construction of BDAs. 
This project will have benefits for all landownership within the watersheds and crosses jurisdictional boundaries to accomplish a landscape scale project.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Future phases of this project will cost significantly less. This first phase costs a little more because of the need to purchase traps and build quarantine facilities. This will be a multi-phased project for at least 10 years. The beauty of this project is that in relation to the benefits gained to the watershed the costs are extremely minor. To get the same benefits by using machinery and man hours that this project will produce would be dramatically higher. 
Depending on what information we gain from our monitoring RSRA data that we are collecting and monitoring of beaver activity we will make adjustments. If needed we will continue to augment beaver populations with beavers over several years until we get a self sustainable population. If there is any unwanted damage or human conflict we will address these issues as they arise. Through the partnerships we have developed we hope to cultivate a new culture as outlined in the beaver management plan that increases human tolerance and ability of agencies and landowners to live with beavers.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.