Project Details

The ecosystem services of a functioning stream include; good water quality and stable hydrology, resistance and resilience to wildfires, and a wide corridor of diverse habitats, high value forage, cover and access to water for wildlife. Incised streams are considered degraded and have reduced functionality. They are disconnected from their floodplains resulting in a drop of the water table where they run; consequently the riparian corridor narrows to only the edge of the stream instead of the entire width of the valley bottom. Beaver dam analogs (BDAs) have been successfully used in a number of streams in Utah and throughout the west to begin the restoration process of stream functionality. While BDAs are effective and efficient they require maintenance to have the intended long-term effect. Because of the high number of degraded streams it would require an ever-increasing amount of time and money to maintain previously completed and future BDA projects. We plan to restore these streams to a state in which intervention is no longer needed to maintain functionality.

We have demonstrated, in recent efforts, that reintroducing beavers, after BDAs are installed, is a viable way to restore stream functionality and provide opportunities to reintroduce locally extinct species, such as the Bonneville Cutthroat Trout. This was done without the need to maintain BDAs, allowing us to turn our focus to other areas that need restoration. We are proposing this project to reintroduce beavers to three or more watersheds in central Utah where beavers are not currently found or are low in numbers. UDWR has created a priority list of watersheds for beaver restoration based on regional biologists' knowledge and the BRAT model. We have used this list to select projects for BDA work and plan beaver reintroduction. The streams we have selected have high restoration potential, currently have no beaver populations, are considered degraded but have sufficient water and food to support a beaver population, and have little to no conflict with human infrastructure.
The presence of beavers provides many important ecological functions that provide benefits to humans and many wildlife species, all of which will be increasingly needed in the face of the current drought. Beaver dams and associated activities increase  stream habitat diversity, 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 amphibian species. Smaller fish can utilize the eddies or shallow edges of these pools for escape from predatory fish. Beaver dams also provide places where 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. Mule Deer, especially in the drier portions 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 prepare them for 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 and higher quality forage within expanded riparian corridors. Several WAP species like the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Willow Flycatcher and 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 the 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 reasons 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 watersheds 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 human communities and ecosystems 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 complexes 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 populations decrease and 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 watersheds 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 inexpensive 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, recreationalists, sportsmen, water rights holders). We are doing this by sharing this proposal with sportsmen and land managers. Establishing at least one showcase beaver management area in the central region. 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 appropriate habitat. We will be doing this by augmenting populations that are dwindling. 4. Work to improve riparian habitats, associated streams and wetlands in as many suitable tributaries as feasible through translocating beaver into unoccupied suitable habitat on public and or private land. 5. Facilitate and promote beaver-assisted restoration activities and expansion of existing beaver populations in areas where 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.

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 2024.

Statewide Elk Management 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 Management Plan 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 located where we plan to do the project and beaver dams will greatly benefit them. Objective 2;Strategy e- Improve habitat to draw wild turkey populations away from conflict areas.

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.

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.

The higher moisture content of riparian vegetation and functioning stream floodplains provides a defensible space, or green fire breaks within a watershed. In Hailey, ID it was documented where a fire did not burn the riparian area where there were beaver dams by protecting the riparian area it provided a refuge for wildlife and livestock to escape the fire. It also 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, adjacent to, and downstream of beaver dams, recharging shallow aquifers and retaining more water in the watershed than 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 downstream 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 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 driven to a depth of approximately .5-1 m into the stream bed and banks. 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 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. Beavers will be trapped by UDWR staff or other affiliates, purchased from USU's Aquatic Research Center, or acquired opportunistically. Beavers will be quarantined at USU Aquatic Research Center or the Great Basin Research Center in Ephraim depending on staff and room availability for at least three days before being released.

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.

According to the BRAT, all of these streams can support around 15 dams/km on average. After beaver releases, the number of dams will be documented through dam complex surveys at least once every 4 months for the first year. Surveys will consist of the stream being walked or mapped with a drone and dams will be counted and photographed. We will consider goals reached when the dam density estimate for each stream is reached or dam density stabilizes. Beaver movements, density, and survival will be monitored using wildlife motion sensor cameras, and other low cost methods. Reassessment of the stream's condition will be done to determine if more releases are necessary. UDWR biologists and USFS biologists will inspect streams for potential repatriation of absent fish and amphibian species. Big game species are continually monitored and some deer, elk, and moose may be collared in close proximity to the project and any changes in these movements in relation to this project will be documented.
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 reintroduction (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 necessary on dams and subsequent releases of more beavers until we reach the desired objectives outlined above.

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.

UDWR has partnered with Sageland Collaborative to help with monitoring release sites to collect stream health data. The central region of UDWR completed a priority list of the 25 highest priority watersheds where beavers should be translocated to. 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. All proposed streams in the project are on that list. Once we reach desired objectives we evaluate where the next stream to begin working will be. UDWR will also be partnering with Sageland Collaborative to help with monitoring efforts and construction of BDAs. This project will have benefits for all landowners within the watersheds and cross 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.

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.