Project Details

Utah's semi-arid and arid landscapes are reliant upon healthy, functioning streams and riparian zones. Changes in land and water uses, coupled with the removal of the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) from the landscape during the intensive fur-bearer trapping period of the 19th century, have increased stream vulnerability to degradation. Beavers are uniquely both keystone species and ecosystem engineers, significantly influencing the physical appearance and species composition of a landscape .  To gain access to food and dam building resources, beavers  construct dams, ponds, and canals. This builds thriving robust riparian habitat that improves watershed health and resilience  (UDWR 2017a). The felling of trees for use as forage or dam building material also contributes coarse woody debris into a stream network, creating habitat for aquatic invertebrates and nesting waterfowl while also increasing stream complexity. The impacts of drought on wildlife are buffered in areas where beaver are present and active. Beavers inadvertently expand riparian habitat for fish and wildlife species by increasing surface water, distributing sediment, and participating in rotational grazing of woody plants. Beaver dams are used extensively by large game mammals, such as elk (Cervus canadensis), moose (Aces aces), and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), for cooling, foraging, and predator avoidance. Healthy riparian areas created from beaver dams also increase the survivability of mule deer and elk as these high value forage areas provide higher protein content of forage, and thus a higher percent body fat, as they go into the food scarce winter season. 
Impoundments also create diverse environmental features that provide open water and nesting habitat for waterfowl and waterbirds, as in the sandhill crane. For example, beavers create thriving cottonwood riparian habitat for the Rio Grande subspecies of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo intermedia). The riparian corridors supported and expanded upon by beavers support the presence of monarchs (Danaus plexippus), with the western population of the species often migrating through riparian corridors and breeding within riparian zones in the western United States. This is particularly significant with the recent (December 2024) proposed listing of the species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.An active beaver colony introduces complexity to a stream which provides a variety of different habitat types (e.g., deep water, multiple channels, off channel pools) for many species of aquatic wildlife, including all the subspecies of cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii). The deep water refugia from beaver dams benefit popular river sport fish, including Bonneville cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii utah) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), by providing areas of cooler water, sections of stream often resistant to freezing in the winter, and increased rates of invertebrate prey availability. The the increase in open water and the benefit to invertebrates received from beavers activity directly relates to increased resources for bats such as little brown myotis and other species.
As fish and wildlife in northern Utah face increasing threats from high severity and frequent fires with climate change, increased drought conditions, habitat degradation and loss, and augmented anthropomorphic pressure, the high-nutrient and water-rich riparian habitat that beavers create are critical to the survival of wildlife in this region. Overall, the benefits from the presence of beaver on the landscape abates the threats to key species of greatest conservation need, as identified in the Utah Wildlife Action Plan (WAP), and high interest game and fish species.
Humans also benefit from having beavers on the landscape, particularly in an arid state such as Utah. Beaver dams raise groundwater elevations and increase surface and subsurface water storage, contributing to channel complexity and water residency, thus potentially increasing flow permanence in channels subject to seasonal drying. 
In support of the UDWR's 2015-2025 Utah Beaver Management Plan initiative to increase beavers on the landscape through relocation efforts, Utah State University (USU) established the Beaver Ecology and Relocation Collaborative (BERC) in 2019. BERC is one of the few beaver relocation facilities in the nation, spearheading the practice of beaver relocation. BERC partners with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), the United States Forest Service (USFS), private landowners, Sageland Collaborative, and other numerous organizations (the Team) to relocate beavers in northern Utah and throughout the state for the purpose of stream restoration. We facilitate the process of nonlethally trapping beaver and then conducting a soft release methodology in which trapped beavers are quarantined at BERC's Beaver Bunkhouse holding facility for a minimum of 3 days to reduce parasite and disease transmission at the relocation site. After the quarantine period, the Team relocates beavers to a new location for the purpose of stream restoration efforts and to decrease human-wildlife conflicts.
The positive hydrological and ecological impacts of beavers on streams has propelled the idea of using beavers in riverscape restoration. Beaver-based restoration (BBR) is an increasingly used method to restore water networks with the presence of beavers through beaver translocation efforts. BBR supports the idea of the beaver's natural ability to create complex and dynamic stream habitats..
The Team's relocation efforts are conducted on a widespread scale, with numerous partners and volunteers assisting in the effort. Since its conception, the Team has facilitated the relocation of approximately 368 beavers with the annual number of beaver relocations increasing from 2019 to 2023. Beaver relocation requires resource intensive husbandry practices including medication, labor, food supply, and daily health and welfare checks.  Funds from the Watershed Restoration Initiative (WRI) are vital to support basic facility operations, increase the ability of the Team to conduct trapping and relocation efforts (i.e., the purchase of live traps, fund live trapping), provide for the potential of monitoring and assessment of relocation sites, and expand our facility's outreach and education efforts.
In the past, we did not have the financial means to conduct systematic monitoring of the relocated beavers. BERC recently received a private grant to begin a monitoring and assessment initiative of the relocation sites to assess rates of beaver residency and stream restoration occurring post-relocation. 
In 2024, BERC had a lower than average quantity of beavers through the facility with 44 beavers total, down from average of approximately 64 beavers. The decline in beavers is due to a decline in live trappers bringing beavers to the facility and a decreased quantity of calls from the public requesting nonlethal removal of nuisance beavers. At the same time, requests for more beavers to be released to aid in habitat restoration projects has been growing to a point that there is currently a waiting list for beaver relocation. Expanded outreach and education efforts would increase the request for live trapping nuisance beavers and provide more beavers to be released to aid in habitat restoration projects.  
Also, in the past few years there has been a growing request by the public to mitigate problem beavers "in place" with the use of damage mitigation devices and practices.  In 2024, we brought in a leader in the field of 'Living with Beaver' solutions to put on a well-attended workshop.  Moving forward, we would like to expand the program's 'Living with Beavers' coexistence program and have materials and expertise available to assist landowners with knowledge and infrastructure to mitigate the need for removal of beaver colonies.  If funded, we would like to train more people in Utah in these mitigation practices.

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.

With the augmenting human population in northern Utah expanding into riparian habitat, coupled with extreme stream degradation, active and responsible beaver management in the region is critical. The UDWR frequently receives calls from the general public for help with nuisance beavers. This project provides an alternative to lethal trapping that helps landowners deal with beaver conflicts, while also providing UDWR and USFS a source of beavers for use in stream/riparian restoration across northern Utah. Please see the attached map displaying past relocated beaver sites, conducted with our partners, to help conceptualize the scope of our project location. We work in or adjacent to conservation areas such as the Bud Phelps Wildlife Management Area (WMA), Birdseye WMA, Lake Fork WMA, Millville/Providence WMA, USFS Utah Shared Stewardship Priority Areas and USFS Utah 2020 Forest Action Plan Priority Areas.
The use of beavers in restoration is an increasingly popular stream restoration tool. This project provides the tools that project partners, like Sageland Collaborative and the UDWR, need to conduct their restoration efforts. The time to restore the streams and riparian areas of northern Utah is now, and our project aims to be one of the many partners working to contribute to this conservation movement. Not conducting this project could result in crossing a threshold of ecological function wherein future restoration would become much more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible. Funds for this project will benefit both people and wildlife in northern Utah by protecting and enhancing the quality of watersheds via BBR. Relocation site selection is guided by the use of remotely sensed data such as the BRAT tool which helps us narrow down sites that are ready for release. Additionally, sites were chosen using input from local UDWR and USFS biologists targeting specific species to benefit from the reestablishment of beavers in the area. For example, releasing beavers in unoccupied area of the north slope of the Uintas will create more pond and riparian habitat directly benefiting moose in the area that rely on expansive willow stands for food and cover. We also often get requests from private landowners that wish to restore streams on their property.

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.
Outreach and Education: Increase awareness of and appreciation for the role of beaver in Utah's ecosystem by stakeholders (landowners, educators, recreationalists, sportsmen, water rights holders). To accomplish this objective, this project will include conducting surveys with landowners and trappers our facility has historically worked with to assess their experience, sentiment, and knowledge of beaver relocation. Additionally, BERC is conducting 'Living with Beaver' coexistence workshops and providing educational materials for distribution to our partners and the public to increase beaver appreciation in the state.
Outreach and Education: Improve understanding of all UDWR and other government agency employees involved in beaver management and ensure consistent transmission of information and application of management actions. The collaboration involved in accomplishing this project's objectives with our partners, such as USFS, UDWR, and Sageland Collaborative, will be fulfilling this objective of the plan (see Partner subsection). This project will also establish guidelines for effective relocation and relocation monitoring to bring consistency to the UDWR beaver management protocol.
Population Management: Maintain reproducing beaver populations within their current distribution in appropriate habitat. By relocating beavers throughout northern Utah, this project will be augmenting populations that are dwindling as well as increasing genetic variation in these populations. 
Harvest Management: Maintain recreational opportunity for a minimum of 350 trappers and a sustainable harvest of 3,500 beavers annually. This project will relocate beavers throughout northern Utah increasing harvesting opportunities.
Watershed Restoration: 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. This project will be directly contributing to stream restoration efforts through the use of BBR's relocation methodology on both public and private lands.
Watershed Restoration: 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. With partner collaboration, this project will work on sites that require stream restoration and suitable beaver habitat to facilitate an effective relocation.
Damage Management: Increase consistency in the response options (lethal and nonlethal) currently in use and increase the frequency of use of non-traditional options (e.g., beaver deceivers, live-trapping) used by UDWR, governmental and non-governmental agencies, and landowners for managing beaver causing property damage. This project is providing the training and resources to coexist with beavers, particularly beavers relocated by our facility.
Utah Moose Statewide Management Plan
This project will address the following objectives and strategies of the Utah Moose Statewide Management Plan.
Population Management Goal: Achieve optimum populations of moose in all suitable habitat within the state. This project will contribute to more suitable moose habitat through increased foraging capacity as high nutrient riparian areas will expand due to beaver presence, thus augmenting moose populations in the state.
Habitat Management Goal: Ensure sufficient habitat is available to sustain healthy and productive moose populations. This project will contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the quantity and quality of moose habitat to allow herds to reach population objectives.
Recreation Goal: Provide high quality opportunities for hunting and viewing of moose. This project will contribute to the increase in hunting opportunities as populations increase from beaver presence. Additionally, thriving riparian habitats from beavers will attract moose and create watchable wildlife opportunities.
Utah Wildlife Action Plan
The Threats, Data Gaps, and Action section of the Utah Wildlife Action Plan (Utah WAP) identifies a list of Essential Conservation Actions, including the need to restore and improve degraded wildlife habitats. The habitat type that this project is located in, as identified in the Utah WAP, is the Aquatic Scrub/Shrub type, Aquatic-Forested, and Riverine. The WAP recommends restoring natural water and sediment flows to improve the condition of both Aquatic-Forested and Aquatic-Scrub/Shrub habitat types. Thus, the use of BBR in this project will assist in the preservation and enhancement of these habitat types, which are vital to a multitude of Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and high value game and fish species. Additionally, the WAP identifies sediment transport imbalance as a threat to these habitat types. This project will stabilize sediment transport through relocated beavers' dams and associated ponding pushing water onto the floodplain and reducing stream velocity, thus increasing sediment deposition. The WAP also identifies channel down-cutting as a high threat to this habitat type. Since beaver dams slow the flow of water and raise the water table, this project would restore the floodplain and reduce channel down-cutting. 
Utah Wild Turkey Management Plan
This project will address the following objectives and strategies of the Utah Wild Turkey Management Plan.
Management Goal: Maintain and improve wild turkey populations to habitat or social carrying capacity, Objective 2- Increase wild turkey habitat, quality and quantity, by 100,000 acres statewide by 2020. This project will help increase significant quantities of quality habitat for turkeys as BBR through relocation will enhance riparian habitat.
Management Goal: Minimize human-turkey conflicts, Objective 2; Strategy e- Improve habitat to draw wild turkey populations away from conflict areas. This project will increase attractive riparian habitat that will concentrate wild turkeys away from human-populated areas.
Utah Statewide Elk Management Plan
This project will address the following objectives and strategies of the Utah Statewide Elk Management Plan.
Habitat Objective 1: Maintain sufficient habitat to support elk herds at population objectives and reduce competition for forage between elk and livestock. This project will help by creating and maintaining wetlands and riparian habitats, promoting forage production and ecosystem resilience. Beavers establish high nutrient and water dense habitats, increasing forage production at our relocation sites throughout northern Utah. This project also aims to partner with the regional Watershed Restoration Initiative working groups to identify and prioritize elk habitats that are in need of enhancement or preservation for BERC's relocation sites.
Habitat Objective 2: Reduce adverse impacts on elk herds and elk habitat. This project will facilitate the sustainment of migration corridors in or adjacent to riparian corridors. Moreso, this project will increase habitat resiliency by creating wildfire buffers and establishing stable water sources with beaver ponds to mitigate the increasing impacts from drought.
Utah Mule Deer Statewide Management Plan 
This project will address the following objectives and strategies of the Utah Statewide Mule Deer Management Plan.
Habitat Objective 1: Maintain mule deer habitat throughout the state by protecting and enhancing existing crucial habitats and mitigating for losses due to natural and human impacts. This project will preserve and enhance mule deer critical riparian habitat by not only slowing the erosional impacts but by restoring the floodplain, thereby enhancing this critical area of forage habitat, especially during drought conditions. 
Habitat Objective 2: Improve the quality and quantity of vegetation for mule deer on a minimum of 600,000 acres of crucial range by 2030. This project will use WRI funding to improve the quality and quantity of foraging habitat because riparian habitat created by BBR elevates the water table in a riparian system. This means water is more readily available for plants to absorb and grow. Plants throughout the riverscape benefit from the increase in water availability, not just those that are located near the beaver ponds. This creates an area which contains high value forage material, as well as stable water sources.

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.

Beavers build dams in streams which slow the flow and cause water to be stored on the surface for a longer amount of time compared to a stream without dams. This allows the slow moving water to infiltrate the ground and raise the water table of the riverscape, thus increasing water availability to plants. Because of this, riverscapes containing beaver impoundments promote a robust vegetation community with a higher water content in the dry part of the year relative to that of vegetation in areas adjacent to the riverscape. Recent research has shown that burn severity is significantly reduced in riparian areas containing beaver dams compared to those without beaver dams or areas outside of the riverscape entirely. These findings clearly display the effect beavers have on the fire-resistant characteristics of a riverscape by way of creating a natural fire break as a byproduct of their ecological industriousness. 
The presence of healthy populations of beavers in riparian areas create natural fire breaks to potentially catastrophic fires which are becoming increasingly common, especially in western states where seasonal drying and drought is a major component contributing to severe fire behavior. The lush refugia of a beaver-influenced riverscape remains wet later in the year as the surrounding environment dries out. What was already a hotspot for biodiversity before a fire, beaver modified riparian areas become even more relied upon by resident wildlife when surrounding habitat has burned at high severity.

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.

The benefits that beavers provide to water quality and quantity are well researched. Beaver dams help improve water quality by filtering sediment, slowing down erosion, and trapping pollutants. The water stored in the ponds and wetlands slowly seeps into the ground, raising the local water table. This can make the surrounding area more consistently moist and support a diverse range of flora and fauna. In addition to raising the water table, trapping water behind dams into ponds efficiently regulates the flow of water under climatic events such as persistent drought and heavy rainfall by increasing storage capacity. Research has shown that streams with beaver dams will exhibit a reduction in both peak and overall discharge, as well as an increase in lag time between peak rainfall and peak discharge during a storm. Meaning, when snow is melting or rainfall is heavy, beaver impoundments will slow the flow, negating the destruction potential of flooding. 
Groundwater recharges in wetter conditions and is drawn upon when seasonal drying and/or drought occurs, prolonging water flow compared to streams void of beaver dams. Extended flows can increase the availability and quality of forage for all wildlife. The presence of beaver dams in a stream system alters water quality in a process similar to how water quantity and flow regulation are affected. Ponds created by dams aggregate sediment that would otherwise be flowing downstream in the absence of dams. Dams resemble a filter within a stream by trapping sediments and pollutants, resulting in a discharge of cleaner water. In beaver created wetlands, nitrogen attaches to sediments and removed from the water.  It is also converted from nitrate (NOÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ»), into nitrogen gas (NÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ) or nitrous oxide (NÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂO), which are released into the atmosphere. This process removes excess nitrogen from the system which could otherwise cause harmful algal blooms.

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.

This project will primarily be a noninvasive project that uses a native species to restore watershed health. The holding and care of the beavers will be done at the BERC facility which was designed and built under the guidance of the UDWR state wildlife veterinarian. Beavers will be quarantined for a minimum of 72 hours, as required by the state. Care and treatment of the beavers in quarantine will be overseen by the UDWR state wildlife veterinarian and permitted under the USU Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). All project efforts will be conducted in a manner that will have little to no regulated impacts on the landscape to minimize the potential for NEPA or other permitting requirements
Should there be a need for permitting such as the construction of BDA's for creating initial habitat at beaver releases, all necessary NEPA or cultural clearances will be completed before project implementation. BERC will be completing stream alteration permits where necessary as well as to comply with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's requirements and water rights. We will work with landowners and managers to comply with applicable regulations and respect landowner desires and rights. This project will be conducted in support of the Clean Water Act, the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, as well as Executive Order 11990 (Protection of Wetlands) and Executive Order 11988 (Floodplain Management)

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.

The Team's operations entail three methods of work to accomplish our objectives including relocation, outreach and monitoring. Relocation and outreach methods are discussed in this portion and monitoring in the following section.

Relocation
BERC's operations and facility annually runs from April through October, to allow for safe conditions for beavers to be relocated before the winter season begins. The Team has UDWR permits to live trap nuisance beavers on private and public lands in northern Utah. We use a soft release approach for beaver relocation as this approach allows for beavers to quarantine at BERC's Beaver Bunkhouse holding facility for a minimum of three days to reduce parasite and disease transmission at the relocation site.
BERC is notified of problems with nuisance beavers through communication with the general public, UDWR, or USFS. In collaboration with the landowner and stakeholders involved, we access the area affected by the nuisance beaver and conduct nonlethal trapping to remove the beaver from the site. Trapping effort at the site is dependent upon the number of beaver present; trapping concludes at the site only when entire beaver families have been removed. In 2021, BERC instituted a program to pay trappers $100 per nuisance beaver that is nonlethally trapped and brought to the BERC facility. This incentive program augments the numbers of beavers brought to the BERC facility for relocation. 
All nonlethally trapped beavers will be brought to BERC's Beaver Bunkhouse for a health assessment, a protocol developed in collaboration with the UDWR state wildlife veterinarian. The beavers will then be administered an antiparasitic medication to enhance their resiliency in the wild and a fecal sample is opportunistically taken for the USU Veterinary Diagnostics Lab for assessment of parasites. A Passive Integrated Transmitter (PIT) tag will be inserted into the tails before beavers are released into the holding pens. These holding pens have a 500-gallon holding capacity and a simulated beaver lodge. The holding area is emptied and cleaned once a day and beavers are fed ad libitum with multiple suitable foods. Our treatment of beaver has been approved by the IACUC and is conducted in accordance with the Utah Beaver Management Plan.
After the quarantine period ends, we will locate a suitable relocation site in collaboration with the general public and stakeholders, including the UDWR and USFS. To increase the probability of survival post-relocation, we will move beavers as a family unit when possible. Prior to relocation, we will assess the suitability of the site according to the USFWS Beaver Restoration Guidebook. If the assessment determines habitat modification is necessary to encourage beaver residency at the site, the Team will construct BDAs to increase site attractiveness for the beaver. Beavers prefer sites with infrastructure already present, providing easy cover from predators and increased opportunity to establish at the site.
In a typical relocation scenario, members of The Team such as UDWR, the Forest Service or Sageland Collaborative will have previously constructed BDA's in accordance with the watershed restoration principles to prepare the site for beaver reintroduction.  In other cases if the site offers suitable habitat in the form of historic dams (dams no longer maintained by a beaver), former lodges, or areas with deep water refugia, the relocation site may not need to undergo habitat modification prior to relocation. However, in cases where there needs to be a temporary pond constructed to provide immediate shelter for the relocation, postless BDAs will be utilized. We will conduct all dam construction efforts in a manner that minimizes potential impact to the landscape.

Education and Outreach
In addition to trapping, housing, and relocating beavers, an increasingly requested task of the Team is the installation of beaver coexistence measures (e.g., pond levelers, beaver deceivers, fencing of trees), as well as the education of landowners, agency personnel, and the general public. These efforts help minimize the need to relocate beavers by mitigating unwanted effects of flooding and loss of desired trees and encourage positive interactions between humans and beavers.
The Team will work directly with landowners who are experiencing a problem to try to find a resolution prior to nonlethal trapping. This may involve the purchase of materials, such as fences and pipes, and the installation of coexistence measures. This is determined on a case-by-case basis and will often involve the assistance of our volunteer base.
The Team will also assist in avoiding conflicts by implementing preventive measures and planning multi-day and mini workshops.  We will host annual workshops on beaver coexistence for agency personnel who routinely deal with beaver issues and local communities groups who live in areas that continue to experience flooding and landscape destruction due to beaver expansion. The intent is for all involved to find ways to prevent conflict in areas where beavers frequent and encourage coexistence. The mini workshops will be scheduled as needed when an area with continual issues is identified. Through our partnership with Sageland Collaborative, we will help landowners who have coexistence measures already installed learn how to provide long-term maintenance of the structures.
We will also offer educational training workshops focused on beaver husbandry, nonlethal beaver trapping, and the process of beaver relocation. The workshops will be oriented towards (1) state and federal personnel who frequently deal with beaver issues and/or are interested in pursuing restoration efforts involving beaver relocation and (2) lethal trappers who may struggle to make the transition to nonlethal trapping techniques but are interested in participating in the program. These workshops may last anywhere from a half day to four days, depending on the extent of the training.
We also educate the public about the innumerable benefits beavers bring to our watersheds. The Team will continue its outreach efforts at community events (e.g., festivals, farmer's markets, rendezvous) and school programs and will distribute information on the program, coexistence measures, and the importance of returning beavers to our ecosystems. These events are typically free for nonprofit organizations, and we rely on volunteers to help staff the booths.  Photos taken during the project duration will also be shared with the UDWR to be included on the WRI website.

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.

In 2024 BERC received funding to monitor several previous relocation sites to assess for beaver residency as well as stream restoration development. Monitoring will include a combination of satellite imagery assessment supplemented with on-the-ground observations. With WRI funding we aim to increase our effort in conducting natural sign surveys to identify trends in wildlife usage in beaver modified habitats. This would provide data of other species using the relocation sites such as elk, moose, or mule deer. To achieve this goal, we will acquire supplemental supplies such as PIT tag antennas and game cameras. Because every adult and subadult that passes through the program is administered a PIT tag, installing antennas at release sites will allow us to identify beavers that have been relocated and attribute restoration to their establishment. 
Data forms for release site monitoring have already been developed by BERC and include documenting information about incidental wildlife presence by way of natural sign surveys (e.g., tracks, scat, hair, etc.). We will use these forms and supplement with game cameras to identify wildlife species utilizing habitat that has been modified from beavers relocated by BERC. 
General site information and wildlife presence will be documented at or near the time of release for relocations in 2025. The data collected upon first visit will serve as the baseline for the site, and all future visits will be influenced by the introduction of beavers into the system. Sites will be revisited roughly one year post-release and assessed for wildlife presence. Conducting field work one year post-relocation stems from studies showing beavers quickly disperse after a release event but some individuals have the potential of returning to a release site after approximately 16 weeks. Because our field season is conducted from April to October and most beavers have decreased activity during the winter months, waiting one year to document change allows beavers the opportunity to potentially return to the release site with ample time to modify their new environment.

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.

Funds from this project will support the projects of all WRI partners in need of beavers for restoration. Current partners include USU, USFS, UDWR, BLM, Zootah in Logan, and Sageland Collaborative.
The BERC, USFS, UDWR, trappers and volunteers from the general public will continue to manage the project operations including nonlethally trapping nuisance beavers, holding and caring for beavers at the facility, assisting in the relocations, providing 'Living with Beaver' coexistence options for northern Utah landowners, and offering education and outreach opportunities to the public.
Sageland Collaborative is committed to supporting landowner outreach and education about the benefits of beaver, especially on rangeland streams of the Weber & Bear River headwaters of northern Utah. Sageland Collaborative is actively engaged in developing low-tech process-based restoration projects and co-hosting workshops for landowners and restoration practitioners in this region, several of which have led to beaver release opportunities in the past. We anticipate these ongoing efforts will lead to increased support for live-trapping and relocating beavers to restoration sites in fiscal year 2026. 
Zootah will construct and maintain a beaver enclosure/exhibit. This facility will benefit our program by providing a public face for the state's efforts to use beavers for restoration, increasing capacity to hold beavers, and conducting research on beaver husbandry. When needed, Zootah also has the ability to provide care for an extended amount of time prior to release by the Team, such as in the case of injured beavers or small kits without parents.

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.

Our relocation efforts and collaboration with partners have been ongoing for seven years.  The number of partners has increased annually, as has the number of beavers that are requested for restoration projects. While we initially relocated beavers to federal and state lands, more recently, private ranchers have shown an interest in being added to the beaver relocation waiting list.  The number of beavers that are relocated annually by the Team is dependent on a number of variables but ranges between 44 and 75 in more recent years. We anticipate this number to increase in the future as human populations grow and beavers expand into undesirable territories (e.g., cities, canal systems) and result in more human/beaver conflicts. Additionally, we would like to continue to share the team's knowledge and experience with beaver relocation projects that are expanding throughout the western United States.
Relocation Monitoring
A new initiative of the Team that is significantly influencing the future efforts of the project is the focus on monitoring our relocation sites. To improve our BBR efforts at a time where beaver presence is vital to the landscape, it is crucial to monitor our relocation sites. Moreso, this monitoring framework can be used to assist the Utah Beaver Management Plan Watershed Restoration Objective 1 Strategy 1 and Objective 2 Strategies 1 and 2, as well as Population Management Objective 1 Strategy 1. We aim to share our monitoring and assessment protocol with our partners throughout the nation to improve the understanding of beavers, particularly post-relocation.
Education and Outreach
We hope to expand on outreach in the upcoming years. BERC recently partnered with UDWR to teach a 'Living with Beaver' coexistence workshop to agency personnel, and  we plan to organize additional mini workshops for residents in communities that have continual beaver issues due to their proximity to waterways. In addition, as an initial step when called by a landowner to trap a problem beaver, we will first assess and promote coexistence measures (e.g., pond levelers, beaver deceivers, fencing of trees) prior to trapping. When coexistence is not feasible, we will assist in  nonlethal trapping.
In the summer of 2025, BERC plans to conduct a 'Living with Beaver' coexistence workshop centered around a structure install with its partner, Sageland Collaborative. The purpose of the informal workshop will be to teach the landowners in the Chalk Creek drainage about the long-term maintenance and monitoring of the structures to ensure they continue to work effectively and efficiently. Similar workshops for landowner collectives will be planned in the future, as needed.
BERC plans to hold more educational training workshops focused on beaver husbandry, nonlethal beaver trapping, and the process of beaver relocation. Historically, these workshops have been well-attended by those in land management and restoration from throughout the western United States and Canada.  On a smaller scale in the upcoming years, BERC plans to hold mini workshops to help increase the trapping success while minimizing injuries to the beaver by teaching non lethal trapping methods to state and federal personnel who frequently deal with beaver issues and lethal trappers to encourage the transition to nonlethal trapping techniques.

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.

Based upon numerous scientific studies, we project that increasing the amount of beavers in our mountains through this project will improve riparian area productivity on public and private lands by raising the water table, holding more spring runoff, and slowly releasing water during the dry periods of the summer.  This also creates a more diverse riparian habitat that allows for a greater diversity of both plant and animal species.  
As we have discussed earlier, beaver dams create improved habitat for many game animals such as elk, deer, moose, aquatic and upland birds as well as other high value game and fish species. The expansion of natural, thriving riparian habitats with expanded beaver populations will also improve and establish increased public hunting and fishing opportunities.  
In addition to the habitat improvements, this project promotes sustainable use of our natural resources with a win-win scenario. Prior to this program nuisance beavers could only be removed lethally. The lethal trapping of beavers is typically conducted during the summer months when the beavers don't have thick fur, thus these beavers were often thrown away as they couldn't be used as a resource.  However, due to our program these beavers are now relocated to areas where they can supplement the current beavers populations, assist in stream restoration, and increase the potential for fur trapping. This project will increase the opportunity for the public to trap beavers in the future with increased beaver populations available during the winter months.

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.