QA from Midwest Beaver Summit 2023

The Adaptable Beaver and Ecological Amnesia by Ben Goldfarb and Leila Philip

1. Are there regional beaver sub-variants? Or do the distinct habitats usage and adaptations reflect learned behavior?

1. No one really knows because beavers are so understudied!

2. Could the speakers discuss any research that quantifies how beaver help convert flooding liabilities into groundwater assets?  Might the return of healthy beaver populations help many communities regenerate declining groundwater supplies?

1. I think the Univ Helsinki study and Bob Bower’s Milwaukee study of 2021 and the study that Ben mentioned at Univ of Exeter is very good. I also list a lot of sources in Beaverland!

3. Leila, just as we’re starting to appreciate the importance of subsurface water, the Supreme Court (and now federal regulators) are writing off those waters as not worthy of protection. Why are our understanding of the importance of these wetlands and our willingness to protect them going in opposite directions?

1. That is a really good question. I am so disheartened by the Supreme Court’s decision it leaves 70% of our streams unprotected and basically dismantles the Clean Water Act. I am writing an op ed about it right now and I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

4. I would love to hear more about beaver coexistence in dense urban areas where trees are highly managed and limited.

2. The City of Chatanooga has a fun strategy— they paint the trees with colored paint and sand!

Beavers’ Ecosystem Services by Emily Fairfax

1. I am from NE Illinois.  A multi-organizational approach happened a decade ago in a south suburb of Chicago to protect a virgin prairie adjacent to a wetland.  The village seemed receptive to protecting this spot.  Two years ago, they removed the prairie to install a retention pond.  The adjacent wetland has since dried up.  I am seeing more destruction of topsoil on a large scale in my county that contains wetlands. How can I wake up government?

1. I’ve found that getting community members organized and writing letters, going to town halls, etc. as a *group* carries a lot of weight. And also bringing some beaver facts with you! People like to see the numbers and science so they can justify changes to higher ups in government.

2. In the WGL region a major concern with beavers on the landscape is their impact on water temperature. How do you balance having beavers on the landscape for their other ecosystem services and allowing increasing water temperature?

1. Out west, beaver dams are well known for their ability to create temperature mosaics that contain very cold deep pools as well as warmer shallow runs between ponds. Additionally, summertime temps are typically colder in beaver ponds at the pond bottom due to cold water coming in from the groundwater system. The peer-reviewed data from the Midwest is incredibly sparse, but the little bit that does exist AND measures water temperature where the fish actually live (pond mid/bottom, not right at the surface) have found that beaver wetlands provide thermal refuge during hot summers and during cold winters. Colder in summer, warmer in winter. It’s nuanced, and definitely will benefit from more region-specific data to confirm that the results from everywhere else that find colder water temps during summer and drought in beaver ponds.

3. Are southern hemisphere rivers and wetlands inherently "unhealthy" because they don't have beavers or other dam builders?  (At least not native populations of beaver).) Should beaver be introduced to southern hemisphere habitats where they don't exist: New Zealand, Australia, Africa, South America, etc.?

1. Great question! Nope, they are not inherently unhealthy. There are other ways to introduce complexity and roughness into the riverscapes. In the tropics, the delivery of large wood and chunky vegetation into the river is more effective and creates big log jams that drive that complexity. In some mountainous places, boulders coming off of hillslopes can do it. And then I also like to remember that there are other “beavers” out there in the sense that beavers are not the only ecosystem engineer. Many plants and animals can create outsized effects in the landscape - bison, prairie dogs, termites, etc. I think there is room for a lot of research on what kinds of animal-associated ecohydrological processes in the southern hemisphere drive complexity and resilience.

4. Do wetlands that are not occupied by beavers exhibit the same fire-resistant qualities?

1. Great question - I’ve found that no, they do not, at least not in the American West. The study completed on beavers and fire in Ontario had similar findings - they saw numerous wetlands burn, but the beaver wetlands were fire resistant. We (beav+fire folks) think that it probably comes down to the efficiency that beaver dams and canals store water in the soil plus beaver herbivory on trees and grasses keeps the fuels younger and more diverse in community composition.

5. Have you observed thresholds with respect to valley confinement that limit the viability of beaver dams? I'm interested in understanding limits on the potential for beaver dams to counteract incision in narrow valleys.

1. Great question. I’ve seen beavers build in super steep slopes, and in very confined canyons. Those dams tend to wash out or breach yearly during spring high flow. That doesn’t mean they were “pointless” though - the time they were present meaningfully changes the landscape, and the washouts only reset a portion of that.  Typically beavers prefer to build at gradients of 5% or less but can dam up to about 25%. Similarly, they prefer broad, open valley bottoms but can work in extremely narrow confinement provided they have enough stream length available to still access adequate food.

6. On the legislative level, what do you see as the largest barrier to letting beavers promote climate resiliency in places like Minnesota?

1. Great question. I think that the largest barrier in places like Minnesota is a science barrier - we don’t have enough regional data that has gone through peer review and been published. In the Western US, policies really didn’t change in a way that supported (or even allowed) beaver-driven climate resilience until there were enough numbers to “justify” it. So, getting those numbers, even if they’re just echoing results that have been found in other regions, is important.

7. I know you're not a fish biologist, but you recently spoke at a "Beavers and Trout" workshop in northern Wisconsin.  It's a challenge to get flow devices (like BDAs) permitted in WI now. The water resource and fisheries biologists claim that beaver dams impede fish passage (trout being the main concern) and that dams (or BDAs) warm the water (negative impacts to trout waters).  What was your take on the general consensus of that workshop (takeaways)?  And any tips to help us start changing hearts and minds inside the DNR here in WI?

1. Great question. I had an awesome time at the Beaver and Trout workshop and met a ton of great folks doing good work. Everyone there was earnestly trying to protect the ecosystems and species that they care about - trout for some, beavers for others. I think what we need to work on is moving away from single-species viewpoints and talking more about the processes that promote good habitat for fish like trout. Trout like cold water in summer, a mix of deep pools and shallow runs or riffles, and abundant food. Beaver complexes provide colder water during summers and warmer water during winters, when fully developed are a mix of deep pools and shallow runs and are an absolute bounty of food. There is very little data on fish passage in the Midwest, but what does exist and is peer reviewed and is from the last 20 years has found that beaver dams are not a significant passage barrier for native trout. Beavers and trout are both emotionally charged topics for many people, so focusing on processes helps diffuse that.

8. Do you have any insight on how beaver dam analogues have aided in preventing land loss/destruction, or did you only look at places with actual beaver populations? Thanks!

1. I am aware of quite a few post-fire beaver dam analog projects that do not have their data published (yet) but found that BDAs were good for catching ash and sediment post-fire and keeping water quality better downstream.

9. There was a slide at the end that mentioned “72% of negative impacts and 49% of positive impacts in lit re. beavers and fish…” That doesn’t surprise me, but can you share where those stats come from?

1. Great question - it is from: Kemp et al. Qualitative and quantitative effects of reintroduced beavers on stream fish. Fish and Fisheries. (2012)

10. Would southern hemisphere rivers and wetlands benefit from the introduction of beaver? If so, please explain.  If not, please also explain.

1. The southern hemisphere would not generally benefit from beaver introductions. That was done in Patagonia already to bolster the local fur trade, but it massively backfired. There wasn’t demand for furs, and the trees that beavers chewed on in the southern hemisphere didn’t coevolve with beaver, so they didn’t grow back rapidly or resprout from cuttings the way north American aspen, willow, cottonwood, etc. do. So, the beavers have to constantly be on the move looking for new food (not good, not part of their normal behavior), and the trees they’re cutting aren’t growing back.
   
   I will note that it is complicated though - some data from Patagonia shows that beaver wetlands there are still hotspots of biodiversity for native birds that are threatened/endangered. My personal take on that finding is that there is habitat and restoration work that needs to be done in Patagonia (and likely other parts of the southern hemisphere), but beavers are not the right “tool” to do that.

11. Dr Fairfax: What are your thoughts on historical beaver abundance in true grassland landscapes where trees were rare because of ~3-7-year fire return intervals?

1. Great question - there is extremely limited data on historic beaver abundance in general, and that includes in grasslands. We do know that modern beavers thrive in grasslands, create their own types of grasslands (beaver meadows), and are fully capable of damming and canal digging without any access to wood. They use cattail, stiff reeds, mud, and stones when wood is limited. That info is from modern grasslands, high elevation above the tree line, vast peatlands, and recently shrubified tundra.
   
   The beavers in southern Arizona have basically no trees, so they build with cattail, stones, cactus chunks, and other debris. They tend to make do with what they have.

12. I am part of a community land in northern Illinois, part of our land is 60 acres of degraded wetland. It is considered degraded because there are a lot of plants that are considered invasive. We have seen evidence of beaver activity and we are super excited about it. I am wondering how can we create a better habitat for them? Being such great animals for adaptation - what type of ecological restoration is better if we want to center beavers? We have a lot of honeysuckle and buckthorn - is there research already out there about the relationship between beavers and these plants (or similar)? We are restoring a fen nearby the beaver area and we have been advised by the local conservation group to try a prescribed burn - would this be damaging to the beavers?

1. Great question. Beavers will struggle with prescribed burns if there isn’t enough food left for them afterwards, or if the burn occurs too close to winter when the beavers are trying to cache food. The main things that I’ve seen people do to successfully support beavers are: plant native willows, keep off-leash dogs out of the ponds at least from dusk to dawn, organize trash clean ups from the area, and educate community members about how to respectfully interact with beavers.

Beavers and the Creation of Habitat and Biodiversity by Steve Windels

1. Why do beavers separate the feeding chamber from their nesting chamber?

1. The lower level is for feeding and for shaking and drying off when first leaving the water. The step up to the higher chamber is where beavers lay down fresh grasses for bedding, sleeping and hanging out.

2. In light of the potential threat to black ash, an important tree species in northern black ash swamps, and also given the threat posed to black ash by emerald ash borer, is there a concern with the impact of beavers on black ash stands?

1. Interesting question. At this point the proportion of ash swamps that might be affected by beavers is small compared to all the ash that is out there on the landscape. But as you suggest, if and when emerald ash borers start killing a lot of trees it will be an interesting conversation....

3. Any policy advocacy projects in MN to better protect the beaver? My understanding is that the norm is to trap and kill beavers rather than live-trap and relocate beavers when necessary.

1. There is a National Policy Beaver Working Group looking at beaver policies. For more info to go: https://www.beaverinstitute.org/professional-info/national-working-groups/
2. You can also sign-up to join our Midwest Beaver Working Group to support region specific projects and advocacy! Sign-up here: https://forms.gle/VoAFHaXBpyYppmPWA or reach out to midwestbeaversummit@gmail.com

4. What are beaver impacts on bogs and fens?

1. Beavers can and do build dams in natural bog and fens, and the water levels will definitely increase upstream which will cause some changes in all of the biogeochemical processes. It's not necessarily good or bad, but is definitely a natural thing that happens where beavers overlap with these habitats.

5. Is there evidence of beaver and bear interaction?

1. Bears have been known to dig up beaver lodges in the spring to try to kill and eat beavers. My experience here is that is does not happen often. Bears will also likely scavenge on beaver carcasses.

Working with Beaver to Restore Trout and Salmon Habitat in the Context of a Changing Climate by Michael Pollock

1. Is there a particular instance in your research where BDAs were employed, and worked for restoration without beavers coming in and maintaining the BDA's themselves? We are interested in using BDAs in places with little to no current beaver activity

1. Yes, in the examples provided beaver are in there and active and taken over. In general, that appears to be what is happening for many BDA projects. It’s kind of like a beaver starter kit :-)

2. What is the best (or good to communicate) geological evidence (location example?) of the timescale/s of incision/aggradation cycle to equilibrium process referenced? What are some non-human punctuations to those equilibria in the geological record?

1. See the book “Incised River Channels” Darby and Simon, editors for examples and overviews of incision in the geological record.

3. Is there similar fish passage data for native, Midwestern fish species that are poor jumpers like pike, sturgeon, bass?

1. There is at least one study I am aware of that looked at that I think it is an Ecology paper Schlosser and Kallemyn wrote in 2000.

4. This may have a very broad/long answer, but I'm curious about what you think the US would need to do to kick-start implementing large scale restoration projects like the ones you mentioned in China and Egypt?

1. To indirectly answer your question, people thought putting wood in streams was crazy a few decades ago and beaver have long been considered a pest and hope for using them to restore streams seemed improbable not too long ago. So ideas come into our consciousness and then they become manifest. There was a great book a written a bit ago called the diffusion of innovation that talks about the obstacles to implementing new ideas. The short answer though is keep putting the idea out there, keep talking about it, etc. I think some climate modeling exercises showing what would happen if say, the Midwest was completely forested would be interesting. Some work has been done on the Amazon to ask what would happen to the climate if no trees. Spoiler alert, it would lead to less precipitation.

5. Have you worked with Beavers in any wetland areas that don't have a healthy native seed bank? I am curious if you have had to seed native plants in addition to the beaver-focused solutions you have implemented to assist in restoration success.

1. Damion Ciotti created BDAs in a tributary in California that flows into the Sacramento R. through farmland and there was not much of a native seed bank and given all the non-natives in California, a lot of non-native species emerged and took over, but not entirely and so what was created was a really interesting, very diverse oasis that included a mix of native and non-native species (plant species). In other less disturbed areas, I have seen waterfowl bring in seeds, or at least a lot of species started popping up that waterfowl eat, that weren’t in the system until we started creating ponds that waterfowl could land in.

Managing Beaver Conflicts Nonlethally by Mike Callahan and Loren Taylor

1. Is there a comprehensive database/equivalent of state-level beaver/BDA-related policies and regulations and navigating the same?

1. There is a National Beaver Working Group on Policy, housed at the Beaver Institute, that is compiling that sort of data, but it is still in the process of being developed.

2. We would like to know what we can do, as landowners with beaver activity, to both safeguard the beavers and protect downstream properties from flooding risk in the event the beaver dam breaches?

1. Education is an important part of coexistence with wildlife. Communicating and sharing knowledge with your neighbors could be a good place to start to help educate them on the importance of having beavers upstream. It would be difficult for us to provide you with flow device guidance without knowing more about your specific situation and what concerns of “blowout” you might have. Visit our website for more information beaverinstitute.org. Here are some general suggestions though:

1. Beavers maintain dams regularly, so if they are left in place the dams are pretty strong and blowouts are rare.
2. A Pond Leveler can be installed to reduce the amount of water stored behind a dam in case of a blowout.
3. As the Milwaukee study showed, overall downstream flooding damage is decreased with more upstream beaver dams.

3. Can you say a little more about what the agency-focused training might cover?

1. Please email loren@beaverinstitute.org with this question and we can provide you with a draft list of topics.

4. Is there any support for those that want to do these beaver resolutions for beginning a business to offer these services?  Starting a business can be rather abstract on where to begin.

1. Our current Beaver Corps training incorporates business planning and offers resources in part of the coursework, see our syllabus and visit the BCorps Training page to learn more. Yes, our BeaverCorps training Program includes lessons for those who have zero experience starting or running a business.

5. Do you work with college professors who could incorporate your Beaver Corps Program into their courses?

1. We do have several graduate students who have completed our training sd s part of their thesis work and have been referred to us by their advisors, but we do not have any professors who have been teaching our work. Without experience in this field, college professors or other professionals are not qualified to teach it. This is a specific trade.

6. We have beavers in the three rivers within Fort Wayne, IN. None of these beavers have dams or have created ponds. Without dams and ponds, what benefits would beavers bring to these rivers?

1. Bank lodging is common practice for beavers occupying territories with larger order streams and rivers. These beavers still create habitat for other species when excavating bank lodges and canals in side channels of streams. They also transport and propagate revegetation of riparian plants such as willows and cottonwoods which can grow from cuttings. Most importantly though these beavers are source populations and dispersal points for expanding beaver populations in higher-order streams.

7. Can beaver not climb up and over square metal wire exclosures?

1. They can if the dimensions are not adequate to prevent this behavior. This is why it is important to install these devices correctly and use the dimensions of fencing that have been tested and verified.

8. Are there public-facing maps showing flow device installations in Midwest/Wisconsin?

1. Not that we are aware of. There could be privacy issues with that. Also,some are concerned that trappers would use the maps to identify good places to trap, although I think that concern is overblown. Most trappers already know where the beavers are in their region.