https://westernconfluence.org/leave-it-to-beaver/ Natural Resource Science and Management in the West Mon, 24 Feb 2025 20:38:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://westernconfluence.org/leave-it-to-beaver/#comment-133784 Tue, 14 Mar 2023 21:52:42 +0000 https://westernconfluence.org/?p=3141#comment-133784 This is an interesting article about beaver and their use of dams to change the flow of streams. It is true that beaver dams slow the water, store the sediment and raise the water table. However, it is important to recognize that a beaver dam has a life cycle. Every beaver dam is going to fail at some point. There will be cut banks where sediment was stored and the bank storage is released down stream which causes the vegetation to change back to less water tolerant varieties like it was previous to the beaver dam being built. Thus, the life cycle of the beaver dam is complete. I have many pictures documenting this.
It is hard to tell from the pictures in the article, showing the degraded stream, but it is very likely this was caused by beaver dams failing. Portions of some of the old dams sod in from the sediment and high water table and are very hard to recognize. Again, I have photo documentation of this.
Dr. Quentin Skinner, Professor Emeritus at the University of Wyoming is the one that made me realize that there is a life cycle to beaver dams. He pointed out that many people like to talk about stream slowing and water storage of a beaver dam, without acknowledging “the rest of the story.”
Dr. Skinner and others authored a book, “Wyoming Watersheds and Riparian Zones” that explains more about the function of beaver dams. From building of the dam and storage of water and sediment to the failing of the dams and the scar that exists until a new dam is built in the future.
Beaver dam analogs are mentioned in the article. As far as I know they are new enough that nobody probably knows how they will fail, but they will at some point. I doubt they will blow out in the center like so many of my pictures of beaver dam failures. I would guess that once it is full of sediment the water will either cut around one end of it or the water spilling over it will create a head cut behind the structure allowing it to fail.
I believe that beaver definitely have a place in the ecosystem and have many benefits for a stream system. I just want people to recognize it is not all water slowing, water and sediment storage, and lush vegetation.

]]> https://westernconfluence.org/leave-it-to-beaver/#comment-132642 Wed, 25 Jan 2023 21:16:20 +0000 https://westernconfluence.org/?p=3141#comment-132642 […] to turn the loss of an industry into an opportunity to save a river and a community. We heard how working with, rather than against, beavers can lead to more resilient river systems. In every story, there are people who believe that mutual […]

]]> https://westernconfluence.org/leave-it-to-beaver/#comment-129535 Tue, 27 Sep 2022 00:03:08 +0000 https://westernconfluence.org/?p=3141#comment-129535 […] READ THE STORY […]

]]>