Welcome to the Klamath Watershed Partnership
Where land, water and people come together
Beavers
Beavers are more than intriguing animals with flat tails and lustrous fur. American Indians called the beaver the "sacred center" of the land because this species creates rich habitats for other mammals, fish, turtles, frogs, birds, and ducks. Since beavers prefer to dam small streams in shallow valleys, nuch of the flooded area becomes wetlands. In larger streams they often do not even build dams. Wetlands are low lying lands or areas, such as marshes or swamps that are covered, often intermittently with shallow water or have sols saturated with moisture. Beavers reliably and economically maintain wetlands that can sponge up floodwaters, prevent erosion, and raise the water table. Over time, beaver wetlands eventually develop into lush beaver meadows.
It is estimated that in primitive times 60,000,000 beavers were in North America. Beaver pelts became important in the fashion markets of Europe and many beavers were killed to satisfy this demand. By 1890 the beaver population was at a low level and severly depleted. Today, beaver populations are abundant all over North America. Beavers, transplanted in strategic areas, can greatly improve wildlife and wateshed habitat.
Did you Know Beavers...........
- adult beavers are 20 to 30 inches in length and have a tail 10-12 inches long
- favorite foods are water lily tubers, clover, apples, leaves, and bark
- mate for life, breed only once a year and average four kits per liter
- can remain underwater for 15 minutes without surfacing
- have transparent eyelids that function much like goggles
What can Beavers do for you?
- store spring runoff in ponds for late season release into streams
- provide season-long flood irrigated pastures that are maintenance free
- expand highly productive wetland pastures and increase forage production
- slow high velocity flows and reduce bank erosion
- trap sediments behind their dams and speed up the recovery rate of down cut stream channels
- trap sediments to provide cleaner water downstream for fish
- improve habitat for fish and many wildlife species
- raise groundwdater levels
- reduce stream floods and droughts
- can turn an intermittent stream into streams that flow year roud
- beaver dams generally do not block fish migration, but the beaver ponds actually serve as critical areas for development of young fish
- cool water downstream of dams
- create meadows of rich soil and vegetation
Overall, the benefits to stream habitat and overall improvements to hydrology, especially in drier areas, far outweigh the occasional nuisance problems they cause.
Living with Wildlife: American Beaver>
(Oregon Departent of Fish and Wildlife)
Land Manager Meeting
Beaver Management Project
September 14, 2011The Klamath Watershed Partnership will be holding a Land Managers Meeting on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at the Chiloquin Ranger District Conference Room from 0:00 - 12:00 noon. The purpose of the meeting is to move forward with the beaver management project and get input from land and resource managers to develop procedures for identifying, notifying and completing beaver management projects on public and private lands. If you are interested in attending the meeting, please contact Ginny Monroe at gmonroe@klamathpartnership.org>
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
New Guidelines for Relocation of Beaver in Oregon - May 19 2011>
Beaver Management Program
- Work continues on the Beaver Management project. The Beaver Management Meeting held on July 26-27, 2011 provided good feedback from the participants about the project and about the information provided at the meeting and on the field tour. The meeting and field tour was well attended by landowners, agency personnel and local community members.
- The next step is to meet with land and resource managers to develop procedures for identifying, notifying and completing beaver management projects on public and private lands. This effort will be informed by using several pieces of information which includes aerial maps showing beaver activity together with the location of culverts on Forest Service managed land and other GIS information. The meeting is tenatively scheduled for September.
- Below is a picture of the Beaver Management Work Team who put in a beaver deceiver at Elder Creek to prevent beaver from building a dam near a road and culvert which will prevent the road from washing out.
Work crew installed a beaver deciever on Elder Creek to prevent beaver from clogging up a culvert on forest land.