Eugene weekly., January 20, 2011, Page 12, Image 12

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“We need to be creating systems
that have abundant water storage, lots
of groundwater, so that when we get
these fl uctuating climate events that
come through — maybe a period of
high precipitation — we don’t have all
that water heading for those streams and
making those channels wider and eroding
banks,” hydrologist Fouty says. “Or we
don’t have periods where we have a fi ve-
year drought or a ten-year drought and
streams are going dry.”
Beaver stabilize water ecosystems,
because the ponds they create have the
effect of evening out the fl ow of water
throughout the year. Droughts and fl oods
occur, but beaver ponds hold back water
in both circumstances. As a result, fl oods
are less severe and excess water sustains
creeks and rivers during droughts. In the
absence of beaver ponds, water rushes
downstream during fl oods and nothing
remains to alleviate droughts.
A consistent water fl ow provides
habitat for species like Coho salmon,
which thrive in the cold water of beaver
ponds. Scientifi c studies have shown that
Coho can survive for a time in less than
ideal circumstances, as long as the water
continues to fl ow.
While
many
Oregonians
may
understand that beaver dams are fi sh
habitat, what’s less obvious is that beaver
provide a service to neo-tropical migratory
12 JANUARY 20, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
birds as well. “There used to be a huge
wetland system, and now that’s mostly
gone,” Fouty says. “Imagine a bird that’s
doing a 5,000 mile migration, and there are
just these little tiny pockets of wetlands still
around.” Wetland habitat expands from the
higher water table created by beaver, also
benefi ting amphibians. Fouty suggests, “I
think the question is: What animal doesn’t
benefi t from having beaver around?”
Fouty worries that beaver restoration
work isn’t keeping pace with climate change.
In order for beaver to thrive and continue
their ecological engineering, they need trees
like aspen, willow and cottonwood, which
sometimes have been eliminated from
ecosystems (often due to a dropped water table
caused by beaver loss). “There is a process
that requires multiple steps and it takes time,”
she says. “The longer we wait, the narrower
and narrower our window is for us to be able
to be effective, and for beaver to be effective.”
Leaving it
to beaver
Stanley Petrowski has been involved in
watershed restoration for years. He says that
reintroducing beaver to native habitat like
the headwaters of the Umpqua River would
help reduce the impacts of climate change
and improve endangered salmon runs.
ODFW’s Beaver Working Group and
the Southern Umpqua Rural Communities
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