The fur trade nearly wiped out beavers from North America in the 1800s. Now, there鈥檚 growing recognition that , and many groups are working to bring beavers back.
These efforts, scientists say, hold great promise for the nation鈥檚 wetland ecosystems, biodiversity and climate resilience. But more beavers can also mean more challenges.
鈥淥n the one hand, they are an incredible benefit to our watersheds,鈥� said Jackie Corday, a natural resources consultant in Colorado. 鈥淥n the other hand, they cause conflicts.鈥�
Beavers are expert engineers, working to alter their environments more than any animal besides humans. The ingenuity they use to construct dams and lodges also means they can sometimes be found plugging culverts, gnawing on crops or flooding property.
Thus, beavers are considered 鈥溾�� creatures in many states; property owners can kill them for causing damage. Additionally, many states do not manage beavers as a species of concern or as an important keystone species.
But more states are exploring new ways to manage beavers. Corday shared a summary of the trends in a presentation to hundreds of beaver enthusiasts at the third conference in Boulder this week.
Having a proactive statewide management plan, she said, can help educate the public about the importance of sustaining beaver populations, outline goals for their recovery and help foster coexistence with communities.
鈥淎 statewide plan can lay the foundation for how you do those things,鈥� said Corday.
For example, the plans can lay out processes for relocating beavers from places where they鈥檙e causing trouble to areas where they can thrive.
鈥淚n some cases, being able to translocate them up into the watershed where they could do so much benefit and have so much less risk of conflict,鈥� she said.
Yet, just a few states have beaver management plans. and, as a result of state legislation, is drafting one now. Colorado wildlife officials signaled earlier this year that they were beginning internal work on the state鈥檚 first beaver management plan, which could be drafted over the next couple of years.
Corday is working with a handful of nonprofits on a report summarizing beaver management plans and said she plans to share her findings with Colorado officials.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, 糖心vlog传媒 in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .
