Climate Change, Beaver and Riparian Resilience Climate change is in the news nearly every day. It may be the greatest environmental challenge humans have faced, since it affects human health, agricultural production, political and social stability, and the maintenance of functional ecosystems that provide us with water, clean air, recreation, and many of the raw materials that we depend on for manufactured goods. Efforts throughout the world are developing ways to reduce emissions of and concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These efforts are clearly urgent and needed, but they are not sufficient, since they do not address the environmental changes that have already occurred and new changes that will continue to unfold over decades or centuries from the greenhouse gases already present. What actions are needed to ensure that the environment continues to support people and the rest of the natural world? Ecologists have identified several methods that will help us to withstand the impacts of climate change. One of these methods is to foster resilience - the ability of an ecosystem to resist and recover quickly from disturbances - including the more severe disturbances that climate change is expected to bring. This includes more frequent and prolonged droughts, more severe fires, outbreaks of insects such as the bark beetle that is devastating western forests, or more intense storms and run-off events. Partnering with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and others, Seventh Generation Institute is carrying out a program to build resilience in the riparian ecosystems of New Mexico. Building Riparian Resilience through Beaver Restoration is a five-year project to combat the impacts of climate change and restore the health of riparian ecosystems via increasing the abundance and distribution of beaver. |
| Seventh Generation Institute |
Why Beaver?
Beaver are biological engineers. Through
their dam- and pond-building activities,
beaver are the perfect tool to create, or in the
case of New Mexico, recreate, riparian
resilience in at least three ways. First, beaver
dams and ponds permit continued stream
flow, but slow down the flow and extend it
over time, buffering riparian systems from
both high and low runoff. In these buffered
systems, large runoff events cause less
flooding, erosion, and channel cutting.
During low-flow periods beaver ponds help
maintain stream flows when vegetation, fish,
wildlife and people most need them. Second,
beaver dam-pond complexes create mosaics
of wetlands and moisture-loving vegetation
throughout the riparian corridors, greatly
increasing the habitat heterogeneity needed
to support diverse assemblages of plants,
birds, insects, fish and other wildlife. Third,
healthy riparian zones are functional
corridors for local wildlife and migratory
birds, a role that is already important, but
expected to become increasingly critical as
species respond to warming. This factor
builds resiliency across entire landscapes.
Beaver are cost-effective resilience
engineers. In contrast to human-led
restoration efforts, beaver are the only
“engineers” that construct and maintain the
physical elements – complexes of ponds and
dams – that are the foundation of resilience.
And beaver “construction projects” are
relatively low in cost, since the beaver
provide the labor and maintenance and
require no pay or equipment.
There are no pictures of New Mexico from
before the beaver trappers arrived, but from
written descriptions, we know that the
"streamscapes" of New Mexico looked quite
different two hundred years ago. Early
trappers described the beaver of New Mexico’
s rivers and tributaries as “exceedingly
numerous.” Streams and rivers were slower,
more meandering and filled with fish. Their
banks were lined with wide dense vegetation
that hosted an abundance of birds. With the
wholesale removal of beavers, all of this
began to change. New Mexico Game and
Fish now estimates that 8000 beaver are
present. At this level, they qualify as
“ecologically absent” since their role as a
keystone species that modifies the environ-
ment is largely unfulfilled.
Increasing the abundance and distribution of
beaver in New Mexico is not a panacea.
There will be conflicts between humans and
beaver, just as there are conflicts between
humans and wildlife wherever the two
coexist. But in the right places and using the
most effective management tools, conflicts
can be managed so that the benefits
delivered by beaver outweigh the drawbacks.
In this project, Seventh Generation Institute
is working with partners to develop new
tools and new information that provide the
benefits of beaver while minimizing conflicts.
Beaver are biological engineers. Through
their dam- and pond-building activities,
beaver are the perfect tool to create, or in the
case of New Mexico, recreate, riparian
resilience in at least three ways. First, beaver
dams and ponds permit continued stream
flow, but slow down the flow and extend it
over time, buffering riparian systems from
both high and low runoff. In these buffered
systems, large runoff events cause less
flooding, erosion, and channel cutting.
During low-flow periods beaver ponds help
maintain stream flows when vegetation, fish,
wildlife and people most need them. Second,
beaver dam-pond complexes create mosaics
of wetlands and moisture-loving vegetation
throughout the riparian corridors, greatly
increasing the habitat heterogeneity needed
to support diverse assemblages of plants,
birds, insects, fish and other wildlife. Third,
healthy riparian zones are functional
corridors for local wildlife and migratory
birds, a role that is already important, but
expected to become increasingly critical as
species respond to warming. This factor
builds resiliency across entire landscapes.
Beaver are cost-effective resilience
engineers. In contrast to human-led
restoration efforts, beaver are the only
“engineers” that construct and maintain the
physical elements – complexes of ponds and
dams – that are the foundation of resilience.
And beaver “construction projects” are
relatively low in cost, since the beaver
provide the labor and maintenance and
require no pay or equipment.
There are no pictures of New Mexico from
before the beaver trappers arrived, but from
written descriptions, we know that the
"streamscapes" of New Mexico looked quite
different two hundred years ago. Early
trappers described the beaver of New Mexico’
s rivers and tributaries as “exceedingly
numerous.” Streams and rivers were slower,
more meandering and filled with fish. Their
banks were lined with wide dense vegetation
that hosted an abundance of birds. With the
wholesale removal of beavers, all of this
began to change. New Mexico Game and
Fish now estimates that 8000 beaver are
present. At this level, they qualify as
“ecologically absent” since their role as a
keystone species that modifies the environ-
ment is largely unfulfilled.
Increasing the abundance and distribution of
beaver in New Mexico is not a panacea.
There will be conflicts between humans and
beaver, just as there are conflicts between
humans and wildlife wherever the two
coexist. But in the right places and using the
most effective management tools, conflicts
can be managed so that the benefits
delivered by beaver outweigh the drawbacks.
In this project, Seventh Generation Institute
is working with partners to develop new
tools and new information that provide the
benefits of beaver while minimizing conflicts.
Project results to date:
What's coming up?
How you can help....
- Completion of a spatial analysis to
determine where beaver can have the
greatest positive impact in riparian-
aquatic ecosystems is already
complete. - Development of complete protocols for
trapping and translocating beaver. - In progress on outreach to potential
collaborators and interested parties. - Completed pilot beaver trapping and
translocation.
What's coming up?
- Surveys of private landowner attitudes.
- Outreach about the value of beaver and
techniques to manage beaver-human
conflicts. - More on-the-ground actions to manage
conflicts between beaver and people. - Habitat restoration in targeted areas for
beaver re-establishment. - Additional beaver relocations.
How you can help....
| Buy a Beaver Tee Shirt or Beaver Socks and will make a donation to support this project. (And who doesn't need at least one pair of beaver socks?) |
7GI gratefully acknowledges
support for this project from:
The New Mexico Partners for Fish and
Wildlife Program
The New Mexico Department
of Game and Fish.
Hancock Trap Company
hancocktrapco@goldenwest.net
Our thanks to The Nature
Conservancy of New Mexico for generously
sharing data developed in the New Mexico
Climate Change Adaptation Project.
| Norcross Wildlife Foundation |
harlot clothing co.
| View slideshows of: Live-trapping beaver Beaver translocation |
| The Biophilia Foundation Advancing Biodiversity Conservation on Private Land |
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ESRI Conservation
Program
Program
"To keep
every cog and
wheel is the
first
precaution of
intelligent
tinkering."
Aldo Leopold - A Sand
County Almanac
every cog and
wheel is the
first
precaution of
intelligent
tinkering."
Aldo Leopold - A Sand
County Almanac
| If you are a private landowner, tribal representative, or government agency representative and are interested in learning more about how you can participate in this project, read the project brochure or contact 7GI. |
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| Information on managing beaver impacts is found here. |