We love the stories of beaver on the landscape and how they've shaped their habitat through engineering of dams and lodges.
Beavers create dams (where water flows aren't too much) to 'pool the water' around them, thereby providing safety from predators (for the beaver) while backing up, and holding, water that benefits the riparian area's vegetation, wildlife and juvenile fish habitat.
Beaver lodges (bank lodges and in-pond lodges) provide shelter and safety where beaver families home and raise their young.
Please check back often as we gather and share these stories of beaver on the landscape through the West and in particular eastern and central Oregon.
Have a story to share? We would love to talk with you. Please send us an email at westernbeavers@gmail.com to start the conversation.
BEAVER DISPERSAL IN SPRINGTIME
It's springtime, and beaver families are adjusting to the new year ahead. The fortunate ones, may be relocating to a second den area for safety as springtime waters expand and may flood out the primary lodge due to often 'flashy', dam-deficient waterways. Listen to this delightful reading of a young beaver female striking out alone to find a mate and new denning area.
A REPORT FROM THE FIELD - BEAVERS IN WINTER
It’s Transition Time for Beavers in the Deschutes River Basin - Winter 2020
Beavers around Central Oregon spend much of their lives moving mysteriously up and down the Deschutes River unseen. Even on hot summer days as we float just past their hidden "bank dens", humans are more likely to notice the 20-plus other species who make their homes in ecologically rich “beaver waters,” such as otters, mink, and fish, than to notice the shy beaver.
READ THE STORY
MARKS CREEK COMES TO LIFE
People and Beavers Join Forces in Restoration near Prineville
by Marina Richie
Two belted kingfishers flash blue wings above a beaver dam and angle into the trees shading Marks Creek. The birds’ ratcheting cries merge with the distant roar of an excavator dumping rocks in a dry creek bed upstream. The contrast could not be more jarring. The potential for transformation could not be more exciting...
MUSIC OF NATURE - Chewing and murmuring sounds from inside den.
What kind of voice does the beaver have? Would you ever guess that the young (and maybe adults too?) make expressive murmurs from within the den, especially in the autumn of the year?
Here's a beaver tale from the beavers themselves, as recorded and shared by Lang Elliot - Music of Nature. Turn your volume up - it's shear delight!
BEAVER ON TRIAL | HARNEY COUNTY | 1941
One of our favorite Beaver Tales hearkens back eighty years to this story told by Paul W. Schaffer, a Regional Biologist from Spokan, Washington. He tells the story of a Mr. Paul Steward of eastern Oregon, near Crane Creek. We share this tale "Beaver on Trial" in PDF, the form in which we received it.