If beaver restoration is a goal for all of the benefits that beavers can bring to broken landscapes, how can we help beavers re-establish across our landscapes without 'forcing' a timeline through beaver relocation solutions that often don't work and can actually counterproductive and harmful to the beavers. (Read on at https://westernbeavers.org/why-we-dont-relocate-beavers/)
As history reveals over and over, well-intended attempts to control nature, forced at scale on human timelines, often fall short or create bigger problems for the natural order of things. Taking time in our approach to better understand and work within natural cycles is essential.
We believe that pursuing thoughtful, measured and adaptive 'process-based', nature based solutions that working thoughtfully with nature will yield better, long term results.
“Natural systems work on their own timeline, not ours”
Like all living species, beavers have their own agency. We believe the best outcomes for long term beaver restoration - will come naturally - creating the space for individual beavers or families to choose for themselves where to settle and invest in dam building and den building.
What then are the steps that humans can take to support beaver success - at a stream, river or lake near you?
- Help provide beavers what they need to succeed. Consider "BeaverHOODs" as a roadmap. Population pressures, degradation of stream and watershed health and loss of good habitat exist at the root of beaver absence from our Oregon landscapes. Addressing habitat must be addressed in order for beaver populations to recover.
- Support management practices that reduce the 'taking' of beavers
- Share the good work of beavers on the landscape with a neighbor or friend
Want beaver on lands that you steward, but don't know where to start? Contact us for a conversation by phone, or arrange for an onsite visit and Beaver Habitat Assessment.
Building BeaverHOODs for Riverscape Scale Connectivity
'BeaverHOODs' models a territorial 'home base' area (usually about 1/2 miles in stream length) with the right conditions for a beaver family to establish and thrive.
The conditions of a successful BeaverHOOD include human tolerance, adequate food, water and shelter building materials available for a beaver family to successfully establish, survive and reproduce for future generations.
Beavers can re-establish themselves on the landscape again naturally — without “reintroduction.”
CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BEAVERHOODS AND WHAT BEAVERS NEED TO SUCCEED