Close your eyes. Think of a firefighter. What comes to mind?
Perhaps it is a person, donned in a yellow fire-retardant coat and pants, and a red hat. Are they in a truck or carrying a hose? Perhaps they are marching into a burning building, saving a pet from the flames. I personally think of someone furry and brown, with a flat tail. They wear no clothes, and they don’t ride in trucks, opting instead to swim through waterways. They use sticks and logs, not hoses, and yet they are one of the strongest fighters against climate change in North America.
It might surprise some that beavers are a native species to the Sierra Nevada region. For many years, ecologists saw none, leading them to believe beavers were not from this region. Beavers disappeared from the Sierra Nevadas from the sixteenth to twentieth century largely because of trapping and over-hunting; beaver pelts were valuable in the fashion industry, due to their shine and water-resistance. Historically, beavers had an estimated population of 400 million in North America; by 1900, less than a thousand lived in Canada and the US, according to National Geographic. While their populations have increased to 10-15 million today, beavers are still hunted and trapped, even though the current fashion is less fur and more spandex. Some beavers are trapped for fur and for scent glands used in perfumes. However, many beavers are trapped and killed for their perceived status as nuisances. To ranchers, farmers, and homeowners, beavers constitute a major pest: their dams cause floods and block drainage, their burrows cause structural damage, and they take wood from fences and fixtures.
However, we also need beavers, desperately. Beavers live in riparian ecosystems, which are wetlands around rivers or streams. A 2020 article from the Ecological Society of America found that riparian regions with beaver activity fared better during wildfires compared to riparian areas with no beaver dams. Beavers have never been more important due to climate change making the wildfire season longer, hotter, and drier. The ponds that beaver dams create “store carbon, improve water quality, create habitat to support biodiversity, and help reduce climate impacts,” according to an article by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The riparian areas that beavers flood create lush, wet environments that are more protected from wildfire This protects ecosystems from damage from frequent severe wildfires. As climate change continues to impact Earth, droughts become more common, including here in the Sierra Nevada region. One major benefit of beaver dams is the deeper water table, which makes plants more fire-resistant.
We need to coexist with beavers, but how do we do that? Organizations around the country are helping towns, ranchers, and homeowners associations cooperate with beavers to protect infrastructure and promote beaver populations. According to the Sierra Wildlife Coalition, destroying dams and lethal solutions both cost taxpayers more money and are ineffective to beaver-caused infrastructures issues. One method is using Flexible Pond Levelers, an invention which helps control the water level in beaver ponds without removing the beavers. Another method is “Beaver Deceivers”, which are wire mesh fences designed to deter beavers from building dams in culverts. Other organizations exist that remove beavers from rancher’s property and relocate them to other areas. Plenty of beaver activity can be seen today along the Rainbow Trail at the USFS Taylor Creek Visitor Center in South Lake Tahoe.
Next time you’re on a hike and see a beaver, make sure you say “thank you!” for protecting our forests!
