Beavers: Our Backyard Neighbors

/

Written by Dani Dewar and Ariana Winkler 

Beaver dam at Triangle Cove, Camano Island

The American beaver has earned its reputation as nature’s most well-known architect, and even more significantly, as a hardworking ecosystem engineer. With mud caked in their forepaws and timber carried between their long, orange teeth, they construct natural wonders spanning up to ten feet high and three hundred and thirty feet wide.

Beavers are also North America’s largest rodent, weighing in around 25 to 70 pounds. Given their large size and presence, it’s understandable that some property owners claim beavers are also their largest headache.

Some beavers and property owners have had long-standing conflicts. Beavers construct dams that can flood yards and homes, block culverts, and damage trees as they forage for food and building supplies. Yet despite these challenges, there are many ways for property owners to peacefully coexist with beavers and benefit from their presence. 

What About Beaver Relocation?

When mitigating beaver conflict, many people turn to relocation first. Relocation can be difficult—many agencies are not certified to relocate beavers, including Snohomish Conservation District. The Tulalip Beaver Project, funded primarily by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Tribal Wildlife Grant, is the primary beaver relocation organization in western Washington.

They can only perform this work during the summer when upper watersheds are accessible and kits (baby beavers) are able to swim on their own. On the east side of the state, Methow Beaver Project relocates beavers to restore wildfire environments and increase water storage.

Orchestrating a beaver relocation on your property requires a thorough and intensive permitting process through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Rather than undergo this process, many homeowners work with trappers or organizations certified as relocators. These relocators go through a time- and labor-intensive process of trapping, holding, and transporting the entire family of beavers in the colony.

However, many homeowners find that relocating a beaver is an uphill battle that never ends. When one beaver moves out, it doesn’t take long for another to move in because other beavers will travel long distances to take advantage of prime real estate. 

“The beaver you know is better than the beaver you don’t know. Beavers seem to vary on their tenacity and their intelligence. If you remove one beaver, the next beaver might be smarter, more determined, and have different ideas on where to build,” advises Ariana Winkler, Snohomish Conservation District Habitat Restoration Project Coordinator and Living with Beavers Program Lead.

It has been proven time and time again that it is better to coexist with your beaver neighbor than evict them. You might find their habits to be a nuisance at first, but a beaver can make your home’s ecosystem flourish in beautiful and unique ways.

Coexisting with Beavers Has Multiple Benefits

Beavers are known for chewing on trees.

Beavers build their dams to form habitats for themselves and other animals. Their goal is to create an area to swim and live comfortably, which results in a pond forming. Their ability to create riparian habitat has earned them the moniker keystone species, a kind of protagonist in the natural world.

They are the glue that holds that ecosystem together: animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria, everything. Their diligent presence supports the biodiversity of threatened and endangered species, including our Puget Sound Chinook salmon. Their dams create wetlands that remove pollutants by slowing stream flow and recharging groundwater.

This groundwater reduces water temperatures, creating the cool habitat that salmon need to thrive. Beaver dams also create large, complex floodplains and wide channels that give salmon places to hide from predators. In fact, beaver habitat serves as a safe environment for many species and bird, insect, and amphibian populations have been shown to increase significantly thanks to conditions created by beavers. 

tree wrapping can protect trees from hungry beavers.

The benefits of having a beaver as your neighbor—clean water, more salmon, and ample opportunities for birdwatching, to name a few— cannot be understated, and there are steps you can take to peacefully with one while also protecting your yard and trees.

Beavers are frequently maligned for chewing on trees, but this can be inexpensively and reliably prevented via tree wrapping. This method involves surrounding the base of a tree trunk with a wire cylinder. The process takes only a few minutes and can remain in place for several years with minimal upkeep. 

Another way to coexist with beavers is to install an exclusion fence. Exclusion fences prevent beavers from getting close to culverts where the sound of flowing water often triggers a beaver’s instinct to build a dam. Where flooding issues are imminent, experts can install notch exclusion fencing into an existing dam to lower water levels so they do not threaten buildings, crops, and other property.

Snohomish Conservation District has services and expertise to support your beaver coexistence journey. It isn’t always easy, but much of the time, it is possible and can result in a rewarding and lifelong experience for you, beavers, and the many other species that live around you.

For more resources about beavers and beaver coexistence, please visit:  

This project was funded by the City of Monroe.