Beaver Library

Beavers are expanding into cities as they recolonize their historic range. While they increase the ecological functioning of urban green areas, human-beaver conflicts occur. Public support to deal with conflicts has shifted from population to forage control. Tree guards are becoming popular with management personnel in North America and Europe to reduce damage to valuable trees. The problem is that this management technique has not been studied. We inventoried the tree guard types in use in natural and manicured river parks in the City of Saskatoon, Canada, determined their adherence to an installation protocol by measuring guard dimensions, and assessed the relative effectiveness of guards in protecting trees from beaver cutting. The inventory revealed that four types of tree guards are in use, ranging from light gauge chicken wire to heavy gauge chain link fencing. Overall, 11% of the trees with guards that we inventoried were cut by beavers, but variation among guard types was observed. Less than 10% of trees with type i and ii guards were beaver cut whereas 17% of trees with types iii and iv guards were beaver cut. Fewer trees were cut when there was adherence to installation protocol, regardless of guard type. Cut trees with guard types i, iii and iv experienced both minor and major damage whereas cut trees with guard type ii experienced only minor damage. The study results have implications for developing effectiveness and implementation monitoring plans for tree guards as part of an overall beaver management plan.

Traditional restoration efforts are barely scratching the surface of what could be restored. Moreover, a disproportionate amount of funds are spent on too few miles of streams and rivers leaving millions of miles of degraded streams neglected. To fill this gap, restoration practitioners are increasingly trying restoration techniques that are more cost?effective, less intensive, and can more practically scale up to the enormous scope of degradation.

Summary of the beaver release at Knapdale, Argyll, for the purpose of running a scientifically monitored trial as part of the Species Action Framework (SAF).

Investigation into the social dimensions of wildlife reintroduction and an argument to emphasize the need to recognize societal perceptions in potential management solutions

A study of beaver control measures to help land management agencies weigh against large-scale removal programs

An interview with Heidi Perryman, an “Accidental beaver advocate” who formed the group “Worth A Dam” to find solutions and educate the community about beaver benefits when a pair moved into her hometown of Martinez, CA.

We aimed to recognise beaver-produced ecosystem services and quantify their theoretical value for the entire Northern Hemisphere.

Article that finds themes in responses to beaver reintroduction and offers observations that may positively influence future responses amongst affected individuals

This second webinar in the ASWM-BLM Beaver Restoration Webinar Series focuses on making decisions about where beaver restoration and/or the use of beaver dam analogs (BDA) can have the greatest positive and least negative impacts. It includes a demonstration of Utah State University’s Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT), a model that helps planners assess key parameters essential to beaver work.

This fifth webinar in the ASWM-BLM Beaver Restoration Webinar Series focused on how coalition building is essential to advancing the practice of process-based stream and floodplain restoration by helping the regulatory environment be responsive to the evolving understanding around functioning, intact riverscapes.

This fourth webinar in the ASWM-BLM Beaver Restoration Webinar Series focused on common barriers to beaver restoration and beaver dam analog (BDA) work and when/how these barriers can be overcome.

This guidebook provides a practical synthesis of the best available science for using beaver to improve ecosystem functions. The overall goal is to provide an accessible, useful resource for those involved in using beaver to restore streams, floodplains, wetlands, and riparian ecosystems.

A review by the University of Southampton of how the reintroduction of beaver will affect fish in Scotalnd

This project explored the effectiveness of a management plan on improving streamflow and stream temperature

Mike Callahan, President of the nonprofit Beaver Institute discusses beavers, their value, and how to successfully manage beaver problems when they occur. Mike also shares information on the Connecticut Beaver Initiative (CBI) a new grant program to help landowners resolve human-beaver conflicts nonlethally.

This webinar was presented by the Clark Fork Coalition in Montana with beaver experts Mike Callahan, Beaver Institute, Elissa Chott, Clark Fork Coalition in MT, and Torrey Ritter, MT DFW. Topics covered include beaver benefits, challenges and solutions. 2020

A 44 minute Baltimore Sun podcast by Dan Rodricks on beavers and their impact. He interviews beaver experts Frances Backhouse, Mike Callahan, and Scott McGill on the history, present management and future of beavers in North America. Recorded in Feb. 2, 2018

Opinion piece explaining why President Biden should create an Ecosystem Restoration Corps in 2021 to create jobs and improve this country’s environment.

This study examined how temperature, precipitation and beaver (Castor canadensis) activity influenced the area of open water in wetlands over a 54-year period in the mixed-wood boreal region of east-central Alberta, Canada.

This study found that prescribed fires negatively affected beaver lodge occupancy, an effect compounded with frequent burns. Though prescribed fire is considered an important landscape restoration process, the frequency of prescribed burning should be mitigated to ensure that flooding by beavers can continue as a key process that maintains wetlands on the landscape.