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26
mountain pasturage and farmlands aJI
across the North American continent.
A noted zoologist tells the signifi–
cance of beavers in creation of rich
land:
"By damming streams, beavers create
ponds but since these rapidly silt up,
their work is unending, and throughout
the millennia,
milliom of acres of pas–
ture Land have thus beet1 created
where
only sterile rocky river courses would
have otherwise been"
(Living Mammals
of the ll7orld,
lvan
T.
Sanderson,
Doubleday and Company loe.,
.
Y. ,
1965,
p.
118).
The same author continues:
"Further, by ra ising the water table
all
around their pond, the plant
growth of much larger arcas is com–
pletely altered, the conifers are pushed
back and broad-leafed trees allowed to
take hold. Thus,
enormous areas of 1he
bes/ soil and pasture
in the homelands
of the whi te man and in those countries
which he has colonized - northern
Asia and North America -
ti'Ould
never have existed had it not been for
the Beaver."
There are many other examples of
benefits which man has experienced
from the presence of beavers. One yeac
during a prolonged drought, Idaho
fruit growers broke
14
beaver dams,
channelling the water through irrigation
ditches, s.1ving a
S
L
5,000 fruit crop
otherwise doomed to disaster. And the
bcavers were none the worse off. They
had their dams repaired and ponds full
again in short order.
A series of beaver dan1s recorded in
Colorado stored
1,24 L
acre-feet of water,
enough to irrigate 30,000 acres for one
day, or 1,000 acres for one month.
The Saga of Willow Creek
Another example is the story of Wil–
low Creek, also in Idaho. It was more a
ditch for spring floods to rage through
than a living stream. Cattle had no
water after June, since Willow always
went dry. The lake below was sil ting up
badly from tons of mud carried by tor–
rential runoff during spring fiow.
One year a pair of beavers were plan–
ted on Willow Creek. ( Incidentally,
willow trees are one of the beaver's
favori te foods .) That year the beavers
built 17 dams, and the following year
The
PLAIN TRUTH
there were 59 dams, with more as time
progressed. The whole Willow Creek
range was transformed . Lush meadows
replaced dry, parched g round and the
creek itself became a living stream the
year around.
Willow Creck no longer silted the
lake, stream Row was stabilized, cattle
ranchers could run cattle the year
around, ducks and geese carne to the
bcaver ponds - the whole ecology of
the region improved tremendously.
Unfortunately man was shortsighted
in this example of Willow Creek. An
insufficient number of trecs were avail–
able to the beavers and dam construc–
tion sooo ran out, forcing the beavers to
!cave the creek.
Today, Willow Crcek is again eroding
badly and no beavers inhabit it.
Even - as in the case of Willow
Creek - when man tries to return to
nature's way, he often finds it's
too late.
The whole ecological system must be
kept intact. The removal of one crea–
ture, sucb as the beaver, upsets the bal–
:mce. Merely rcstoring that animal
alone is not enough. But where the
proper habitat
does
exist, there's no
question that introducing beavers is
beneficia! in conserving soil and water
resources.
One such area is found near the
headwaters of the Boise River. There on
a recent survey we observed an example
of a "beaver meadow." For years bea–
vers maintained dams across the shallow
Boise River headwaters. Eventually the
whole a.rea silted in, in sorne places
four feet deep and more! Today the
arca is a Iush green meadow providing
water and forage for deer, moose and
other wild-life. Grass grows 3 to 4 feet
tall in this rich garden spot. And
beavers still live tbere, too- in canals
and bank dens throughout the meadow.
Accompanying pictures from this acea
illustrate its rich productivity, where
only a rocky stream bed would have
existed had there been no beavers there.
In Wyoming
There are many dramatic examples of
beaver meadows in Wyoming as well.
On a 70-mile tour through the Bridger
National Forest and adjacent lands in
westero W yoming, we viewed literally
dozens of such meadows and meadows
October-November 1970
in the making. With me was
Mr.
Envero F. Putnam, co-author of
Beaver:
Management and Ecoiogy in W J·oming,
who poin ted out:
"Beavers were instrumental in the
formation of most of the fertile valleys
and mountains in this area. There's no
guestion as to the benefits of beaver on
the headwaters of our streams. It's fur–
ther downstream, where man lives, that
beavers become a nuisance."
Mr. Putnam pointed out one old bea–
ver meadow which encompassed a
square mile or better. Today the stream
continues to meander through this lush
green valley. Beavers are still present at
one end. Fish(!rmen were taking advan–
tage of this spot as we passed through.
Nature's Conservation Agent
There's basic benefit in
11
here
the
beaver chooses to build -
in
the small
streams and tributaries, not the large
rivers below.
Says one authority: "Beaver dams
prevent Boods by trapping the water up
in the headwaters of streams, pre–
venting it from gaining the momentum
that causes destruction. It
is
FAR MORE
EFFICIENT
to dam the
sma/Ler
Jr;bfl·
laries
of a stream than to dam the main
stream, and the beaver can do the job
much better and far cheaper than man.
"Beaver daros also catch and so
reduce the Ioads of soil sediment that
the streams would carry into the man–
made dams farther below. Ponds also
force more water underground, thus
helping the low water tables of the land
to rise"
(T
he
JI'/
orld of the Beaver,
by
Leonard Lee Rue
111,
J.
B. Lippincott
Company, N.
Y.,
1964, page
86).
Beaver dams antedated our modero
big dams in most design principies and
sound construction practices. Yet the
beaver dam does
not
suffer ill side
effects which plague many of man's big
dams.
Ecology Helped, Not Hindered
The side effects of beaver dams when
analyzed from the "systems approach"
to ecology - that is, taking all factors
into consideration - are quite beneficia!.
The pond serves as a hub of Iife for a
host of other animals. Ducks, geese and
other water birds nest nearby. Deer,
cattle and other animals come to the