Collaboration keeps beaver habitat intact
Beaver dams at Taylor Creek are no longer being destroyed by the U.S. Forest Service. Photos/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
CAMP RICHARDSON – It depends on who one talks to whether beavers are destructive or one of nature’s best engineers.
At 40 to 50 pounds, these mammals are no slouches in the animal kingdom. Being nocturnal, they are not often seen. However, their “work” is very evident. Usually it’s in the form of dams or felling of trees.
This “work” that is done near civilization is what has the Sierra Wildlife Coalition and U.S. Forest Service partnering to maintain the animal’s habitat and protect manmade structures.
Pipes carry water through the beaver dam and wire keeps them from plugging up.
Beaver dams were causing the $1 million stream profile center at Taylor Creek on the South Shore to flood. Removing the dams was futile. Killing this native species wasn’t an ideal option.
Sierra Wildlife Coalition proposed painting some of the aspen trees in the area with a sand-latex mixture that would prevent the beavers from gnawing at them. It’s worked. And unless one looks closely it is difficult to know the tree has been treated with anything.
The painting goes 5 feet up from the ground because beavers will cross the snow in the winter. It is winter when most trees are chewed.
Beavers leave behind evidence of their work.
Levelers have been placed in the dams to allow water to keep flowing down stream while keeping the beaver structure in place. It almost looks like a rudimentary science project with the plastic pipes and wire-mesh cages.
Advocates are working to prevent the kokanee salmon from getting caught up in the diversion devices. However, with the fish not being native to the Tahoe, their survival is less of a concern to the federal agency.
While the devices are not working perfectly, it is a better scenario than repeatedly removing the dams – which is a costly and time consuming endeavor. It would cost about $40,000 to raise the trail, so the leveler method is the economically cheaper route.
Trees are painted to deter beavers from chewing them.
Beavers are good for the environment. The problem is people are living or recreating so close to their habitat so the good aspects get overshadowed.
According to the Sierra Wildlife Coalition, beaver ponds create wetlands, reduce erosion, decrease flood damage downstream, control soil erosion and help filter out sediment before it reaches Lake Tahoe.
The nonprofit, which is based in Tahoe City, has about seven volunteers who help with the installations and tree protection. Another 200 people are on the group’s email list and keep the core group informed about beaver activity in the basin and Truckee area.
Beavers are in almost every creek in the region. This is why the Sierra Wildlife Coalition is working with agencies, homeowners and others wherever possible to have beavers and people coexist.
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Notes:
· Sherry Guzzi with the Sierra Wildlife Coalition will give a presentation about beavers July 31 at 8:30pm at Taylor Creek, Lake of the Sky Amphitheater on the South Shore. Cost is $5.
Beavers. Good for our streams and meadows.Bigger than you would think when you see one up close.
Slappin’ it’s tail in the water at you as you paddle around Lily Lake
Protect the Beavers and our enviornnment. OLS
I wonder if that sand-paint mixture would worrk to keep woodpeckers from chewing holes in my house wood siding? Those damned demolition birds are destructive!
Kae- How about an in depth look into ingesting the giardia cyst from beaver excrement. First it affects your GI tract and if untreated can invade your muscle/organ tissue including the brain. I worked with a girl who was being treated with M/S drugs when she had a well established case of giardiasis. The local GI Dr. told me a study showed the common denominator of who gets it is– people with dogs. Dogs can get sick from it too. They lick a face and bingo- it’s been transferred to a human. Everyone who wants to leave the beaver system in place should have to go drink a pint of water out of Lily Lake or any affected stream. It took our family 3 years of treatment to get rid of it. Better luck to others!
Giguy, are you advocating removing beavers from their natural habitat because they can possibly cause illness in humans? Humans spread far more germs and viruses to other humans, so therefore should we eradicate humans from their natural environment?
Sadly a group of folks on the North shore had the beavers in Griff Creek removed (killed/drowned). It was a good functioning stream environment and the beavers were not harming anything or anyone.
I think “beaver fever” is a bit of a misnomer. Other animals can carry the giardia cyst. Humans can also carry the cyst and contaminate lakes and streams when they do not observe proper hygiene in the back country.
If your dog needs to be in the woods and swim or drink out of rivers, creeks or lakes, well isnt it just a crying shame that they might get some bug from the experience. Dogs poop and pee out in the woods and it could be just as likely their spoor that is putting those bugs into the environment. It could also be from human contamination. The point is if you are so paranoid that you or your pooch is going to be contaminated when in the woods, stay out of the woods.
Hey kae…. Can you find out what is going on at angora creek near Lake Tahoe blvd. It looks like the usfs has pulled out all the beaver dams and is putting in a road through the middle of the meadow. I can’t imagine what they are doing there.
DBL, Probably the destruction of beaver dams is for building roads for more logging accses to the USFS so they can cut down more trees for sale.
I may be wrong on this, and I hope I am. OLS
They are supposed to be realigning Angora Creek back to its original flow pattern. This is part of the project which was reported earlier here where USFS also plans to eliminate Seneca Pond and “restore” back to a wetlands. You can find information on the USFS website, but you are right, it does look like a road!