Oregon agencies deal with beavers

EUGENE -- Here in the Beaver State, Castor canadensis is both loathed and loved, even apart from his role as a university mascot.

Both emotions stem from the industrious, flat-tailed rodent's remarkable skills as a faller of timber and builder of dams.

Landowners hate it when beavers flood their fields, fell their valuable trees or cause road washouts by blocking culverts.

On the other hand, more and more people are learning to love the way beavers restore fish habitat and help maintain stream flows during summer months.

In Oregon, beavers causing serious damage are generally trapped and killed by the landowner, who under state law has a right to remove "predatory animals."

But a consortium of government agencies and private organizations is working to see if such "bad" beavers can be converted into "good" beavers by live-trapping and relocating them to areas where their dams would help the environment.

Beaver relocation holds promise, judging from a preliminary report presented recently to the Beaver Workgroup convened by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

More than a dozen other agencies, organizations and private timber companies are participating on the advisory panel.

Of 37 live-trapped beavers released in Douglas County this summer with radio transmitters attached to their tales, most have stayed "relatively near" their release site, said DeWaine Jackson, the ODFW biologist overseeing the "beaver translocation study."

The study is intended to determine whether humans "can predict well enough the habitat that beaver are going to want to occupy," Jackson said in an earlier interview. "We want to find out, 'Do they survive? Do they stay put? And do they create the habitat we want them to create?' "

While straying has so far not been a problem for the relocated beavers, the real test is yet to come.

"It will be really interesting to see what happens when we get our first real big surge of water in the fall," Jackson told the workgroup, adding that chances for long-term success increase "if we get through the first six months with high water."

Meanwhile, the work group also got its first look at proposed standards "for when, where and by whom beaver may be relocated on public and private lands in western Oregon."

The proposed rules require a "Scientific Taking Permit" be obtained by anyone wanting to relocate beaver.

The release site would have to be approved by state biologists and all relocations would have to be done between August and October -- the period when beavers do most of their dam building and food storage.

Live trapping and moving beaver is not currently allowed in Oregon, even though there is ample evidence that beavers are good for salmon.

Studies in Oregon, Alaska and British Columbia have found that juvenile coho are more abundant, grow larger and have higher survival rates in streams with beaver ponds.

"Slackwater pools created by beaver activity provide very important refuges for coho smolts," Jackson said.

Beaver also benefit aquatic ecosystems by elevating water tables, reducing stream water velocity, reducing erosion and enhancing riparian vegetation.

In fact, beavers provide for free the same benefits as expensive "stream restoration projects" -- which often involve hiring helicopters to place woody debris in the water.

"Beavers could save us hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars," said workgroup member Kelly Moore, a fish research program manager for the ODFW.

"From a standpoint of engineering, beavers are just an incredible benefit in the places where we need them," said Larry Cooper, deputy administrator of the ODFW's Wildlife Division.

Beavers are a big part of Oregon history. Many of the first settlers to come to the Oregon Territory were lured solely by the opportunity to take beaver pelts.

Oregon's beaver population had been decimated by the fur trade by the time of statehood in 1859. Another setback came from such destructive logging practices as splash-damming, which channelized streams and removed woody debris beavers needed to survive.

The size of the current population is anybody's guess. The ODFW tracks the number of beaver harvested by licensed trappers.

That number has declined from more than 6,000 per year in the late 1980s to about 2,000 per year recently.

In the 2008-09 fiscal year, 278 beaver were killed in Lane County by licensed furtakers, more than in any other county.

However, the ODFW no longer has the ability to track the number of beaver killed for damage-control reasons. (The state Attorney General's office ruled several years ago that landowners had a right to defend their property from beavers without first obtaining a permit.)

Beaver damage complaints in Lane County have declined in recent years, according to district wildlife biologist Brian Wolfer.

"But our damage complaints aren't necessary an accurate gauge of the amount of beaver conflict out there," he said.

That's because people who learn what their rights are under the predatory animal statute may not bother to call and complain, Wolfer said.

The ODFW hopes to increase landowner tolerance for beaver in fish bearing streams when the damage they cause is minor.

The plan is to publish a brochure that will help people learn to coexist with beaver, including information on how to use "beaver excluders" to protect trees and culverts.