Into the wild: Cowlitz Indian Tribe releases mama beaver, 4 kits in Gifford Pinchot National Forest

May 29-GIFFORD PINCHOT NATIONAL FOREST - With a loud smack of her tail, a North American beaver signaled her return to the wild Thursday along with her four kits rescued by the Cowlitz Indian Tribe earlier this year. The mother and kits were released deep in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, south of Mount St. Helens, in an area where old dams show beavers once thrived.

"We're not exactly sure when. We've done a time series of aerial imagery that's taken us back to 1994, which is about as far back as we can see. These dams have been there this whole time, but we don't see any evidence of actual beaver occupancy in those decades. We don't see new dams being constructed," said Jesse Burgher, wildlife program manager for the Cowlitz tribe.

The four baby beavers and mama beaver were the stars of the Cowlitz tribe's livestream launched in May. Although the beavers will be missed, Burgher and Dan Kolenberg, wildlife technician for the tribe, were happy to see them find a new home in the wilderness.

The tribe has worked with state and federal wildlife agencies and local wildlife removal services to remove conflict or nuisance beavers from areas of human habitation and return them to the wild. Burgher said the tribe releases an average of 70 beavers each year.

Getting the beavers to their new home wasn't easy - for the beavers or the tribe's wildlife staff.

First, the beavers were loaded into two large animal carriers and placed in the back of a pickup truck for the 1 1/2 -hour drive to the national forest. When the pavement ended, Burgher and Kolenberg each strapped one of the 40-pound carriers on their backs and hiked through trees, dense underbrush and soggy marsh areas before finally arriving at a pond.

The beavers were given a few minutes to settle and adapt to the new environment. Once the carrier doors were opened, the beavers quickly and quietly slipped below the surface of the water. Just a few minutes later, the kits were spotted exploring their new home, sliding among the floating leaves, broadleaf cattails, grasses and willows that hugged the shoreline.

"By bringing beavers back here, we're hoping to continue the maintenance of these dams and hopefully raise water levels and store more water," Burgher said.

In about a month, Burgher and Kolenberg will come back to see how the beaver family is adjusting. They hope to eventually introduce a young or subadult male to the area to keep the family growing.

"I imagine they're going to explore and find somewhere where they can be safe. That log that we released them next to has an area that they can actually swim up under, and so we're hoping that they find that spot and adopt that as their home," Burgher said.

Considered a keystone species, beavers help restore salmon habitat by building dams that slow water flow and create deeper ponds. This helps cool stream temperatures and create wetlands, as well as shelter areas for juvenile salmon to hide from predators. Sediment that accumulates in these areas also creates ideal spawning grounds for salmon.

"The tribe has done a lot of great work with restoring salmon habitat on tributaries of the Columbia River, like the Kwoneesum Dam project and stuff up on Ostrander Creek, and there's recovery of salmon habitat in the lowlands, but also up here in the mountains," Kolenberg said, adding that beavers play an important role in that work.

"It's two sides of the same coin," Burgher said.

Returning beavers to the wild is a passion Burgher and Kolenberg share. The two spend hundreds of hours each year hiking through the forest and wading through marshes and ponds looking for signs of beaver activity.

"What that looks like is us walking, heads just looking down, and we're seeing where are the little beaver tracks and what have they done to modify that habitat," Kolenberg said.

With the data, Burgher said they are able to track how beavers are moving around the landscape and how they are setting up their territory.

"We'll record the species, the intensity, the sizes of things that they're eating, and then we'll record any other sign or any structure that they build, and we're going to use that data to map out home ranges and track occupancy through time," Burgher said.

Bringing beavers into the wild won't just benefit salmon. Burgher said a 2020 study in the Southwest Washington region found beaver-dammed wetland systems had longer hydroperiods, meaning they had water on the landscape for longer periods than undammed systems.

"We had increases in amphibian density and diversity relative to those dams, so they're really important for that. There's also a lot of studies showing benefits for waterfowl, for songbirds, any wildlife that uses the riparian area," he said.

This story was made possible by Community Funded Journalism, a project from The Columbian and the Local Media Foundation. Top donors include the Ed and Dollie Lynch Fund, Patricia, David and Jacob Nierenberg, Connie and Lee Kearney, Steve and Jan Oliva, The Cowlitz Tribal Foundation and the Mason E. Nolan Charitable Fund. The Columbian controls all content. For more information, visit columbian.com/cfj.

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