By Ben Goldfarb

Did you ever realize that North America was completely overrun with beavers, that is until the Europeans took over? Beavers were the dominant rodent in North America for millions of years, working diligently to create an abundance of slow-moving water and ponds throughout the ecosystem, creating an environment in North America that we have all but lost – and need to regain as we tackle climate change.

Beavers’ dominant presence in the North American landscape had all but disappeared by 1900. Since the 1500s, mountain men, trappers, and traders had harvested all the beavers, turning their pelts into hats. In fact, the beaver was the greatest source of wealth for several hundred years, until they were nearly exterminated. Native Americans had long had a cooperative relationship with beavers but that changed when beavers became a significant source of wealth.

Almost every stream, river, and lake in North America brimmed with beavers until the traders moved in, emptying the landscape and drastically changing how the world worked. A continent that had been shaped by beavers was mercilessly altered.  But that alteration can be changed for the good by restoring beavers to the landscape. That restoration is happening in carefully designed projects through the arid west.

One interesting story is about the rancher in Elko County, Nevada who has restored beavers to his land. Elko County is in the Great Basin, an area that is extremely dry and becoming drier. Goldfarb recounts the story of the Winecup Gamble Ranch, with nearly a million acres, as a place that has welcomed the return of beavers. The beavers on Thousand Springs Creeks are helping the area produce an abundance of grass that supports the ranching operation that carefully controls where the cows graze.

Beaver dams replace man-made dams that can fail catastrophically and ordinarily support little life. To quote: “When beaver ponds fill in with sediment, they become meadows; when vast reservoirs do it, they become bowls of shallow, turbid soup, incapable of spinning turbines or sustaining aquatic life.”

Consider what Glen Canyon might look like today if it had been left to the beavers rather than taken over by the Bureau of Reclamation.

Turns out that California is one of the worst places to be a beaver, despite the state’s environmental record. A few days ago, a new report mentioned that California officials in the Central Valley are trying to combat the drying climate and the depletion of groundwater by agricultural operations by flooding the fields rather than building more dams. They hope that flooding will replenish the groundwater.

It apparently hasn’t occurred to these officials that introducing beavers will accomplish the same goal and increase support for wildlife in the area at the same time. As Goldfarb explains, California has solved its water problems with concrete for dams and canals. Local officials have even denied that beavers ever lived in California.

What beaver researchers know is that “by slowing, spreading, storing, and sinking meltwater and runoff” can help to replace declining snowpack. Perhaps California can be convinced to stop its war against beavers.

Goldfarb tells a compelling tale of the beaver past and the beaver present. Focusing alternatively on different sections of the continent, he traces the result of the absence of beavers and explains the animosity often displayed by farmers, ranchers, and even homeowners who want to get rid of every beaver they see. We learn of all the hunters and trappers who continue to rid the landscape of beavers.

Goldfarb also relates beaver recovery stories from Nevada, Wyoming (in particular, Yellowstone National Park), the New York Adirondacks, even Utah. We learn of the important actions that are restoring beavers and the landscape they create in area after area.

Recently, I saw a short PBS program relating how wildlife biologists are trying to restore beavers to Colorado’s high mountain terrain. Because our important snowpack is dwindling due to climate change, wildlife biologists are working to prevent the remaining high-country water from draining away too quickly. Restoring beavers and the dams they build slows down the water and maintains the high-country ecology intact to support wildlife and all the accompanying biological resources needed to maintain our wild environment. The beaver dams also release water more slowly, helping to maintain the waterflow downstream into our major riverways.

You will find Eager to be a fascinating and frustrating story of the amazing world of “nature’s premier construction engineer.” You may also want to support an effort to restore beavers to our landscape, perhaps including the Bear Creek watershed.