A beaver census is just downstream, to be administered by the White River National Forest this summer through October.
The Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday unanimously approved an agreement to allocate $50,000 of the Healthy Rivers and Streams Fund to partially finance a study into beaver activity and habitats Roaring Fork Valley headwaters.
“This agreement is to investigate and implement actions to promote #beaver utilization of our #headwater streams up on #federal land in order to promote #watershed health and occupation by native #aquatic #species,” said Lisa Tasker of the Healthy Rivers and Streams Citizen Advisory Board.
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Ecologically, beavers dams and the pools they produce allow a healthy, vibrant riparian zone in areas they might not otherwise exist. And they hold runoff water at higher elevations for longer.
Clay Ramey, a fisheries #biologist with the White River National Forest, said that once the U.S. Forest Service knows where beavers already live and where they would improve the #ecosystem, they can relocate beavers to sites that make ecological sense.
“Beavers were native here. And so, before the gringos showed up and killed them all, there were beavers everywhere. And more or less every stream that’s less than something like 5% slope was just chock a block with #beaver dams. The animals adapted to that, and the plant communities adapted to that. And the water that came out of these #watersheds probably a lot slower than it did once we took all the #beavers out,” Ramey said.
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The article included this very cool illustration of the ecological changes brought about by a beaver dam. Source: Nick Bouwes
@rachelschicksiegel Not to be outdone, here's a beaver dam in our neighborhood. It's right by the Black Mountain Trail.
I'm not sure if it's currently occupied. Any way to tell other than staking the place out?
This picture was taken in April 2022. I'll take better pictures this year (I don't hike this trail in winter because I'm a solo hiker and cellphone reception is iffy).
