WATS 5620- Partnering with Beaver & Synthesis of Principle

Overview

Beaver are widely recognized as ecosystem engineers and keystone species. In this module we provide some background on their history, ecology, and management, and wrap up by discussing how to integrate riverscape and restoration principles with low-tech process-based approaches.

Objectives

Understand the history of beaver trapping, ecology, and beaver management
Understand the influence of beaver on ecosystems to better manage riverscapes and design low-tech process-based restoration
Integrate riverscape and restoration principles into restoration planning and implementation

Learning Resources

Beaver: Nature's ecosystem engineers

Lectures

Beaver History - a ~20 minute lecture by Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.
Beaver Ecology & Feedbacks - a 30 minute lecture by Nick Bouwes
Why Partner with Beaver - a 5 minute lecture by Jeremy Maestas

Activities

Module 1.3 Quiz: Partnering with Beaver

Assignment

Across North America, agencies, non-profit groups, and private landowners are starting beaver relocation programs in recognition of the potential benefits of reestablishing beaver populations. In this assignment, we would like you to select two reaches of riverscapes:

A reach you wish to translocate (hypothetically) beaver to
A reach with beaver dam building activity.

Please perform an assessment of the first sites suitability for translocation using your own BRAT analysis (e.g., BRAT CIS Protocol). Please perform a beaver dam activity survey (e.g., Beaver Protocol) of the second site. You can use sites you are familiar with (e.g., your backyard creek) or a place you have visited and have some knowledge of the site conditions. Or, you could use anywhere in Google Earth where beaver can be and you can see it from imagery.

Please follow these instructions (link forthcoming) to perform this assessment in Riverscapes Studio (QRiS). You will submit a URL to your shared Riverscapes Studio project in the Data Exchange. We will discuss the process and challenges of beaver relocation in class.