Beaver-based Restoration
Marys River Watershed Council has long maintained a focus on beaver habitat as we’ve designed and implemented our restoration projects, as well as a focus on beavers in our education and outreach programming.
The Mid-Willamette Beaver Partnership (MWBP) is a multi-basin group of partners that is exploring where and how beaver-based restoration would make the most sense – both ecologically and sociologically.
Beaver-centric plantings
Beginning in 2011, we’ve included beaver forage and dam construction shrub and tree species in our riparian planting mix, both to support existing beaver populations and to improve habitat conditions that support beaver colonization.
The primary species included for beaver habitat improvement include willow, vine maple, black cottonwood and alder (Oregon ash has historically also been a key species, but with the arrival of the Emerald Ash Borer in Oregon we are no longer including ash in our plantings).
In combination with choosing a beaver-centric planting palette, MRWC developed a plant protection practice used on key tree species to allow those species to establish before releasing them to beavers. This protection involves a chicken-wire cage supported on two bamboo poles, a design which prevents beaver from climbing the protection to reach the seedling trunk.
beaver dam analogs
In 2021, we installed three beaver dam analogs (BDA) in Devitt Creek as part of a larger project which included fish passage improvements and large wood placements the first such installations in our watershed.
We installed 6″ – 8″ untreated posts across the stream’s floodplain, buried the posts at least 6′ deep and cut them to an elevation of 1′ above the existing floodplain terrace. These posts were then woven with conifer limbs to begin the process of retaining woody debris and low floodplain terrace inundation to encourage colonial expansion of beaver in the reach.
Based on a multi-year monitoring project of numerous BDAs installed in the Nehalem watershed in this way, they improve hydrological conditions enough to allow beaver to build dams of their own, either using the BDAs as a foundation, or building nearby.
Mid-Willamette Beaver Partnership
The Mid-Willamette Beaver Partnership (MWBP) is a multi-basin group of partners that is exploring where and how beaver-based restoration would make the most sense – both ecologically and sociologically.
The MWBP seeks to expand the ecological and social benefits that beaver habitats provide while mitigating the potential negative impacts beaver behavior can cause.
The MWBP includes the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF); the Luckiamute (LWC), Marys River (MRWC), North Santiam (NSWC), South Santiam (SSWC) and Calapooia (CWC) Watershed Councils; the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (CTGR) Natural Resources Department; and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (CTSI) Natural Resources Department.
Find out more: