Beavers: Good critters to have in environment
Durango Herald, November 10, 2002
Cheryl Wiescamp and Durango Nature Studies staff

As winter approaches, beavers are completing dam construction and collecting food stores. These creatures have remarkable behavioral and physical traits, and are one of the few animals who create their own habitat, sometimes creating conflicts with landowners.

We invite you to test your knowledge of these giant rodents (True or False):

1) Beavers eat fish. False, beavers are vegetarians, eating the inner bark from riparian trees and shrubs including aspen, birch, alder, cottonwood and willow. They can chew down a 6 inch tree in 20 minutes. Beavers’ teeth constantly grow and must be used year round to keep them short and sharp.

2) Beavers hibernate. False, beavers are active all winter long as they are adapted to the cold and have access to their food source. They store fresh sticks and twigs underwater in the pond they create with their dam.

3) Beavers pack mud onto their dams with their tails. False, beavers collect mud and debris from the bottom of the pond and use their forepaws to pat it into place. Tails are used to slap the water as a warning, for fat storage, as a rudder when swimming and as kickstands when balancing to chew on trees.

4) Beavers mate for life. True, beaver pairs typically have 2-4 kits each year, (occasionally up to 8). The kits are born around May and emerge from the lodge in the summer. The young remain an additional year, assisting with food collection, and then leave the lodge to find their own way.

5) Beavers do more harm than good. False, beaver activity does sometimes conflict with surrounding land uses, but it is instrumental in creating desirable wetland habitats. In Colorado, more than 80 percent of wildlife species rely on wetlands during part of their life for food water, shelter or a place to reproduce.

Now that you know a few interesting facts about beavers, what should you do about them on your property? If they are not causing any problems, the best route is to leave them alone. In fact, removing a beaver simply frees up habitat for another to move in. However, if beavers are infringing on your landscaping or irrigation ditches, we recommend the following strategies:

• To keep beavers from cutting down trees, simply wrap them with wire fencing or remesh. The wire should be tall enough so that in the winter beavers cannot stand on the snow and reach above to the unprotected trunk. Be sure to leave enough room between the tree trunk and the wire for the tree to grow.
• To prevent flooding or blockage of culverts and ditches, flow devices made from pipe or culvert and wire can be installed in ponds, streams and ditches. A short video with step-by-step instructions is available at the public libraries in Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio.

Beavers are not necessarily harmful. In fact, many land managers and ranchers are now reintroducing beavers for stream restoration work. Beaver dams slow stream erosion, raise water tables, and filter pollutants and sediments - critical during times of mud slides and ash flows.

Beavers can best be observed during dawn or dusk. If you hike the Spud Lake Trail off Old Lime Creek Road, you are assured to see beaver dams and perhaps a few of these fascinating critters.