How Beavers Support Wildlife
Beavers support salmon

Beavers engineer waterways into rich fish nurseries, where young salmon choose from varying depths, temperatures, and flow rates — depending on their habitat needs in that moment. Beaver wetlands provide deep cold-water refuges on hot days, intricate canal networks and protective cover to shelter from predators, and abundant food for young salmon.

Beavers taught salmon to jump

After millennia of coexistence, salmon have mastered navigating beaver dams. Rare situations that could impede migration typically occur during low flows — conditions that would challenge salmon regardless of dams. Young salmon moving downstream easily slip over or through dam branches, while mature adults headed upstream are more than capable of leaping over beaver dams, small waterfalls, and other natural obstacles.

As beaver wetlands mature, they transform the land, reconnecting floodplains and weaving complex channel networks. These evolving systems can actually improve salmon passage over time since the network of pathways found in established beaver wetlands can offer multiple routes through the habitat.

These salmon species have evolved in beaver habitat: Salmo salar, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, Oncorhynchus kisutch, Oncorhynchus nerka, Oncorhynchus keta, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha