Partnership & Potential
Through Coexistence

This project with USFWS (US Fish and Wildlife Service) is a continuation of a 2019 venture to model the Beaver Intrinsic Potential (BIP) habitat for beavers in the Rogue Basin, assessing both the landscape and existing beaver populations and habitat use within that area. Our continuation of the project is now turning focus to people, seeking to better understand and address local human interactions with beavers, particularly any challenges beaver activities may be causing with damages to infrastructure and riparian or ornamental plantings.

This partnership with USFWS provides funding to assist landowners in the Rogue and Umpqua Basins by the implementing coexistence solutions for living with our beaver neighbors. These tools are proven, cost effective, and relatively easy to install and maintain. Occasionally, however, coexistence may not feasible because human land uses cannot tolerate any rise in water level, so this project also encompasses developing a list of suitable release sites in the Rogue Basin to live trap and relocate beaver, as a last hope alternative to exterminating them.

Case Study: Phoenix, OR

With this project funding, in March of 2021 we installed a coexistence solution for the City of Phoenix in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon. Beaver built an impressive dam at the drainage end of a stormwater retention pond between Highway 99 and the Phoenix Civic Center, and we installed a pond leveler to preserve the dam while addressing the city’s concerns that the water level not get so high as to undermine the road or overwhelm a downstream culvert. In addition to our partnership with USFWS, the leveler was installed in coordination with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and ODFW (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife). We also invited APHIS Wildlife Services (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services), who sent a staff member to observe the process, as they are interested in building capacity to offer non-lethal beaver coexistence solutions in the future. As the recognized value of these solutions continues to grow, we’re going to need more trained professionals to deploy them, and we leveraged this installation to train three individuals who are starting small businesses in this emerging field.

This installation was particularly rewarding, because in the aftermath of the Almeda Fire in September 2020, the beaver dam is contributing significantly to capturing toxic sludge and runoff from burned cars and buildings throughout the city. We can’t say for certain that the beaver pond prevented the Civic Center from burning down, but it was easy to see the incoming water flow was thick and grey with ash upstream of the beaver dam, but running crystal clear coming out of it, right above where it flows into salmonid-bearing Bear Creek. Oregon Public Broadcasting filmed the installation for their program “Oregon Field Guide” which ran on November 11th, 2021. Watch the episode, embedded below!