The Importance of Beavers

By: Kate Dickson

Canada’s beaver: An iconic species beloved enough to make it onto our coinage on one hand, but labeled as a “nuisance” and a “pest” on the other. What is it about this character that makes some of us love it so much from afar, but detest it so much when it gets too close? In today’s blog post, we’ll take a look at why landowners have such an issue sharing space with

beavers, why these issues are often overblown, and why trapping and/or relocation to eliminate a nuisance beaver is ineffective and costs more in the long term. We’ll then discuss several non-lethal options to manage beavers for co-existence with landowners and property managers.

Special thank you to Kari Gunson of non-profit Eco-Kare Canada, an expert in beavers in The Land Between bioregion, who helped contribute to this post. You can learn more about Eco-Kare by visiting their website.

Often the words nuisance and pest are associated with beavers, however beavers actually perform a very important role often unobserved by most property owners and managers, so much so that they are what biologists refer to as a “keystone species”. Keystone species are species that play an outsized role in their ecosystems. Their removal from the ecosystem, therefore, has a large impact on ecosystem function and the effects of removal cascade throughout it. Beavers are keystone species because they engineer the environment around them. Beavers create wetlands by creating dams, and wetlands are incredibly biodiverse that are home to a number of wildlife across freshwater fishes, frogs, turtles, waterbirds, insects, and other mammals too. In this way, the activity of beavers increases biodiversity, but this isn’t all that their hard work has to offer. Because wetlands can store water, filter it, and recharge groundwater, they provide ecosystem services that mitigate flooding, purify water, and provide drinking water for humans along with much more. With less than 30% of Ontario’s wetlands left, we are in desperate need of the mighty beaver now more than ever! Additionally, beavers can help reduce the effects of drought as well as reduce erosion, so we truly have a lot to thank them for!

Beavers and human contact

According to Kari, the predominant reasons beavers and humans run into conflict in The Land Between involves the downing of vegetation as well as worries about water level changes on property located near beaver activity. That, and some people seem to have a hard time sharing their space with wildlife, even though wildlife have every right to be here too and The Land Between is a last refuge that wildlife have in this part of the province! With respect to the removal of vegetation, it’s perfectly reasonable to be a bit distressed, especially if beavers are downing trees near built structures or if they are causing damage to particularly mature vegetation. In this instance, there are some solutions property owners can employ to protect specific trees. When it comes to the risk of water level changes, according to Kari, fears are typically overblown. In her experience, only 10% of cases result in changes that may actually be problematic for nearby land like residential properties or roads. The rest of the time, the impacts are minimal or even unnoticeable!

Living alongside beavers and humane mitigation practices

Our first suggestion is that unless a beaver has moved in very close to your property or is creating a real nuisance, that you try to live alongside them, as they are instrumental for biodiversity and the ecosystem services they offer, as previously discussed.

If you do need to do some active management, the first suite of mitigative options involves what you plant. Opting for trees that beavers don’t like such as elderberry, twinberry, and ninebark, can help keep beavers at bay in areas immediately near your built structures. When it comes to existing trees, you can wrap them in meter-high galvanized welded wire fencing, hardwire cloth, or multiple layers of chicken wire. If, however, you need to take things a step further, there are a couple of options, according to Kari. First, you can call in experts to help you headstart a beaver pond. This is exactly what it sounds like. It involves getting a beaver pond started in a non-sensitive area to encourage beavers to move into that area instead of more sensitive ones near your built structures. You should always coordinate with neighbours when it comes to this option to ensure that headstarting won’t create an issue for someone else. Beaver Deceivers are another option that consist of a pipe conveying up to 1 foot of water through a beaver dam. The intake is built into a wire cage so that a beaver cannot plug the pipe. The pipe is meant to mediate the threat of flooding from areas of conflict such as roads, property dwellings, or agricultural areas, according to Kari.

Why relocation and intentional harm don’t work

You may have heard of people trying to eliminate their beaver problem altogether a bit more directly through trapping, either to kill or relocate. Unfortunately, this is largely ineffective. The reason for this is that in most areas in The Land Between, the removal of one beaver is only a temporary solution because a new beaver is almost sure to move in. In fact, one statistic that seems to be pretty widely accepted is that in areas that are not isolated, new beavers will move in where old beavers have been removed within two years 75% of the time.

Trapping should only be used in cases where human life is at risk, such as where beavers may affect the integrity of a roadway or where they may inadvertently flood roads that become unsafe as a result. In all other cases, it is not recommended, as even attempted relocation can be inhumane. This is because beavers have been shown to be easily stressed by human handling. In addition, beavers have complex familial relationships, just like humans, and the relocation can separate family members, disrupt their bonds, and be distressing as well. Finally, attempted relocation can spread disease to new areas.

The takeaway

Beavers are incredibly important animals for the role they play in the creation of wetlands, not only because these wetlands are teeming with biodiversity, but also because they play a role in flood and drought mitigation, water purification, supporting and stabilizing lake levels, as well as providing potable water supplies. Most of the time, a new beaver neighbour creates little to no issue on your property. Unless beavers are downing trees near built structures, downing mature vegetation you hold near and dear, or causing water levels to change on your property, it’s best to try to live alongside them rather than interfere because of just how important they are. When beavers are causing issues on or near your property, consider the non-lethal options to manage them from this blog or contact a beaver specialist to help. The Beaver Institute has a team of Beaver-wetland specialists and Kari is located in Peterborough for those looking for help in that area of The Land Between.

References

Brazier, R. E., Puttock, A., Graham, H. A., Auster, R. E., Davies, K. H., & Brown, C. M. (2020). Beaver: Nature’s ecosystem engineers. WIREs Water, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1494
Wetland Ecosystem Services – an introduction. (n.d.). https://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/documents/library/services_00_e.pdf
Wetlands. Ontario Nature. (2024, May 13). https://ontarionature.org/campaigns/wetlands/
Parks Canada Agency, G. of C. (2022, November 19). Beavers: 5 ways beavers keep our ecosystems healthy. Riding Mountain National Park. https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/mb/riding/nature/animals/mammals/castors-beavers
Preventing conflicts with Beavers. ontario.ca. (n.d.). https://www.ontario.ca/page/preventing-conflicts-beavers
Fooling nature’s engineers: Beaver deceiver 101. Nature Groupie. https://naturegroupie.org/story/fooling-natures-engineers-beaver-deceiver-101

7. On beaver relocation. Western Beavers Cooperative. (n.d.). https://westernbeavers.org/why-we-dont-relocate-beavers/#:~:text=Here’s%20what%20we%20learned%20and,work%20over%20the%20long%20term

The Importance of Beavers