Centuries ago, the largest rodent in North America, the beaver, was extirpated throughout most of its range due to trapping for its highly sought after fur. Today, after years of efforts to reintroduce the beaver to extirpated areas, some consider this critter quite a nuisance while others understand the conservation benefits that beaver have to offer. The North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative recently released a comprehensive guidebook to provide detailed information about beaver ecology, recommendations for watershed restoration and management through beavers, and options for mitigating the unwanted impacts of beavers.

Beaver play an important role in watershed ecosystems. Their dams help to retain water within watersheds thus increasing base flows, storing more water and potentially returning streams from intermittent back to perennial. Beaver also play a role in the development of multi-threaded channels for aquatic passage, improving water quality, increasing riparian areas, and providing habitat for many fish, amphibians, reptiles, migratory birds, waterfowl, and aquatic invertebrate species.

Beginning in 2011, partners in the Pacific Northwest began to notice the growing interest in beaver and their potential role in stream, wetland, and floodplain restoration. With funding from the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative in 2013, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service partnered with Portland State University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Forest Service to begin comparing, assessing and piecing together work related to beavers and restoration from the region and around North America.

During this process, a series of interactive workshops were held along the Pacific coast from California to Alaska, where over 200 participants joined in five sold-out workshops. In these workshops, the Beaver Workgroup (made up of beaver experts from around the region) shared their recent research, stories, strategies, needs and challenges with participants, while participants in turn shared their involvement or interest in working with beaver.

The final conclusion of the workshops was that there is a lot to be gained from using beaver in conservation and restoration efforts. The background research and topics discussed during the workshops were compiled within a document that was shared and improved upon using feedback from workshop participants and continued progress of on-the-ground efforts. This document became the foundation of a new report that compiles beaver management information for those new to beaver restoration, or those already working with beaver.

"If you are a restoration practitioner, land manager, landowner, restoration funder, project developer, regulator, or other interested cooperators, this guidebook is for you," the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative's new Beaver Restoration Guidebook states at its forefront.

The guidebook includes an expansive list of topics related to beaver including beaver ecology, effects of dams on physical and biological processes, myth busters, beaver relocation, habitat management, non-lethal mitigation options, multiple case studies, and much more. The guidebook is a first step in providing this information in an easily accessible and usable document for an expansive audience of landowners, biologists, engineers, scientists, foresters, farmers, ranchers, the regulatory and funding communities, and many more. The guidebook is also intended to allow partners to share and communicate about current and potential restoration efforts, bringing together a wide range of partners to work at a landscape-scale in efficiently using beaver to restore stream ecosystems and the species occupying them.

"Using beaver to restore streams is a long term commitment," NOAA's Michael Pollock, of the Beaver Working Group, explains. "You're going to need to collaborate," he says.

The first version of the full guidebook was released in early July and has already been well-received by multiple agencies and organizations. The full guide is available for viewing and download. For more information on the project and beaver workshops, including an upcoming workshop in coordination with the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, visit the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Oregon Office's page. To learn more about the North Pacific LCC and the type of science they fund, please visit nplcc.org.

Questions about the Beaver Working Group and guidebook can be sent to Janine Castro.

The North Pacific LCC would like to thank the authors for compiling this guidebook: Janine Castro, US Fish and Wildlife Service; Michael Pollock and Chris Jordan, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Gregory Lewallen, Portland State University; and Kent Woodruff, US Forest Service.

The Wildlife Management Institute (WMI), in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is providing support to the Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) network. This section of the Outdoor News Bulletin provides readers with regular updates on LCC efforts involving WMI. This month's Landscapes article was written by Meghan Kearney with the North Pacific LCC.