This AP story is worth a read. For over 60 years the US Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services division has pursued an aggressive strategy of lethal control and removal of beaver, despite much progress has been made in 'living with beaver' mitigation strategies that have proven more effective and cheaper. Some staff scientists within the agency have continued to ignore the science and improved management practices, and some have gone as far as publishing studies with questionable study designs and interpretation to try to support their practices. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.  First and foremost, it needs to be recognized that beaver can and do cause undesirable damage to some infrastructure, and mitigation strategies are needed. Lethal control is rarely effective in the long-term, but it could be argued it might be a useful last-resort in the tool-box. This is an interesting angle the plaintiffs are taking invoking an ESA take.

If you're a USU undergrad or graduate student interested in learning more about beaver as a restoration and conservation tool, please consider registering for WATS 6860. This a 1 credit course, and while its listed as WATS 6860, I will accept upper division undergrads in NR programs. We meet about 10 Thursdays from 4:30 to 6:30 and have 2-3 field trips (including one where you will learn how to design and build beaver dam analogues yourself). Shout with questions.

I went up to Cochrane, Alberta to give a talk at a 'Putting Beavers to Work for Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Symposium' Hosted by the Miistakis Institute and the Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society (Cows and Fish). It was fun to sit on a question panel with Cherie Westbrook & Glynnis Hood (whom I'd never met), and meet a bunch of great folks doing really interesting work on beaver up in Canada. 

The Grand Canyon Trust has just released a new 13-minute video “Beaver: Back to the Future,” featuring ET AL's own Nick Bouwes. It also includes four Forest Service employees, and a retired Regional Forester who praise the power of beaver to beneficially restore and manage national forest water flows in the face of climate change.

Filmmaker Sarah Koenigsberg’s camera captures three processes by which beaver have recently been able to re-enter creek systems in Utah, Oregon, and Washington to work their dam magic.

​Joe delivered a Science Unwrapped talk on September 11, 2015 to a Logan Audience & on September 24, 2015 to a Park City Audience at Swanner EcoCenter.

The Logan presentation was recorded and will be posted eventually to Science Unwrapped's Website.

PDFs of the slides are available here:

• Logan Slides
• Park City Slides​

On Wednesday, February 11, 2015, at 10 AM MST, Grand Canyon Trust hosted a webinar by Joe Wheaton on "What Can Beaver Teach Us About Adapting to Climate Change and Building More Resilient Systems?" ​

​
Utah State University fluvial geomorphologist Joe Wheaton studies rivers and the changes we humans – and beaver – bring to them. Joe and his colleagues observe, map, and document what happens when rivers are fortunate enough to have beaver, both here in the West and around the world. In this 1-hour webinar, Joe will share what he and others are learning from beaver, explain where and how their dams interact with climate change, and take your questions.