Beaver Assisted Restoration
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    • Restoration Manual
    • Beaver Restoration Topics >
      • Beaver Ecology & Hydrogeomorphic Feedbacks >
        • Introductions, Expectations & Overview
        • Beaver Ecology & History
        • Ecological & Hydrogeomorphic Feedbacks of Beaver Dams
        • Monitoring Beaver Activity - Understanding the Beaver Dam Cycle
      • Restoration & Conservation Regulations >
        • Potential Problems Using Beaver for Restoration & Conservation
        • Overview of Conservation & Restoration Practices
        • Existing Beaver Restoration Projects
        • Regulatory Framework Relevant to Beaver
        • Expectation Management: Communicating to Public/Stakeholders/Decision Makers
        • Assessing Potential for Beaver in Restoration & Conservation
        • Field Examples of Assessing Capacity of Landscape to Support Beaver
      • Designing & Monitoring Restoration Projects With Beaver >
        • General Design Considerations & Concepts
        • Design Process at Bridge Creek
        • Monitoring Design, Maintenance & Adaptive Management
        • Monitoring Findings in Bridge Creek
        • Curtis Creek Field Trip
    • Beaver Literature
    • Interesting Links
    • Videos & Movies
    • Need Help Planning, Designing & Building?
    • External LInks >
      • BRAT - Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool
      • Restoration Consortium @ USU
      • The Beaver Institute
      • Wheaton ETAL Lab
      • Anabranch Solutions

Course Materials 2018

Week 1 - Intro + Beaver Biology, Fur-Trapping History, & Dam Building

  • Intro Lecture Slides
  • Field trip to Rock Creek - On Saturday, January 13, 2018, four of us went up to Rock Creek to check out some beaver dam complexes and work of an active beaver colony through the winter.  Contribute your own photos to this album. We flew the drone and took a few pics from above to get some different perspective.

During the field trip, we stopped off on the mainstem Blacksmith Fork and got a little perspective on valley settings and geomorphic context within which beaver build these dams. 
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Example of different degrees of confinement leading to different valley settings (from Wheaton et al. (2015).
For, some follow up background and context on valley setting you can refer to:
  • 2015. Fryirs K, Wheaton JM, and Brierley G. An approach for measuring confinement and assessing the influence of valley setting on river forms and processes. Earth Surface Processes & Landforms. DOI: 10.1002/esp.3893
  • 2015. Wheaton JM, Fryirs K, Brierley G, Bangen S, Bouwes N, and O’Brien G. Geomorphic Mapping and Taxonomy of Fluvial Landforms. Geomorphology. 248: 273-295. DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2015.07.010
Picture
Picture
Beaver dam complex on Rock Creek near its fan and confluence with the Blacksmith Fork River (click on photo for album)
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Week 2: Beaver Dam Feedbacks

  •  Beaver Ecosystem Engineering & Feedbacks (slides)
References that were Discussed:
  • Bush, BM and Wissinger, SA, 2016. Invertebrates in Beaver-Created Wetlands and Ponds. 411-449. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-24978-0_12. - Susan's former advisor published this very informative chapter on ecological feedbacks of beaver-created wetlands and ponds on invertebrates. ​

Week 3 - Riverscape Capacity to Support Beaver Dams

  • Lecture Slides
  • In Class Exercise -  BRAT_Bridge_Creek.zip
  • BRAT Tutorials
  • BRAT Model 

Introduction to beaver ASSISTED restoration

  •  Overview of Restoration with Beaver Slides (this year - Scott Shahveridan's slides)
  •  Overview of Restoration with Beaver Slides (last year)

Running BRAT

This week we will learn how to run BRAT.

Beaver Translocation

Scott spoke with us about Beaver Translocation.

We read and discussed:
  • Woodruff K and Pollock MM. 2015. Relocating Beaver. In: Pollock MM, Lewallen G, Woodruff K, Jordan CE and Castro JM (Eds), The Beaver Restoration Guidebook: Working with Beaver to Restore Streams, Wetlands, and Floodplains. Version 1.0. United States Fish and Wildlife Service: Portland, OR, pp. 61-81.
  • McKinstry MC and Anderson SH. 2003. Survival, fates, and success of transplanted beavers, Castor canadensis, in Wyoming. Canadian Field-Naturalist. 116(1): 60-68.

Living with Beaver and Adaptive management

We will prepare our own adaptive beaver management plan for the City of Logan. We will use the following as examples:
  1. Portugal, E., Wheaton, JM., Sorenson, K., Majerova, M., Hunt, B., Bouwes, N. 2015. Hardware Ranch Adaptive Beaver Management Plan. Prepared for Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Logan, Utah. 26 Pages. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29887.30883 
  2. Portugal E., Wheaton, JM., Bouwes, N. 2015. Spring Creek Wetland Area Adaptive Beaver Management Plan. Prepared for Walmart Stores Inc. and the City of Logan. Logan, Utah. 25 Pages. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2075.3361
  3. Wheaton JM. 2013. Scoping Study and Recommendations for an Adaptive Beaver Management Plan. Prepared for Park City  Municipal Corporation. Logan, Utah, 30 pp.  DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.903648.
  4. ​Shahverdian SM, Macfarlane WW and Wheaton JM. 2016. MEMO: Westerly Creek Beaver Dam Capacity Assessment: Developing Realistic Expectations for Beaver Dam Activity. Prepared for Muller Engineering Company, Anabranch Solutions, Logan, UT, 24 pp. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34120.93446

There are lots of good resources for 'living with beaver' and mitigation out there. The Beaver Institute is an excellent resource for such information, and Beaver Solutions is a great example of a company that helps implement such solutions.
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Picture

Last year's slides below (updated as we go)


Week 6
  •  Living with Beaver and Adaptive Management
Week 7
  •  Beaver Translocation
Week 8
  •  BDAs Slides
  •  BDA Photos (from Scott)

Workshops

Current Workshops
​Past Workshops

Organizers

Utah State University Restoration Consortium
​USU - Watershed Sciences Department
Joe Wheaton
Wheaton ETAL  Lab @ Fluvial Habitats Center
​Anabranch Solutions

Support

Contact
Beyond Workshops... Need help getting started?

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  • Home
    • Beaver News
  • About Workshops
    • Recommended Readings
    • Learning Outcomes
    • Inquiries
    • USU Course Policies
  • Your Workshop
    • Upcoming & Current Workshops & Courses >
      • Open Erollment >
        • 2019 - Beaver Translocation
        • 2019 - USU WATS 6860 >
          • Course Materials
        • 2019 -Construction Workshop
      • Bespoke/Private >
        • 2019 SGI LTPBR
    • Past Workshops & Courses >
      • Open Enrollment >
        • 2011 - ICRRR Workshop
        • 2012 - ICRRR Workshop
        • 2017 - USU WATS 6860 >
          • Course Materials
        • 2018 - USU WATS 6860 >
          • Course Materials
        • 2018 -Construction Workhsop
      • Bespoke >
        • 2012 - UWCC Workshop
        • 2013 - RRNW Short Course
        • 2013 - NRCS Workshop
        • 2014 - Klamath Watershed Partnership /OWEB Workshop
        • 2015 - UDWR Workshop
        • 2015 - USFS Workshop
        • 2016 - SGI Workshop
        • 2018 - John Day Workshop
        • 2018 - NRCS, PF, SGI >
          • NRCS - Idaho >
            • Workshop Materials
          • NRCS - Utah >
            • Cedar City Workshop Materials
            • Logan Workshop Materials
          • NRCS - Wyoming >
            • Lander Workshop Materials
          • NRCS - Nevada >
            • Elko Workshop Materials
          • NRCS Specific Resources
  • Resources
    • Restoration Manual
    • Beaver Restoration Topics >
      • Beaver Ecology & Hydrogeomorphic Feedbacks >
        • Introductions, Expectations & Overview
        • Beaver Ecology & History
        • Ecological & Hydrogeomorphic Feedbacks of Beaver Dams
        • Monitoring Beaver Activity - Understanding the Beaver Dam Cycle
      • Restoration & Conservation Regulations >
        • Potential Problems Using Beaver for Restoration & Conservation
        • Overview of Conservation & Restoration Practices
        • Existing Beaver Restoration Projects
        • Regulatory Framework Relevant to Beaver
        • Expectation Management: Communicating to Public/Stakeholders/Decision Makers
        • Assessing Potential for Beaver in Restoration & Conservation
        • Field Examples of Assessing Capacity of Landscape to Support Beaver
      • Designing & Monitoring Restoration Projects With Beaver >
        • General Design Considerations & Concepts
        • Design Process at Bridge Creek
        • Monitoring Design, Maintenance & Adaptive Management
        • Monitoring Findings in Bridge Creek
        • Curtis Creek Field Trip
    • Beaver Literature
    • Interesting Links
    • Videos & Movies
    • Need Help Planning, Designing & Building?
    • External LInks >
      • BRAT - Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool
      • Restoration Consortium @ USU
      • The Beaver Institute
      • Wheaton ETAL Lab
      • Anabranch Solutions