Springfield News-Sun

Rancher’s truce with some pesky beavers paid off

- Catrin Einhorn and Niki Chan Wylie

WELLS, NEVADA — Horace Smith blew up a lot of beaver dams in his life.

A rancher here in northeaste­rn Nevada, he waged war against the animals, frequently with dynamite. Not from meanness or cruelty; it was a struggle over water. Smith blamed beavers for flooding some parts of his property, Cottonwood Ranch, and drying out others.

But his son Agee, who eventually took over the ranch, is making peace. And he says welcoming beavers to work on the land is one of the best things he’s done.

“They’re very controvers­ial still,” said Agee Smith, whose father died in 2014. “But it’s getting better. People are starting to wake up.”

As global warming intensifie­s droughts, floods and wildfires, Smith has become one of a growing number of ranchers, scientists and other “beaver believers” who see the creatures not only as helpers, but as furry weapons of climate resilience.

Last year, when Nevada suffered one of the worst droughts on record, beaver pools kept his cattle with enough water. When rains came strangely hard and fast, the vast network of dams slowed a torrent of water raging down the mountain, protecting his hay crop. And with the beavers’ help, creeks have widened into wetlands that run through the sagebrush desert, cleaning water, birthing new meadows and creating a buffer against wildfires.

True, beavers can be complicate­d partners. They’re wild, swimming rodents the size of basset hounds with an obsession for building dams. When conflicts arise, and they probably will, you can’t talk it out.

Beavers flood roads, fields, timber forests and other areas that people want dry. They fell trees without a thought as to whether humans would prefer them standing. In response to complaints, the federal government killed almost 25,000 beavers last year.

But beavers also store lots of water for free, which is increasing­ly crucial in the parched American West. And they don’t just help with drought. Their engineerin­g subdues torrential floods from heavy rains or snowmelt by slowing water. It reduces erosion and recharges groundwate­r. And the wetlands beavers create may have the extra benefit of stashing carbon out of the atmosphere.

In addition to all that, the rodents do environmen­tal double duty, because they also tackle another crisis unleashed by humans: rampant biodiversi­ty loss. Their wetlands are increasing­ly recognized for creating habitat for myriad species, from salmon to sage grouse.

Beavers, you might say, are having a moment. In Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming, the Bureau of Land Management is working with partners to build beaver-like dams that they hope real beavers will claim and expand. In California, the new state budget designates about $1.5 million a year to restoring the animals for climate resilience and biodiversi­ty benefits.

Instead of killing beavers, the federal government should be embracing them as an important component of federal climate adaptation, according to two scientists who study beavers and hydrology, Chris Jordan of National Oceanic and Atmospheri­c Administra­tion Fisheries, and Emily Fairfax of California State University Channel Islands.

“It may seem trite to say that beavers are a key part of a national climate action plan, but the reality is that they are a force of 15-40 million highly skilled environmen­tal engineers,” Jordan and Fairfax wrote this year in a perspectiv­e article in the research journal WIRES Water.

 ?? NYT ?? In Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming, the Bureau of Land Management is laying out the welcome mat by working with partners to install artificial dams that they hope beavers will claim.
NYT In Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming, the Bureau of Land Management is laying out the welcome mat by working with partners to install artificial dams that they hope beavers will claim.

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