executive director Adam Burnett conducted 9 site visits from October thru December 2024 with BeaverCorps professionals, partners, tribes, restoration practitioners, hunters, ranchers, land holders, and academics. Adam was able to spend time with three of our trained beaver professionals during and witness their considerable impact on three very different landscapes and contexts – historical, cultural, geological, hydrological.

In an ongoing series of reflections and snaps from the Beaver field, this first edition features Mark, Cat & Artoo Beardsley in Buena Vista, CO; Elissa Chott, Shelby Weigand, and Sarah Bates in Missoula, MT; and Alexa Whipple and Gert Webster in Okanogan County, Washington.

Notes from the Beaver Field: Buena Vista, CO

BeaverCorps Mark Beardsley (back turned), and partners Cat Beardsley and Artoo, at a beaver-restoration project near the headwaters of the Arkansas River.

BeaverCorps professional Mark Beardsley and his team at EcoMetrics crafted over 100 beaver-dam analogues, alongside coexistence strategies like tree-wrapping, to awaken a dormant wetland. In a short time, this complex has begun the process of recovery, after recent histories of cattle overgrazing, channel incision, and drought. With the return of at least six beavers, the landscape is once again retaining water to restore a vibrant wetland.

A dynamic challenge and opportunity is the high sediment load in the basin, a necropolis of decomposed granite, producing large sandy washouts, which prompt the beavers to work extra hard in rebuilding their dams. However, the large deposits of sand captured behind dams rapidly revegetates to reverse incision, and the persistent work by beavers to maintain ponds and canals are collectively reviving a dynamic and complex wetland at an accelerated rate.

It is the “both, and also, yet, however, but” dynamism in the complex network that delights Mark in his restoration work. Ultimately, in Mark’s words, “The goal is to restore the ecological parts and let the natural machine run the show.”

Notes from the Beaver Field: Cold Creak Meadow, Missoula, MT

Shelby Weigand sharing the restoration site alongside BeaverCorps professional Elissa Chott and Beaver Institute Board Director Sarah Bates.

As snow flurries gathered, a bald eagle welcomed us into Gold Creek Meadow where Elissa Chott (BeaverCorps) and Shelby Weigand of the National Wildlife Federation shared a large-scale landscape restoration project. One where beavers play a critical role.In a heterogenous collaboration between agencies, tribes, and local, state and national NGOs, atrophied meadows, streams, and forests throughout the Blackfoot – Clark Fork landscape are being healed.

Gold Creek Meadow, in particular, has been shaped by multiple layered histories, from the sustainable management by Salish and Kootenai Tribes, to mining and logging extraction, to private and public ownership. The restoration in the mountain meadow employs beaver-dam-analogues in concert with coexistence structures, enabling conditions for beaver activity.

Partnership. Collaboration. Understanding. When these values are held, especially in relations that have historically been adverse, large-scale projects increase their viability and success, as healing occurs not just with the land, but with one another.

Beaver Institute executive director visiting Gert Webster’s beaver restoration site.

Notes from the Beaver Field: Okanogan River Watershed, Washington

Meet Gertrude (Gert) Webster, a land holder whose home was destroyed by the Carlton Complex Fire in 2014. Chiliwist Creek, which runs through Gert’s land, is now being revitalized and restored thanks to support from the Washington Department of Ecology and on-the-ground beaver-related restoration of the Methow-Okanogan Beaver Project.

In two years of restoration work, 10-12 feet deep incised streams have, in many places, nearly reconnected to the floodplain through the installation of beaver dam analogues, which are capturing sediment and increasing water storage across the landscape.

And most recently: beavers have returned. Their activity strewn across the creek, including a series of felled trees which Alexa Whipple, Director of the Methow-Okanogan Beaver Project, staged closer to the creek. “Look at you, enabling the beavers!” Gert exclaimed, to which Alexa replied, “What I was born to do!”

Walking a landscape in the process of healing alongside Alexa and Gert, with their deep knowledge, compassion, and humility, was a gift. A gift punctuated by frequent laughter, the wisdom of hilarious breath. For in the sanctum sanctorum of Castoreum, let there be joy!