Beavers are Stream Wise

Iconic. Loveable. Engineers.

All words used by many to describe Vermont's beavers. They are large semiaquatic rodents. In fact, they are the second-largest living rodents, after Capybaras, weighing up to 110 pounds! They form monogamous, lifelong pairs and will have 1 to 4 kits each spring.  Kits will stay with their parents for up to two years before establishing their own colonies to begin the cycle again. 

Beavers spend their lifetimes (roughly 10-12 years in the wild) maintaining dams that create deep, safe water habitats and stockpiling tree branches for food throughout the winter within their lodges. Though once nearly eradicated from the state due to unregulated fur trading and habitat loss, beaver populations have successfully rebounded across Vermont.

Photo of a beaver lodge (Photo credits: Ian Shackleford, Wikipedia Commons)

As a keystone species (a species known to have a disproportionate impact on biodiversity and habitat stability in an ecosystem), beavers play an important role in shaping their environments.  By pooling water behind their dams, they create wetland habitats that provide critical resources for fish, amphibians, waterfowl, and many other species. Their dams and lodges also act as natural filters, trapping sediment and pollutants, and helping keep downstream waters cleaner. Additionally, beavers help regulate water availability by slowing water movement, reconnecting wetlands, allowing floodwaters to spread across the landscape, replenishing groundwater, and retaining water during dry periods.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/598afa_029cc9dab62748359bb116f89da59de0/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Adult beaver slapping its paddle-like tail of the water's surface. This serves as an alarm bell for other beavers to let them know that someone or something is within their territory. The slap itself can ward off predators with its loud boom. Turn on your volume to hear it for yourself! (Video credits: Sadie Preece)

Beavers are strictly herbivores, meaning they only eat plant materials such as leaves, twigs, grasses, sedges, and the cambium layer of deciduous trees (inner bark). They use their powerful chewing muscles and four chisel-shaped incisors to cut down entire trees. Their favorites include aspen, willow, cottonwood, poplar, and birch. All common species of trees that grow within the riparian zone -- the vegetated area of land alongside streams, rivers, lakes, and other waterbodies.

Healthy riparian zones are essential for healthy streams. They provide many important ecosystem services. These include creating wildlife habitat; stabilizing streambanks; slowing, spreading, and absorbing runoff from surrounding uplands; reducing erosion, and filtering sediment and pollutants before they reach the water. Many of these same functions are enhanced by beaver activity, making healthy riparian areas beneficial for both streams and beavers.

With all that we have learned about beavers here, I would also describe them as Stream Wise!  

By protecting and promoting diverse riparian buffers of trees, shrubs, and native vegetation, Stream Wise practices support resilient waterways while also providing the food and building materials that beavers depend on.

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If you have a stream on your property, you can join the beavers by also becoming Stream Wise! Stream Wise is an initiative created by the Lake Champlain Basin Program that engages streamside property owners throughout the Lake Champlain Basin in enhancing and protecting vegetated stream buffers. These efforts increase flood resiliency while benefiting water quality and wildlife habitat. 

Through the initiative, partnering organizations including Franklin County Natural Resources Conservation District provide free on-site consultations to streamside landowners, providing guidance on how to best steward our streams.  

If you have a stream on your property and want to learn more about best management practices to protect land, water and functional wildlife corridors, contact the Franklin County NRCD for a Stream Wise Consultation at kerry@franklincountynrcd.org or use the following form: https://TinyURL.com/FCNRCD-Stream-Wise