Connecting people and sharing resources to advance the beaver's keystone role

in watershed health

Photo Credit: Minette Layne

Beavers on the Move

In mid-May of this year, Autumn Holzgen had an experience that makes beavers worth believing. An active member of the Montana Beaver Working Group and Northern Great Plains Program Manager for Montana Conservation Corps, Holzgen was walking along a perennial stream in central Montana with a landowner and Big Sky Watershed Corps member, checking the status of a BDA project. But suddenly, to her great surprise, she spied out a beaver sitting outside a bank-burrowed lodge. She proceeded to scream out of excitement, and the beaver (no doubt equally surprised), did what all beavers would do when they feel threatened: They plunged to safety, deep into the pool above one of the BDAs. 

The project was only a year old, and in fall 2023, Holzgen’s crew noticed signs that a beaver might be active in the area. While they had installed a robust complex of about 25 BDA structures, the project was so fresh that they weren't confident the beaver was there to stay. But with the mid-May sighting, they realized the beaver might have survived the winter and made a home right in the middle of their work. By spring it was clear that the beaver enhanced the existing BDAs by adding chewed-up grass and mud, plus one additional dam of its own.

The landowner had mentioned that beavers were historically present on the ranch, but unfortunately had been removed. Since then, the beavers have been present within the system, but much farther downstream on state land where there is an abundance of willows. The landowner and their family first approached Montana Conservation Corps in 2022, eager to enhance the habitat and once again provide a home for beaver's on their ranch after learning about all the ecological benefits bring to the health of a watershed system. At the start of summer 2023, several miles upstream on the ranch, Holzgen’s crew chose to build a complex of 25 structures surrounding an isolated willow stand, and it seems like that encouraged the beaver to make a home – amidst the BDAs – in their historic waters.

Young beavers generally stay with their family as yearlings, but as the parents give birth to new kits in late spring, the two-year old beavers disperse. Holzgen likely saw one of those maturing beavers on the quest for a new territory to establish as a home. The summer months are a dynamic, vulnerable time for this two-year-old cohort of dispersing beavers, with each one traversing an uncertain gauntlet of roads, floods, droughts, mountain lions, irrigation mazes, and more. How beavers are able to find willing mates and unoccupied habitats is truly miraculous.

In his 2018 master’s thesis “Ecosystem Pioneers: Beaver Dispersal and Settlement Site Selection in the Context of Habitat Restoration,” Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Region 2 Nongame Biologist Torrey Ritter sought to learn from beavers making these journeys. His southwest Montana study showed that streams with low-gradients, ample woody vegetation, and relatively narrow widths were important indicators for disperser settlement, but that prior beaver occupancy was the most important factor of all. Ritter found that abandoned and relic dams and lodges were a crucial attraction, and these insights were deepened with Jordan Kennedy’s 2023 doctoral dissertation, “Building in Flow.” With fieldwork based on the Blackfeet Nation, Kennedy documented how abandoned, beaver-shaped trails and canals are often cues for sites where dams may persist.



In many places where historic beaver infrastructure is too long lost to be rediscovered by dispersers, BDAs can entice beavers to return, extend, and enhance the dynamic, complex conditions on which healthy streams depend. And since we rarely have skills, funds, and tools to sustain these conditions across multiple generations and ecosystems, BDA projects benefit immensely from the long-term, in-stream maintenance that only beavers provide. Focusing our riparian restoration efforts on sites with prior beaver occupancy, especially when adjacent to existing beaver populations, is the greatest bet for shared success. Holzgen’s special observation highlights just how BDAs can spark this process, and how seeing beavers carry on our work is the best win for the entire watershed. 

Torrey Ritter's master's research, based in the Gallatin and Madison River drainages, found that beaver dispersal typically occurred as waters rose in due to snow melt, with a peak from late April through the middle of May when streams were approaching the apex of spring runoff. The beavers in Torrey's sample showed a wide variety of dispersal distances (from 2 to 42.3km, with a median of 4.9km), and time from dispersal to settlement (from 1 to 187 days, with a mean of 40.9 days +/- 10.5 days). Image Credit: Torrey Ritter

Welcome to Chris Austin, Region 4 Beaver Conflict Resolution Fellow!

The National Wildlife Federation has selected Chris Austin to serve as the Beaver Conflict Resolution Fellow for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' Region 4. Chris brings a wealth of ripe experience to this role, including his recent work with the BLM and Montana Technological University's biogeochemistry lab, where he worked on a team to survey the effects of Silver Bow Creek beaver activity on an ecosystem recovering from a century of mining. Despite all the hardship that Silver Bow Creek has seen, Chris is excited to report that Columbia spotted frogs were spawning in the beaver complex! Chris will be based in Great Falls, and he can’t wait to travel through Region 4 and dig into all the little nooks and crannies of the topography to see what beauties and oddities it has to offer! You can reach out to Chris at [email protected] to learn more about his work or seek his services across the Hi-Line! Photo Credit: Chris Austin

MWCC Fall Watershed Tour

Sun River Watershed

September 18-20, 2024

Registration for the Montana Watershed Coordination Council Fall Watershed Tour with the Sun River Watershed Group is open. The Sun River Watershed Group is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and the tour will travel from Great Falls toward the headwaters in the Bob Marshall Wilderness for three days of learning, peer exchanges, local storytelling, and on-the-ground project experiences that demonstrate the unique resource challenges and diverse conservation and partnership strategies implemented by local organizers across the region. With an anticipated audience of 80 attendees from across Montana, the event will allow opportunities for participants to connect and learn from practitioners, coordinators, and technical experts. Learn more and sign up here.

BeaverCON 2024

Boulder, Colorado

October 19-24, 2024

BeaverCon is back for its third biennial gathering, set to meet in Boulder, Colorado for a diverse array of presentations, discussion, panels, storytelling, science & art, field trips, and workshops over five days. This conference is an opportunity for multiple paths, organizations, disciplines, and experiences to converge and collectively learn from, relate to, and realize a future of ecological balance with beavers. The full schedule is now live, scholarships are available, and you can learn more about it all here.

To support beavers into the future, we'll need to work across borders. The Watershed Management Group is drawing on community science to estimate beaver populations, activity, and vegetation impact as a grassroots response to that need. Photo Credit: Watershed Management Group

Reviving a Keystone Species: Results from the 2024 Bi-National Beaver Survey

Max Wingert, Watershed Management Group

May 28, 2024

From the Yaak and the Kootenai to the Flathead and the Milk, Montana is home to many rivers and streams that flow into or from Canada. At best, the lines we draw through such transboundary waters do not hinder the presence and benefits of beavers. But at worst, divergent practices across borders could disrupt the work of intact, healthy beaver populations.

Using a community science collaboration, the Watershed Management Group and its diverse partners are documenting beaver tracks, sign, and watershed change to support a connected beaver population in the San Pedro River, which straddles southeaseastern Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora. In 2024, 75 volunteers hiked along 38 miles of river for this effort, which for the last three years has been tracking change following a Bureau of Land Management beaver reintroduction. While security concerns have not allowed the full intentions of this survey so far, this supremely inspiring project is ongoing, and you can learn more from their latest blog or project report here.

Cover Photo Credit: Chuck Smurzlo

The Beaver Balancing Act

(PLUS: An open-access Beaver Management & Conservation Virtual Issue)

Dana Kobilinsky, The Wildlife Professional

May-June 2024

A dashing beaver graces the May-June cover of The Wildlife Professional, the flagship magazine of The Wildlife Society (TWS). While this publication and its cover story is an exclusive benefit of membership (learn more here), TWS has also compiled a freely accessible virtual collection of some of its beaver conservation and management papers from the last twenty years. Drawn from TWS' peer-reviewed journals - the Journal of Wildlife Management and Wildlife Society Bulletin - this research covers a broad geographic range across North America and northern Europe, discussing diverse topics including field techniques, genetics, landscape effects, human dimensions, demography, and relationships with amphibians. Check it out here.

Beavers "Do It Better": King County's Modern Approach to Habitat Restoration

King County Natural Resources and Parks

June 2024

The King County Beaver Working Group has inspired the beaver community for years, and they are back with another dose of uplifting rationales, tips, and smiles in this new video. In less than ten minutes, King County Senior Ecologist Jennifer Vanderhoof and her innovative colleagues show just how powerful an attitude of adaptation can be. They're learning that restoration is not just about planting willows, but planting beaver habitat. And when we offer beavers the right conditions, beavers can realize what we can only imagine. After watching this video, make sure to revisit the King County Working Group's impressive compilation of papers and other work products if you want a refresher from some of the best beaver leaders around. Photo Credit: Rob RIch

Conservation Project Manager

Bitterroot Watershed Manager

Applications Due: pen Until Filled

The Bitterroot Water Partnership (BWP) is a community-driven nonprofit organization with more than 30 years’ experience serving the people, wildlife, and natural resources of the Bitterroot Valley. The BWP leads reliable and intentional conservation initiatives that promote and provide clean, ample water for people and healthy habitats by working with key partners and our communities. The Conservation Project Manager (CPM) will identify, develop, and implement projects that improve water quality, enhance aquatic and riparian habitats, and protect key tributaries on both private and public lands in the Bitterroot watershed. Key responsibilities include identifying water storage opportunities, supporting irrigated agriculture, and designing projects that strengthen the socio-ecological resilience of the watershed. Check out the full description here.

Upper Clark Fork River Project Manager AND Instream Flow Project Manager

Trout Unlimited

Applications Due:

Upper Clark Fork River Project Manager - open until filled

Instream Flow Project Manager - July 31, 2024

Two new positions are open with Trout Unlimited, the national nonprofit working to care for and recover the rivers and streams on which we all depend. TU has been been engaged in water policy advocacy and restoration across Montana for more than two decades, and these new roles will be integral to its continued success.

The Upper Clark Fork River Project Manager prioritizes, plans, and implements projects to improve fish passage, benefit streamflow, restore habitat, and improve water quality in a watershed heavily impacted by historical mining, smelting, and land use practices. The initial focus for the position will be to implement a suite of irrigation infrastructure and fish passage improvement projects with multiple funding partners intended to fully reconnect the headwaters of the Upper Clark Fork River and the Warm Springs Creek tributary watershed.

The Instream Flow Project Manager will work across the Yellowstone, Upper Missouri, and Clark Fork basins to prioritize, plan, and implement flow enhancement projects and assist TU’s restoration project managers to improve fish passage, benefit streamflow, restore habitat, and improve water quality.

Photo Credit: Rob Rich

Please send photos, stories, upcoming events, opportunities, and other resources to:

Shelby Weigand - Riparian Connectivity Manager,

National Wildlife Federation

[email protected]

MT Beaver Working Group newsletters are posted online here.