BEAVER BONANZA
How can we be better neighbors to beavers?
Love them or hate them, our Castor canadensis friends are here to stay. Their North American
populations took a huge dive during the 18 th and 19 th centuries because of overharvesting for
their fur and castor. Human-caused changes to the lands and waters exacerbated their decline.
However, these rodents are ecosystem engineers – a species that causes greater-than-usual
effects throughout the ecosystem.

How do beavers benefit ecosystems?
Beaver dams create wetlands that provide ecosystem services like water retention, flood
prevention, and pollutant filtration. Wetlands behind beaver dams can also create rearing
habitat for juvenile salmonids and benefit other human and more-than-human species.

Beaver Dam Analogs
Restoration uses the reference condition approach, and one of the teachers practitioners look
to is the humble beaver. Beaver dam analogs and other low-tech, process-based restoration
techniques are being taught at Utah State and the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, and are
being implemented across western Canada and beyond.

Keep Learning
Here are some recorded and upcoming knowledge-sharing opportunities that may be of
interest!

UPCOMING EVENTS
Alberta Agrisystems Living Lab
The Good Beaver
Kerri O’Shaughnessy, Riparian Specialist for Cows and Fish
15 April 2026, 1 p.m. MDT
https://www.agrisystemsll.ca/events/fm6oljrme4k2ck6r0bs1brb1g9hrjt

RECORDED
International Institute for Sustainable Development
Leave It to Beavers: Building resilience with beaver dam analogues – Prairie focus
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_5AOuAUls0

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SwAURsnXdo

Society for Ecosystem Restoration in Northern BC (SERNbc)

Climate Change Adaptations and Beaver Dam Analogs 
Wayne Salewski, President of the Nechako Environment Water Stewardship Society

Co-existing with Beavers
Amanda Ronnquist, Senior Science Communicator, Fuse Consulting Ltd.

Columbia Region Ecological Discussions (CMIAE)
Using Traditional Knowledge and Science in Restoration using Beaver Mimicry to Revive our
Watershed within the Okanagan Nation
Delaney Hall, tmixʷ (all living things) technician, Okanagan Nation Alliance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainUuAo3oL8

Wetland Conservation and Restoration in a Warming Climate: the Role of Beaver Dams
Suzanne Bayley, PhD, Columbia Wetlands Stewardship Partners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PHefTB9Juk