Beaver Coexistence
Living with Beavers
Beavers play an important role in creating healthy, resilient watersheds. By building dams, they slow and store water, creating wetlands that provide habitat for fish, birds, amphibians, and countless other wildlife. These beaver-built landscapes also help improve water quality, recharge groundwater, store carbon, and reduce the impacts of floods, drought, and wildfire.
At the same time, beaver activity can sometimes affect roads, culverts, agricultural lands, and other infrastructure. Fortunately, there are proven solutions that allow people and beavers to coexist. Devices such as pond levelers and culvert protection systems can help reduce flooding and infrastructure damage while allowing beavers to continue providing the many ecological benefits they bring to the landscape.
The South Santiam Watershed Council works with landowners and partners to identify practical, cost-effective solutions that support both healthy watersheds and the people who live and work within them.
Beaver Coexistence Strategies
Pond Levelers
Minimizes the disruption to the beaver family and their habitat, so they do not abandon the site, while establishing a maximum water height and footprint that protects the landowner's assets.
Culvert Protection Systems
Culverts, spillways, and similar human infrastructure can be protected from beaver damming while preserving their function and allowing beavers to remain in their habitat.
Tree Protection
Beavers chop down trees with their teeth for food and to build dams and lodges. Trees and other important riparian vegetation can be protected through cost-effective fencing measures.
Mid-Willamette Beaver Partnership
The Mid-Willamette Beaver Partnership (MWBP) is a collaborative effort of watershed councils, conservation organizations, public agencies, Tribes, and researchers working across the mid-Willamette region to better understand where and how beaver-based restoration can provide the greatest ecological and community benefits.
Beavers are a natural part of healthy watersheds. Their dams can improve water storage, restore wetland habitat, enhance water quality, increase resilience to drought and wildfire, and support fish and wildlife. At the same time, beaver activity can create challenges for landowners and infrastructure. The MWBP works to promote the many benefits of beavers while developing practical, locally appropriate solutions that help people and beavers coexist.
To support this work, the partnership combines scientific research, landscape-scale habitat assessments, and community engagement. By working with landowners, land managers, and local communities, the MWBP seeks to better understand perspectives on beavers, identify opportunities for restoration, and encourage voluntary, collaborative approaches to watershed stewardship.
As a member of the Mid-Willamette Beaver Partnership, the South Santiam Watershed Council helps advance beaver-based restoration that benefits healthy rivers, resilient landscapes, and the communities that depend on them.
Need Help with a Beaver?
- Do you have a plugged culvert?
- Flooding on your property?
- Tree or crop damage due to beaver chewing?
Reach out to deter a beaver from a certain area on your property and find an alternative to trapping a nuisance beaver.
