The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1940-08-08
Says Beaver
Much Benefit
10 Streams
Studies Prove Work of Little
Animals Is Beneficial
in Many Ways.
AIDS GREATLY IN
MAINTAINING FISHING

When whit men first penetrated
this section OF the great Northwest,
they undoubtedly found the streams
populated by thousands Of beaver.
The fur hunters and trappers soon
made their usual inroads into them
and it was not many years until
the beaver were nearly extinct The
government then stepped in and
established a closed season.
In the intervening years that have
followed, these many little workers
and highly competent engineers
have made great comeback and
today they are again becoming num-
erous on most OF the streams in this
section. With this background in
mind, the following article that tells
of the beaver his value and his hab-
its, will be of much interest.
Beavers, famed animal engineers
on woodland and forest streams,
are active soil and Wildlife con-
servationists, according to a recent
report received by the Fish and
Wildlife Service, United States De-
partment of the Interior, from the
Utah Fish and Game Commission.
The State commission reported the
results of a Federal Aid in Wildlife
Restoration project in which $50
active beaver colonies on 975 square
miles in the Uinta Division of the
Wasatch National Forest were OBJ
served for "a months. The study
included l,505 beaver dams averag-
ing 81 feet long and 2 feet high.
Beaver ponds resulted in many
benefits, the commission reported
Dams built by beavers on the study
area regulated and maintained the
stream flow, reduced floods, pre-
vented erosion, and caught the silt
carried by streams, thus preventing
the silt from entering reservoirs,
lakes, and lower valleys. In addi-
ton. the formation of ponds gen.
orally benefited other wildlife, in
Guiding muskrats, minks, deer,
ducks, and upland game birds. There
were few areas on the Wasatch For
est where the beavers activities
were not beneficial
The beaver investigation was one
of IL Utah projects being carried on
with the aid of Federal funds in ac-
cordance with the Pittman- Robert
son Act of 1887 This act provides
for Federal payment Of rs per cent
of the costs of wildlife restoration
projects approved by the Fish and
Wildlife Service and carried on by
participating states in accordance
with federal standards.
Beavers Sometimes Detrimental
However, whether beavers are
beneficial to an area depends in
part upon the type of stream in
4 which the colonies are located, Of
ficials of the Fish and Wildlife Serv-
ice pointed out. As shown in the
Utah study these fur animals are
usually beneficial in rapid mountain
streams. In lowlands, however,
where streams are sluggish, the
presence of beavers can be detri-
mental, as shown in study con-
Quoted in Michigan by ]. Clark
Salyer, Chief of the Services Di-
vision of Wildlife Refugees, when he
was employed by the Institute for
Fisheries Research.
In the Utah investigation, which
was made on rapid mountain
streams, Phillip Haas, Federal Aid
project leader for the state commits
sion, found that dams had little eff
feet on fish migration. In Spring,
Haas reported, water was as rule
sufficiently high to permit the fish
free passage up and down streams. y
Salyer, who conducted his Mich
igan investigation in 1884, concluded
that trout can and frequently do go
downstream over a dam to spawn
but that in most streams the better
spawning areas are upstream near
the headwaters. Trout do not pass
upstream over the ordinary beaver
dam in Michigan waters" Slayer
declared in report published
in 1885.
In Salyer's Michigan investigation
it was found that beaver ponds
eventually upset the chemical bal
ance of the water, but in Utah OBJ
servations at l57 chemical stations
CLOS operated in streams and 81 ir
beaver ponds) indicated that "bea-
yer ponds are decidedly beneficial
to trout"
1t was also pointed out in the
Michigan study that fish parasite:
increase as beavers become prevail
ent on trout stream. In Utah
however, all fish examined were ir
healthy condition.
Management Practices Needed
Why the findings Of the Mich
igan and Utah investigations are di
vergent is explained not only by tn,
fact that the types of streams wer,
different but also by the fact tina
the beaver ponds in Utah were com
paratively new. Salyer found tina
in the first few years beaver pond
are beneficial to trout but later ar,
detrimental to the fish. Beave
dams, he concluded, have bene
fetal effect on impoverished, es
pecially sandy, streams,