Four miles down river from our home, there is a wooded 1-mile hike called Peninsula Day Use Trail. It’s part of the Tillamook Forest and home to old growth conifers who have survived fires and fierce winter storms. Moss thrives here, adorning the shady sides of trunks and carpeting the understory for fungi and other flora to grow. Deer and elk browse and break low lying branches, leaving a welcome obstacle course for hikers who love to maneuver over roots and fallen limbs.
The trail follows the tongue-shaped piece of land that was formed about 40 million years ago by a flow of basalt around which the Trask river makes three tight turns on her way toward Tillamook Bay and eventually the Pacific Ocean. Beyond the first turn, there is a noticeable debris pile made from upriver remnants from the landscape that has been shaped and reshaped by the wind and rising waters of winter storms. The weak, dying, or decaying trees, bushes, and grasses are unable to keep their grip on the river’s silty edge, and once dislodged, are sent on the ride of their life down swift rapids. Some pieces bob and bounce for miles on their way straight out to sea, while others get caught in the heaps that extend the edges of the river, to create hospitable environments for other life, like fish, waterfowl, and beavers.
I confess, beavers have been on my mind for a while, mainly because they are excellent examples of what it means to be a composite being–in relation, often reliant upon, and beneficial to our surrounding environment. In the year and a half that we’ve lived on the river, I’ve not once seen a beaver or evidence of a beaver, until I spied that debris pile from the trail, and then a few days after that, came upon one who’d been run over, not 20 yards from the river’s edge. What a loss, I whispered to myself, heartbroken because I had an inkling about what sort of impact one animal can have on her surrounding environment, but not really knowing the magnitude of how a creative, problem solving keystone species is a boon to life on earth.
Beavers were nearly trapped to extinction by fur traders for their pelt and oil, then further reduced by habitat loss to accommodate humanity’s agriculture, development, and urbanization projects. In spite of their elusive and nocturnal characteristics, beavers are gaining notice. Federal and state bills are being proposed and passed, while many grants have been awarded as a way to educate and protect our incomparable beaver kin to do their best work. In Czech, beavers saved taxpayers $1.2 million in a delayed dam project on the Klabava River by ignoring construction timelines and building a wetland with pools and canals on their own. Beavers are restoring health and preventing forest fires in Idaho’s Emerald Refuge along Baugh Creek and Little Wood River. And beaver-inspired projects are popping up in areas where beavers are rare like in Montana where organizations are collaborating to fund and build, “man-made structures meant to mimic a beaver dam’s capability to slow and hold water for longer periods of time on the landscape.”
Beavers have been dubbed heroes in the movement to slow down climate challenges. Their behaviors and structures help store water to avoid drought. Their activities make natural breaks or “ribbons” of fire-resistant habitat in the landscape to prevent fire loss. Their ponds support migrating waterfowl and fish, like salmon. Plants benefit from their design, which then attract insects and other species. While these are hopeful and inspiring benefits, returning the ever-changing world into balance is a delicate job. Beavers are now migrating into a warming arctic in the search for food and their presence is having an effect on vegetation and thawing tundra. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, “We are in a constant state of becoming” and who's to say what shifting rhythms of biodiversity, including the surprising moves of the beaver, has in store for us?
We pulled the dead beaver to the side of the road so that crow and vulture, and any other scavenger, could avoid being hit as they helped themselves to break down the carcass. We called the Fish and Game office and let them know, and then I thought about the animal for days. I journaled, dreamt, and imagined myself merging into that pelt and diving into the cold river and knowing in my body where to find the entrance to the den. In my dreams, it was empty, but I still apologized for the oncoming truck and the impossibility of stopping on that curve at the speed it was traveling.
Yesterday, we went back to the Peninsula Day Use Trail so I could hike down to the debris pile and spend time there. I stepped out on its spongy surface and marveled at its many woven layers that allows for air and water to pass. I listened to the river and sensed in the warm weather, the coming of spring and a time of rebirth. It's good to remember I am nature and also a witness to our wonderful kin, even in moments where hope and grief exist together.
Resources:
Smokey the Beaver: beaver-dammed riparian corridors stay green during wildfire throughout the western United States - https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eap.2225
Beaver fever: $1.5M proposed for beaver restoration efforts - https://www.kunm.org/local-news/2025-01-23/beaver-fever-1-5m-proposed-for-beaver-restoration-efforts
It's good to be a California beaver. Again - https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-01-07/california-beaver-restoration-water-policy
Why Did Beavers Almost Go Extinct? - https://enviroliteracy.org/why-did-beavers-almost-go-extinct/
Family of beavers save Czech government $1.2 million by finishing a 7-year dam project in just a few weeks - https://archive.ph/g7RHo#selection-625.0-625.106
NASA satellites reveal restoration power of beavers - https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/nasa-satellites-reveal-restoration-power-of-beavers/?mc_cid=8c30315180
The US is bringing back nature's best firefighters: beavers - https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240111-the-us-is-bringing-back-beavers-because-theyre-natures-best-firefighters
Building Beaver Dam Analogs - https://www.worldwildlife.org/blogs/sustainability-works/posts/building-beaver-dam-analogs
Photos from space show beavers' move to the Arctic as disturbing as wildfirehttps://alaskapublic.org/news/2023-01-19/photos-from-space-show-beavers-move-to-the-arctic-as-disturbing-as-wildfire
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