WEBVTT - Ep. 427: Backwoods University - Parachuting Beavers 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:05.160 Welcome to Backwoods University, a place where we focus on 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:08.840 wild life, wild places and the people who dedicate their 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:12.040 lives to conserving both. Big shout out to ONEX Hunt 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:15.560 for their support of this podcast. I'm your host, Lake Pickle, 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.280 and man am I ever so excited for today's episode. 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.360 Today's typic of discussion is about an animal that I'm 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:24.680 most sure all of you are familiar with. Heck, all 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.000 of us know what beavers are known for doing. They're 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.960 the original subjects for the saying you had one job. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.040 They see flowing water and they go absolutely not. And 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:34.680 when they wake up in the morning, I'm pretty sure 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:36.800 they say to themselves, it seems like a good day 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:40.199 to build a dam. Okay, I'm mostly joking here if 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.879 you can't tell, but y'all get what I'm saying. Beaver's 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.360 are primarily known for doing one thing, building dams. It's 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:48.519 a blessing and a curse. It's what has made them 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.279 get the label as a nuisance species in many circles 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:53.519 and one of the factors that has made them popular 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.440 amongst trappers. However, in today's episode, we're gonna be looking 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.279 at beaver's in a different life, possibly in a way 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.680 you've never thought of them before. It's time to add 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.920 some much needed complexity to the way this critter is perceived. 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:20.240 Let's dive in. Before we dive in with our two guests, 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:22.160 I'm going to do my best impression of my friend 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.320 Brent Reeves, and I'm going to tell you a story. 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:26.720 It's one that happened long ago, and it will set 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:29.959 the stage perfectly for where we're going with this. Yall ready, 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.959 here we go. This is the story of the parachuting beavers. 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:37.440 And yeah, I did say parashuting beavers, and it takes 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.560 place in Idaho in nineteen forty eight. Now, as we 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.320 alluded to earlier, beavers build damps. Theyre what is referred 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.640 to as a keystone species, which is a term that 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:52.400 applies to one particular organism that makes a disproportionately large 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:56.520 influence on its environment relative to its often low abundance, 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.800 which in Layman's terms, means a small amount of beavers 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.640 can a big amount of difference. Another important thing to 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:05.400 know about a keystone species is that they are critical 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:09.399 for maintaining biodiversity as well as habitat structure, and their 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:13.799 removal can often cause significant ecological shifts, which again in 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:17.000 Layman's terms, means taking beavers out of an area. It's 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.840 gonna shake some things up. Some say that a beaver 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.720 could transform a landscape like no other creature in the 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:27.080 entire animal kingdom. This innate ability that beavers have to 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.040 engineer their own ecosystems that they reside in is the 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.720 most important part of what was going on in Idaho 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.720 in nineteen forty eight. You see, it was becoming a problem. 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.040 It was just after World War Two and people had 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.480 discovered how beautiful places like McCall and Pyette Lake were. 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.560 Folks were building homes, setting up communities and places where 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.880 beavers had been hanging around and doing their thing for centuries. 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.760 As the communities grew larger, the conflicts with beavers increased. 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:56.760 The beavers were wiping out trees, riparian bush, damning creeks, 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:59.640 causing them to flood, and risking serious damage to the 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.680 town and its residences. So the question was what do 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:06.920 you do about this? That's where creativity and initiative end 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:08.760 of the story in the form of a man named 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.359 Elmo Heater. Now, besides having a super cool name, Elmo 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.000 worked for the Idaho Fishing Game right in the McCaul 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.560 Lake area. He had experience with beavers, and he was 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.280 tasked with finding a solution. Elmo figured out early on 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.079 that relocation of these beavers was by far the best answer. However, 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:28.240 this solution was a lot easier said than done. An 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.440 area called the Chamberlain Basin would be the perfect place 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.400 to relocate these beavers. It was said to be a 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.040 beaver paradise and that their presence would be beneficial to 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:40.880 the habitat. The Chamberlain Basin lies in what is now 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:44.880 called the frank Church River of No Return wilderness area. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.600 It was about one hundred miles away and it contained 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.440 no roads and was by all accounts rugged country. There 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:53.320 would be no driving in there. There wouldn't be landing 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.000 any planes, helicopters, or even a hot air balloon. I 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.000 suppose you could pack them in there on foot, but 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.560 no one was volunteering to do that, and they actually 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:02.960 attempted mules and horses at one point, but it was 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.200 said that the pack animals became spooky and quarrelsome when 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:09.480 loaded down with a struggling pair of odorous live beavers, 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.480 and so Elmo was forced to get creative, Like we 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.520 said at the beginning of the story. This was right 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.320 after World War Two. Elmo knew of a surplus of parachutes, 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.440 and that's when he formed the idea of paratrooping these 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.200 beavers from a plane into the back country of the 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.520 Chamberlain Basin. Just imagine how that went the first time 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.039 he presented that idea to a meeting of his peers. 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.640 This is speculative on my part here, but I just 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:35.520 have to imagine that he got at least one or 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.640 two you're crazy remarks throwing his direction. However, Elmo was 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:41.919 confident that it would work, that it would solve the 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.880 problem in growing communities, and it would help the habitat 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.560 of the Chamberlain Basin, a real win win win situation. 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:52.200 Those are rare. Now that the plan was hatched, it 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.120 had to be carried out. It's one thing to say 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:55.920 you're going to air bomb some live beavers into the 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.919 wilderness with the safe landing. It's another thing to actually 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.640 figure out how to do it. The first idea was 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.360 a woven willow box, and the premise was that these 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:07.880 beavers would hit the ground chew their way out freedom, 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.359 which I supposed. It's a pretty good idea in theory, 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.640 but it ended up not working because the beavers commenced 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:14.359 to chewing the second that they were put in the 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.479 woven boxes. This gave high risk that the beavers would 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.640 either bust loose inside the plane or bust loose while 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.000 they were still high in the sky on the parachute ride. 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.000 Neither of those are ideal, so Elmo ended up designing 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:28.919 a box that the beavers were unable to get their 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:32.320 teeth around and would then open upon impact. It was 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.400 tested first with some dummy weights, which appeared to work. 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.920 Then they found an older male beaver in Fyi. This 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.839 is probably my favorite part of this story. Elmo decided 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.880 to name this beaver Geronimo, seemed fitting. Luckily for both 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.120 Geronimo and Elmo, the box worked. They tested it over 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:51.280 and over again to make sure of it, which meant 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.479 Geronimo the beaver took a parachute ride over and over again, 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:56.680 and once they tested it enough to the point that 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:58.839 they were all convinced that it would work, it was 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.800 time to start a fish relocating beavers. As a reward 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.520 for all of this, old Geronimo became the first male 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.479 beaver to arrive in the Chamberlain basin with three other 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.080 female friends. It said from the observers that once Geronimo 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:14.479 figured out that his air travel days were over, he 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:18.359 started immediately building a colony with his lady friends. Hats 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:22.120 off to you, Geronimo. After this first successful relocation of 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:25.120 beavers from the heavens dropping down into this dry basin 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.880 like a mana from above, seventy six more beavers followed suit. 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.000 All were in agreeance that this was a successful project 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.120 that created some amazing habitat in now what is the 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.960 largest protected roadless forest in the lower forty eight. It 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.240 was so successful that some modern biologists wonder why they 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.520 didn't continue to move beavers past nineteen forty eight. However, 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:48.479 it is highly likely that the offspring of those first 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.120 beavers are still living and helping the habitat of the 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.719 frank Church Wilderness to this very day. Pretty crazy, right, 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.280 But let's pause for a second, let's zoom out on 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.480 all this. Why am I sharing this story with you? Well, 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.600 the reason is because, as listeners of this show, you know, 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.160 we focus in on how we as humans interact with wildlife. 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.880 Our relationship with wildlife. The relationship with humans and beavers 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.560 is long and it's convoluted. Can beavers be a nuisance? Yes, 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.040 of course they can. We see that today and we 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:20.840 saw it in that story. But can beaver's also be 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:26.239 incredibly beneficial for wildlife, wildlife habitat and to humans also? Yes, 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.160 Like most other facets of life, there's complexity to this. 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.640 So we learned about the beaver problems and solutions of 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:37.120 nineteen forty eight. However, I'm interested in what's going on 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.240 with beavers today, and believe me, there's plenty going on. 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.120 It's time for you to meet Nate Norman, the lead 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:47.400 field biologist for the Beaver Ecology and Relocation Collaborative at 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:51.480 Utah State University, an organization that was founded to enhance 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:56.280 and support the practice of relocating beavers to improve degraded riverscapes. 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.240 They're a well established program now, but I want to 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:00.880 first learn how they got. 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.920 Started, specifically in this area in northern Utah. There were 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:11.200 two college professors, Joe Wheaton and Nick Bowis, and they 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.720 came up with an idea of doing fake beaver dams. 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:20.040 They're called BDA's beaver dam analogs, and they were working 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:27.040 on projects in northern Utah and southern Idaho and realized 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:31.640 that these fake beaver dams did a lot of the 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:35.280 restoration work that they were hoping for, but that over 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.320 time they broke down. So the real goal was to 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.320 get beavers on there and let the beavers do the 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.400 work rather than having humans come in and fix these 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:45.400 fake beaver dams. 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.720 Did anyone know that there were some folks already making 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.240 artificial beaver dams or beaverdam analogs as a form of 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.600 wetland and habitat restoration, which to me is kind of 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:57.800 hard not to see the humor in because it seems 0:08:57.800 --> 0:08:59.640 like a whole lot of time, effort, and money to 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:01.880 build a structure that a beaver will build you for free, 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.599 which I suppose is why they eventually moved to beaver relocation. 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:08.199 But I think it's an important fact to highlight as 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.880 we move forward that the need for the water daming 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.920 impact on the landscape was something that people were already 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:15.000 becoming aware of. 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.599 Yeah, you're hitting on something that you know is profound 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.160 in the fact that that is why they had to 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.760 make fake beaver dams. The thought is is that they 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.560 don't want beavers on their properties. You can't control a beaver, right, 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.200 you want a beaver to build a dam there and 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:34.560 there and there, but not over here, and you don't 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.480 want it to flood your road or you don't want 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.000 it to you know, out here, block irrigation ditches, that 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.319 sort of thing. And so we can go in and 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.560 we can put them right where we want them. When 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:48.880 a beaver gets in there, then they got their own 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:50.600 mind and they're going to do their own thing. And 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:52.719 you know, hopefully they're going to help you out and 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:57.560 create the ponds and the water where you want them, 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.480 but they're also going to create some issues where you 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.200 don't want them. And so that's you know, kind of 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.080 why our program got started. In certain areas, beavers are 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:09.480 a nuisance. And you know the fact is is that 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:15.320 before you know, the West was developed, the trappers came 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.079 through and they they were the first ones to come 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.000 into these areas and the very first thing they did 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:26.040 removed all the beavers right. So then behind them they've 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:29.760 kind of blazed the trail and settlers start coming in. 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:35.880 But settlers move into an area that has now been debiabered, right, 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:37.920 and the beavers have been moved out of the area. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:43.079 So they look at these stream banks that are had 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.559 been flooded by beaver dams that have now been broke down, 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:51.560 and these lush, rich soils are there because of the 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:56.280 beaver dams, and now they're developing or moving into those 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.360 areas to plant their crops. So you can just see 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.400 the progression as to how we just moved right into 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.600 the areas where the beavers were, and now we have 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.360 an issue with the beavers coming back to these areas 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.520 and creating issues for us. I don't think we're going 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.680 to move out of the beavers bottom lands anytime soon. 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:21.200 But luckily here in Utah, we have a lot of 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.360 public land. We have areas that it is, you know, 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.679 very open, and there is not a lot of infrastructure, 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.960 so we can actually move these beavers into these areas 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.400 to create this habitat. I don't know if this would 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.800 work as well, you know, in somewhere out east, where 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.040 you know, you have a much bigger human population, but 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:44.360 it works for us here. 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.679 Let's think back to the parachute beaver story for a minute. 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.880 If y'all remember back in nineteen forty eight, the original 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.560 conflict with beavers arose because civilizations were moving into areas 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:58.080 where beavers had been existing for years. Fast forward to 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:01.320 what's happening today, and it's really not that much different. 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.000 As Nate outlined, some of these places that we as 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.160 humans choose to reside, plant crops, build houses, and so 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.760 on are also areas that beaver like, and thus we 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.319 have conflict and there are definitely real instances where beavers 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:18.719 can become nuisances. However, much like Elmo, a few folks 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.040 decided to get creative. 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.960 Yeah, we call it a win win win, Right. You've 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:26.559 got the land owners, you know, that are having problems 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.199 and they're real you know, we had we had lady 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:32.040 call us up one day when a beaver had come 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.840 down and shoot down a tree in her backyard and 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.880 her daughter's wedding was, you know, planned to be there 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:42.280 that weekend. You know, underneath these trees they just drow. 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.600 But it can also be a win for the environment 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:48.960 because when we look at a lot of lands after 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.760 the trappers came through, you know and just almost eliminated 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.959 the beavers, they'd never recovered to that stage that they 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.120 were prior to that, So there was still room on 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.280 the landscape for more beavers. And we can take these 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:05.400 beavers and we can move them up into those areas 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.360 where they create these habitats that are great for you know, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.520 wildlife fish. But we're even finding ranchers out here are 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:16.160 wanting beavers on their property because when they push that 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.960 water out and they create more grass and more green 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.520 not only from their pond, but also from the groundwater 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.080 that is seeping out of those ponds and kind of 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:28.400 widening out those riparian areas. That's just more feed for 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:31.360 their sheep and their cattle. Also, one of the things 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.480 that we have to do out here, when we get 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.760 these big snowfalls, everything kind of just washes down quickly 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:41.520 in the springtime, creating floods, creating issues in the spring. 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:45.160 Then everything dries up during the summer. So the ranchers 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.839 go out and they build stock ponds and then they 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.520 do this a wild bike, two palm guzzlers. But when 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:55.320 the spring runoff comes off and it washes out those 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.160 burns that they built for these these ponds, you know, 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:00.960 somebody's got to go back up there and fix it. 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.959 In contrasts, you got beaber's up there and the spring 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.600 runoff comes down and washes out one of their dams. 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:09.640 Now the beaver fixes it. And not only that, but 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:12.720 then they create three or more ponds form their upstream. 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.679 So you know, it just makes sense that, you know, 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.320 getting more beavers on the landscape, holding that water up, 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.160 making it come down slower in the spring time, and 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.040 preserving more of it up in our mountains through the 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.680 summer is just really good for everybody. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.040 All right, So we have a much better idea of 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.800 what a beaver can offer to a landscape. I'm now 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:37.440 interested in how they got this program up and rolling. 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:42.600 There was a student in one of the classes and 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:47.040 him and his dad were trappers, and his dad owned 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:50.440 a taxidermy store or whatever you call it in the 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:54.280 valley here, and after taking the course, he started to 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:55.960 talk to his dad and said, you know, we shouldn't 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.680 be trapping out all these beavers. You know that they're 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.120 really good for the other wildlife and habitat. And his 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.560 dad was kind of like, well, you know, the guy 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:05.840 that I'm trapping on, we don't trap him, He's going 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:07.680 to have somebody else trap him out. 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:09.720 This is one of the most interesting points in the 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.640 whole story to me. A student who operated a taxi 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.560 derby business with his father that were also both trappers 0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:18.000 that had been trapping beavers for years are the two 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.400 individuals who originally thought of the idea to relocate due 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.600 to the potential benefits that it would create for other wildlife. 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.600 This idea led them to approaching the Utah Division of 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:31.240 Wildlife Resources, who was excited about this notion because of 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.840 the potential benefits it would make on the wildlife and 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:36.800 the habitat, so they proceeded forward with it, which eventually 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.680 led to Nate's initial involvement with the program. 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:42.360 They asked me if I was interested in learning how 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.880 to live trap, So I said, yeah, sure, you know, 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.360 I want to give it a try. My background was 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.320 really in wetlands, but I was interested in how the 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.640 beavers created wetlands and that sort of thing and the 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.560 benefits of that. So I went out with the student 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.720 and his dad and and they kind of taught me 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.960 how to trap, and we were sort of the blind 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.200 leading the blind. They knew how to trap, but they 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:10.960 didn't know much about live trapping. So we worked on it. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.800 We figured it out together. And then it turns out 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.200 there was a guy at the Forest Service who was 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:20.240 also kind of a respiration biologist who was interested in 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.440 this stuff as well, and he was also a beaver trapper. 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:29.720 So he got involved, We got involved with the State 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.280 Wildlife that to try to come up with some ideas. 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:35.080 She was the one who came up with the quarantine 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:38.960 and some methods for kind of steading up our facility. 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.680 And then that second year, I guess it was, Joe 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.320 got together with me and he says, you know, I've 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.120 been talking with the UDWR and they think that they 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:52.800 want to get more trappers involved and bring on some 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.320 people to do live trapping, but they want to kind 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:59.000 of a certification program for them, you know, so they 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.160 want to train them. And I thought that would be 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.640 great because I could really use some more training. Like 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.560 I said, we'd only caught five beavers the year before. 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.040 Joe said, no, no, no, you're not getting it man, you're 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:13.479 teaching the training. I was like, you gotta be kidding me. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.560 I'm only trapped five beavers. I can't do this. But 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:19.399 that's how I kind of got started. They put me 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.080 in contact with some people. There were some organizations in 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:27.480 some tribes up in Washington and Oregon that were doing this, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.920 and so they put me in contact with some people there. 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:33.760 They came down and helped me do the training, and 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:38.120 the State Wildlife BET assisted with the training, and we 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:43.000 expected to get a group of trappers from around Utah 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.000 that would be interested in doing this live trapping. And 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:48.200 one of the reasons was we were we were and 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:50.760 still are paying the trappers one hundred dollars of beaver 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.280 to live trap rather than lethal trap. But what ended 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.359 up happening is we got a bunch of professionals from 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.480 the wildlife agencies from all the surround states that were 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.560 also interested in these kind of programs who wanted to 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:07.919 learn more about it. So interesting we only got i 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.960 think one trapper and two students from the university that 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:16.800 took the training, and everyone else was professionals from surrounding areas. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.680 From that, you know that a lot of the other 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.679 states and I shouldn't say base on their stuff on 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.000 what we were doing, but we all kind of talked 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.000 about things that we were doing and trying and what 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.440 had worked and what hadn't. And so the training kind 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.399 of just brought a bunch of people together to figure 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.320 this out and what we should be doing to do 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:38.720 these these relocations. 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.400 So, as is common with many startups or new ideas, 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.960 you're trying to figure out year one of this beaver 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.560 lab trapping and relocating was a bit of a learning curve, 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:51.159 only five beavers trapped in total, working with veterinarians to 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:55.040 establish a quarantine protocol and trying to expand the program 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:57.800 if possible. Well it must have worked because for the 0:18:57.800 --> 0:18:59.840 second year they were able to grow and get some 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:03.880 trappers involved, with many of them being professionals from surrounding areas. 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:08.520 We're going to learn more about this program and the 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:10.600 ins and outs of it, but first I want to 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.920 ask Nate about a very specific story that happened early 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.600 on in the program's life and that yielded some pretty 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:17.920 incredible results. 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:20.320 There's a ranch and it's kind of where I first 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:24.119 got started in all this up in Idaho, where the 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:30.160 rancher realized that his stream hit a small intermittent string 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.359 was going dry every spring, you know, after runoff it 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.199 was basically gone. But he's an older guy and he 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:42.280 remembered as a kid that that used to flow into 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.439 the midsummer, you know, even in the late summer, and 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:49.119 now every year it was going dry early spring. He thought, 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.160 you know what, I remember there being beavers up there 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.320 when I was a kid. Now we used to shoot them, 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.920 you know, we used to get rid of them every 0:19:57.000 --> 0:19:59.119 chance we could could, you know, because we didn't we 0:19:59.160 --> 0:20:01.840 didn't want them around them block their irrigation canal. But 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:03.720 we did a pretty good job because there's no more 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:08.119 beavers up there. So he tried to relocate some in 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.800 on his own, again probably you know, under the shade 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.600 of darkness, but they didn't stick, they wouldn't stay in 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.680 the area, they got killed, whatever. So at that point 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:22.440 he came down and spoke with Joe Wheaton and Nick 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:26.919 Klowas at the university about, you know, the possibility of 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:30.240 getting beavers up there. And that was the very first 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:34.320 beaver relocation project that I was involved in. And we 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.920 took a few beavers up there, and this is after 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:40.480 we had built the BDA's so the bdas create some 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:43.919 little habitat for him, some deep water so they can 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:47.800 hide from predators, and they stuck. Jumped forward a year 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.920 or two and a few more beavers relocated up there. 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.840 They start reproducing, and he had you know, fifty to 0:20:56.200 --> 0:21:00.479 one hundred beaver dams throughout the watershed. They'd really you know, 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:06.240 did well. They protected them. And now we're probably nine 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.919 ten years from there, and he has water flowing in 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:16.280 that stream year long the ponds are now supporting fish 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.800 that are big enough to catch, so his granddaughter is 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.240 fishing out of the ponds, and moose have returned to 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:27.119 the area that he hadn't seen for, you know, thirty years. 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.480 So that's one really good example. 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.480 Let's highlight those impacts again, just to make sure we 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:37.160 don't miss anything from just the single action of reintroducing 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.399 beavers to this particular property. There is now year round 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.960 waterflow in that creek, there's ponds that are supporting small fishery, 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:47.119 and moose have returned to the area in which beforehand 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:49.920 the property owner hadn't seen them for over thirty years 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.640