- Arizona Game and Fish biologists are relocating beavers that otherwise are a nuisance in their current home to a riparian habitat on the San Pedro River.
- In their new home, the beavers can contribute to conservation and wetlands health, restoring wildlife habitat.
- Beaver dams can help restore wetlands by holding back water that can then percolate into the ground, supporting nearby vegetation.
For years, conservationists have been building manmade dams to help restore Arizona’s disappearing wetlands. Now, the state’s last free-flowing river is undergoing renovations from nature’s most efficient construction crew: a pair of recently released beavers.
Arizona Game and Fish biologists are testing a new protocol for moving beavers from locations where they can be a nuisance to businesses and homeowners to areas of the state where they can contribute to conservation.
“It’s a shift in mindset,” said Angie Stingelin, a senior wildlife specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, in a news release. “Instead of relocating a nuisance beaver to an area where it might cause less trouble, we’re harnessing its natural behaviors to restore vital habitats within the beaver’s known range in Arizona.”
The first beaver to be released in this project was trapped at Arlington Wildlife Area along the Gila River after causing land management issues, like clogging pipes and disturbing irrigation infrastructure.
After undergoing a multi-day quarantine and health check, the beaver was released in January into the Lower San Pedro River Wildlife Area and it quickly began making improvements on manmade analog dams made from logs and willow branches.
A second beaver, believed to be the original beaver’s mate, was captured and released into the Lower San Pedro in the spring. The two reunited and have been spotted on trail camera images traveling together.
How beaver dams can help a riparian habitat
Since the 1800s, more than a third of Arizona’s wetlands have disappeared, according to the U.S. Wildlife Service.
Beaver dams can help restore these wetlands by holding back water to temporarily flood an area and allow more time for the water to permeate into the ground. Over the years, damming projects in the Lower San Pedro River have shown an increased growth of cottonwood and willow trees, which in turn, have led to an improved habitat for endangered species, like the southwestern willow flycatcher.
“The management of one species leading to the conservation value and increase in numbers of another actually listed species, we see that as a win-win,” said Shawn Lowrey, regional supervisor of restoration and mitigation for Arizona Game and Fish.
Before release, captured beavers undergo a 72-hour quarantine period to check their health and ensure they won’t transport any invasive species to their new homes. The beavers are also given an ear tag and outfitted with a GPS tracker.
The data collected through GPS tracking and onsite monitoring will be used to help implement a project with the Bureau of Land Management planned for Cienega Creek, where a family of beavers is planned for release later this year.
Relocating nuisance beavers isn’t new in western states. In the 1940s, Idaho’s wildlife management agency dropped beavers from planes using parachutes and release boxes to translocate them to remote mountain locations.
The relocation of the beavers along the San Pedro River is a comprehensive, thoughtful process, said Lowrey.
“We still need to kind of go through the process of identifying where the ideal locations are for the release of beavers, especially in this 20-year drought,” said Lowrey. “That way they can still do what they do, living out their lives doing ecological engineering for the greater good.”
John Leos covers environmental issues for The Arizona Republic and azcentral. Send tips or questions to john.leos@arizonarepublic.com.
Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Follow The Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and @azcenvironment on Facebook and Instagram.
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