Common Tree-Wrapping Mistakes
Protecting individual trees from beaver chewing is a cheap, long-lasting, nonlethal, and effective coexistence strategy when done correctly. Avoid these common mistakes so you don’t duplicate effort or waste money on the wrong materials: Inappropriate fencing material– Beavers can chew through chicken wire (pictured below) and other flimsy metal or plastic mesh. We recommend heavy…
Do I REALLY Have a Beaver Problem?
Sometimes people discover chewed or felled trees, realize there are beavers living on their land, and assume there is a problem when there may not be. Just because you have beavers on your property doesn’t mean there is a conflict! Remember that beavers are adapted to make changes to their environment, and that beavers or…
Tree Protection Mini Workshop & Volunteer Day
12/21/2021 Human-Beaver Coexistence Fund (HBCF) partnered with the Potomac Valley Audubon Society (PVAS) for an educational and productive volunteer afternoon to protect priority trees at Cool Spring Preserve from being felled by beavers. HBCF founder and former PVAS AmeriCorps volunteer, Alison Zak, taught participants how to coexist with beavers by wrapping trees to protect them from…
Overview of Flow Device Types and Success Rates
This presentation by Mike Callahan, president of the Beaver Institute, offers a quick overview of the four basic types of flow devices and how they work.
Beaver Activity: Fresh Chews or Old News?
The changes beavers make to a landscape stick around long after the animals themselves have moved on. This can make it tricky for land owners and managers to determine if they have beavers active on the property or not. Here are some tips for distinguishing between active vs. abandoned lodges and dams and fresh vs.…
Recent Beaver News from the Mid-Atlantic
Beaver news out of the Mid-Atlantic region hasn’t always promoted coexistence, but that is changing! Check out the following recent articles from around the region:
What is a flow device?
A flow device is built through a culvert or beaver dam to maintain an appropriate water level in the pond while allowing beavers to continue living at the site. They are also known as pond levelers and beaver deceivers. Taking into account the specific characteristics of a site is crucial for designing, building, and installing…
Why beavers matter
Coexisting with beavers provides many benefits for humans, native plants and wildlife, and the landscape, including: Stream repair restoration Erosion reduction Increased biodiversity Creation of habitat for wetland species, including some whose conservation status is under threat Beaver ponds recharge aquifers and stabilize the water table Beaver dams regulate stream flow which in turn mitigates…
Did you know…beavers don’t eat fish? (And other myths)
Beavers don’t eat fish. Beavers are strictly herbivores, but they don’t eat only trees either! As ‘choosy generalists,’ their diet consists of many species (80+) of woody, herbaceous, and aquatic plants. Many people blame author C. S. Lewis for the common misunderstanding about beaver diet, as he wrote in The Chronicles of Narnia that they eat fish.…
Read More Did you know…beavers don’t eat fish? (And other myths)
Q&A with beaver coexistence expert, Skip Lisle
This post is a summary of portions of a Q&A panel that occurred after a film screening of Beaver Believers in Washington, VA on January 10, 2020. Responses are paraphrased from memory unless in quotation marks. Q: How are beavers unique in the larger context of human-wildlife conflict across the world? Alison Zak: Beavers are…