Nature’s firefighters: Beavers’ role in our ecosystem

KGNU’s Abby O’Brien takes us on a field trip to a beaver lodge.

Eco-hydrologist Sarah Marshall and watershed scientist Kim Lennberg explain the crucial role beavers play in our ecosystem, which includes fighting wildfires.

Why should the average Coloradan care about beavers? Marshall said, “Fundamentally, beavers are such an important part of our state, and the West, and North America, just in terms of shaping our streams. We take a lot of things for granted, that they’ve always been this way. But beavers have been helping to create incredible wetland habitats that help to ultimately filter our water supplies downstream.”

Research by eco-hydrologists like Emily Fairfax shows that parts of rivers that have been engineered by beavers suffer less damage from ‘megafires’ than river areas without beaver activity. There’s more habitat left intact and less runaway erosion.

Colorado doesn’t have great estimates for its beaver population. Marshall said, “ a lot of the beavers in the state are bank dwellers, so they don’t build dams. So the techniques for getting an accurate count would be looking across a lot of different areas and counting individuals. So you might use things like, you know, drone surveys in certain environments, looking for those food caches that I mentioned, and knowing an average beaver family size.”

More information about Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Beaver Conservation and Management Strategy is available at engagecpw.org.

This story aired on the Morning Magazine, KGNU’s weekday morning show featuring in-depth discussions on local news issues. Click here to listen to other episodes of the Morning Magazine.