The film crew from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom visited three sites in the Methow Valley to highlight the role of beavers in restoring a healthy ecosystem.
Local beavers — and work by the Methow Beaver Project (MBP) to create a healthy ecosystem — are starring in an upcoming episode of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.
The “Eager Beavers” episode on the long-running nature show features three sites in the Methow Valley — a Twisp River side channel and the Bear Creek and Texas Creek watersheds. The program also highlights beaver-restoration work in Oregon and California.
Local beavers — and work by the Methow Beaver Project (MBP) to create a healthy ecosystem — are starring in an upcoming episode of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.
The “Eager Beavers” episode on the long-running nature show features three sites in the Methow Valley — a Twisp River side channel and the Bear Creek and Texas Creek watersheds. The program also highlights beaver-restoration work in Oregon and California.
Eager Beavers is part of the Protecting the Wild series. The beaver project plans to host a free screening when the episode is released.
The episode showcases the role beavers play in creating a sustainable future across the country and, in particular, in the arid West, MBP Restoration and Outreach Assistant Willie Duguay said.
The Wild Kingdom crew went to the Bear Creek watershed where beavers are helping reclaim an area that burned in the 2014 Carlton Complex Fire. The crew also looked at the connections between beavers and salmon habitat.
Eager Beavers chronicles changing attitudes toward beavers. After widespread trapping, beavers had been extirpated from the West by the early 19th century. With few beavers on the landscape, people settled along rivers and took advantage of fertile soil in former floodplains, according to MBP.
“Long thought to be a nuisance animal, beavers have been waiting for their time to shine. Now as climate change, drought and other damaging ecological factors severely impact groundwater and wetland habitats, science is finally understanding the importance of these natural engineers for the health of our planet,” Wild Kingdom said.
MBP is one of several organizations around the country employing new tactics that see beavers as partners in the restoration of streams and the broader ecosystem. MBP does its part to create favorable stream conditions — and then lets the beavers take over. Ideally, “beavers move in and do their work for humans, wildlife and the ecosystem,” Duguay said.
In the past, the beaver project relocated beavers to areas that provided favorable habitat, hoping the beavers would settle in and colonize them. But they’ve learned that it’s more successful to make habitat improvements that attract beavers so that the animals move on their own. Being dropped off in a new area can be disorienting, making the beavers more vulnerable to predators and less apt to mate and thrive, Duguay said.
Coexistence
Local screening postponed
The Eager Beavers screening planned for Friday (March 17) has been cancelled. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom has postponed the release of the next five episodes in their “Protecting the Wild” series, including Eager Beavers, the Methow Beaver Project said in a statement.
“We are sad but hopeful that we can celebrate this premiere with our communities later this summer when we have a new release date,” the beaver project said.
MBP also emphasizes coexistence with beavers. They fence trees, screen culverts, and install devices to keep water from flooding a home or property. Relocation is a last resort, used in areas close to homes where other strategies haven’t worked, Duguay said.
Many of the Methow’s beavers make their home in the Methow River. “The deep, slow pools of the Methow River are a comfy, cozy place for beavers to live and munch on cottonwoods,” Duguay said.
As the beaver population grows, one of MBP’s goals is to see beavers move higher in the watershed, where their activity will help provide water storage and flood control. Beaver dams and wood deposits slow the flow of the water and create quiet pools that provide refuge for fish.
Wetlands and slower streams also serve as fire breaks, and green, moist places can shelter wildlife during a wildfire. In a healthy system, beaver activity will inundate historic floodplains, increasing resilience to floods, wildfires and droughts, Duguay said.
The role of beavers in creating a healthy ecosystem is increasingly important as the climate changes. “Beavers certainly are one of the solutions in how we can move forward to the new reality,” Duguay said.
One technique that’s shown success is construction of low-tech structures called beaver-dam analogues (BDAs), which mimic a beaver complex. BDAs are built from pine posts driven into the streambed, with plant material woven between them. The structures allow the water to create pools and trap sediment, Duguay said.
While beaver organizations are still studying the effectiveness of BDAs, in many areas, beavers moved in shortly after one was installed and expanded the complex with their own engineering.
Eager Beavers features local biologists and ecologists involved in beaver restoration, including MBP Project Director Alexa Whipple and Education and Outreach Coordinator Julie Nelson, Methow Wildlife Area Manager Brandon Troyer, and Grace Watson with the Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation.
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, one of the earliest TV shows to feature nature and adventure, broadcast its first show 60 years ago. The Protecting the Wild series will be hosted by Peter Gros, co-host of the original series.
Eager Beavers is the sixth episode in the 10-part series. Other episodes examine creatures such as cougars, sea otters and crocodiles.
