Beaver Balance

Why do beavers matter? It’s like asking why does water matter? We need one for the other.

There is something magical about beavers. They know the secret of restoration. 

We had beavers for a long time, about 7 million years, and then we almost lost them due to trapping. Now we are trying to build them back. Their work ethic and water wisdom is more useful than we realized.

We need beavers. We need them to do their work. Their work makes for cooler water and higher water tables and more, which I will mention after pictures of beaver water.

What is a healthy planet? It means a planet that burns less, has more water, good sources of fish, plants, bugs, animals, and trees, so that we can keep living here.

Beavers are balancers. They know how to balance water and land, which in turn, nurtures other species to produce an abundant collaboration, regeneration. They know the formula for the way to keep life going in the right direction, the cycle of wholeness. Nature is not compartmentalized. Everything is an exchange.

Rivers used to be slower, wider, with more side channels and offshoots. The Willamette river used to have sections that were 5 miles wide! 

Humans made rivers faster and deeper with fewer side channels to get boats through and also to build roads from all that gravel. Faster water is good for transporting barges. It’s not good for many other things, like young salmon. There is no where to hang out and grow and nibble on food safely. You don’t put babies in rapids, right? 

Fish thrive in cool water. Beavers cool down water. They connect the water we see on the surface to groundwater, which we don’t see. This is happening underneath us. These are chilled underground channels of water.

Beavers spend their time eating (vegetarian), grooming, building and repairing their lodges and dams. Their living is giving. They don’t know it (unless they do) but they are helping the planet.

I went to a beaver monitor training through the McKenzie River Trust today. Why monitor beavers? My take is it creates awareness as to where they are, how they are doing, and how can we support them to support us. 

Pay attention. Help beavers help us.