Recent Beaver Dams have Enormous Water Storage Potential - August 2024
A recent study in the Bear River basin modeled the potential for beaver dams to store transient (meaning rain or snowmelt) water. The study found that at maximum beaver-dam capacity, beavers in the basin could store 10.38 million cubic meters of water. That's a lot of water! This study is a huge win for us and for beavers because it scientifically quantifies something that MOBP has been saying for decades: beavers store water for ecosystem function, for climate resilience, and for all the living creatures - including us- who need fresh, clean water to survive. Check out the article here or read the abstract below.
Announcing our New Name! The Methow Okanogan Beaver Project - June 2024
We're excited to announce that we have now officially changed our name! Over the past few years, we have expanded our coexistence and restoration work into the Okanogan Valley and currently have restoration projects across both the Okanogan and the Methow. So without further ado, welcome to the Methow Okanogan Beaver Project!
MBP Receives Sustainability Star Reward - May 2024
We were honored to receive a Sustainability Star Award from the Okanogan Conservation District (OCD) during their May 2024 Conservation Celebration! Thank you so much to OCD for recognizing the critical role beavers and people play as partners in restoring the Okanogan and Methow River watersheds for a more sustainable future for all. Huge THANKS! to our funders, including WA DOE Water Resources program, WCS Climate Adaptation Fund, WDFW, WDNR, and our many supportive community land stewards! We could not do this work without you!
Skydiving Beavers? Read this new article from Atlas Obscura - February 2024
From skydiving beavers to NASA's watchful eye in space, learn how these furry creatures are making a big impact on ecosystems, water management, and wildfire resilience! Check out the fascinating story behind Idaho's parachuting beavers in this recent article from Atlas Obscura.
Methow Beaver Project Featured on Wild Kingdom - December 2023
Last summer, we had the pleasure of taking part in Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom: Protecting the Wild! We had such a fun time being a part of this historic show and sharing our beaver knowledge with the world.
Read this article about the episode.
MBP's Alexa Whipple filming an interview for Wild Kingdom
MBP Awarded Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund Implementation Award - July 2021
MBP was recently awarded Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund's Implementation Award to restore woody structure and beavers in 8 wildfire impacted tributaries of the Methow and Okanogan River watersheds. This work is being done in collaboration with private landowners, WA Dept of Ecology, WA Dept of Fish and Wildlife, WA Dept of Natural Resources, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the communities of Okanogan County. We are grateful for this opportunity to restore natural stream processes that slow and store seasonal water, support critical fish and wildlife habitat, and rebuild resilience to climate change, including wildfires, back into our watersheds.
Read the full announcement below and visit all the grantee websites. There are so many amazing projects and people working on our climate challenges! Volunteering and being a part of the many needed climate solutions is a great way to help move the needle on climate adaptation and sustainability! Reach out to us to learn more about lending your hands on our upcoming stream restoration projects in Summer 2022! And stay tuned for more information. www.methowbeaverproject.com alexa.mbp@methowsalmon.org
Lost Species Remembrance Day - November 2020
November 30th is Lost Species Remembrance Day
This day of distinction was created in 2011 as a reminder of the importance of every species, especially those already lost, in the vast web of life on Earth. As important as remembering the lesson of species lost, this day has been suggested as a reminder to protect and conserve species while they are common, especially keystone species such as beavers. Salmon are also a keystone species but their numbers have dwindled so low that the web of life that directly depends on salmon is starting to unravel and at a point far more difficult to restore.
Check out this interesting article in Scientific American by Michelle Nijhuis explaining the wisdom of early conservation of all species, keystone ones in particular.
MBP Awarded WA Department of Ecology Streamflow Restoration Grant - November 2020
MBP has been awarded WA State's Department of Ecology Water Resources Streamflow Restoration Program Grant!
Our collaborative proposal, Restoring Streamflow after Wildfire in Okanogan & Methow River Sub-basins, will implement actions to restore streamflow/floodplain connection in 8 wildfire impacted streams, 4 in the Okanogan River & 4 in the Methow River watersheds using process-based restoration strategies. Strategies include: woody structure installations, wood placement, repair of historic beaver dams, riparian plantings, and beaver reintroduction. Legacy stream degradation from human activities, climate change, increasing scale/severity of wildfire, and broad collaboration among local, regional and state partners make restoration actions timely, practical, and feasible.
To find out more, or learn how to get involved with beaver mediated stream restoration, sign up for our Newsletter or email us at methowbeaverproject@methowsalmon.org.
MBP's Alexa Whipple Featured on Fisherwomen Podcast - November 2020
Looking for some fresh content to add to your digital library? Check out "The Fisherwomen" podcast, where fisheries biologist Katie Osborn interviews interesting folks in fisheries, aquatic and riparian conservation. This week features MBP's very own Alexa Whipple, who dives deep into the pond weeds on beaver mediated stream restoration, wildfire resiliency, and salmon recovery. Subscribe here.
Give Methow is ON! - October 2020
Give Methow is ON! - The annual fundraiser for Methow Valley based community non-profits during the month of October!
Learn more about and help support the Methow Beaver Project's expanded beaver coexistence and stream restoration mission and our new Student's in the STREAM High School program. Check out our short 1 minute speed dating (or donating) video for inspiration, hope, and a good laugh. Thanks for giving and supporting stewardship and RESILIENCE in our community!!
Go to Give Methow's donate page, scroll down to find Methow Beaver Project or other Methow organizations and express your love and commitment to the Methow with your support!
Give Methow is helping the Methow Beaver Project build RESILIENCE in the Methow and Okanogan Valley Watersheds!
Beaver Coexistence Strategies in the Methow are helping Coho salmon access critical and limited spawning habitat - September 2020
Salmon habitat for spawning and juvenile rearing and overwintering is limited throughout historic salmon bearing streams. This is primarily due to humans modifying streams with levies, bank armor, culverts, dikes, and dams to protect infrastructure and land use priorities but also to move water efficiently through the landscape for human use. These activities have reduced the natural function of our watersheds for water storage on the landscape but also for the dynamic and complex habitat that salmon and other aquatic and terrestrial organisms need to live and reproduce. River and stream channels naturally create dynamic and complex habitat when allowed to migrate across the floodplain rather than being confined to straightened and armored channels. Beavers help create slow and deep water habitat in these channels that provides refuge for juvenile salmon during high flows as well as during extreme seasonal temperatures. Beaver dammed side channels also provide some species of salmon, like Coho, with preferred spawning habitat.
When critical habitat is so limited for our threatened and endangered salmonids, we want to reduce the challenges our salmon face when rearing in or returning to the Methow. Historically, the riverscape was so complex and shifting that beaver dams were not a challenge to salmon passage, afterall, beavers and salmon evolved together and salmon are incredibly athletic barrier jumpers. Only with overwhelming human influence on the watershed has the salmon and beaver population been reduced dramatically with simplified, extracted, and managed systems being the prime influence.
Methow Beaver Project (MBP) is working with habitat and fisheries biologists across Okanogan County and the region to help reduce modern perceived and potential barriers to salmon passage in beaver dammed side channels with beaver coexistence strategies such as fish passage flow devices. The photo below shows a beaver with 2 Coho salmon swimming together near our newly installed fish passage/flow device intake protection cages slightly above the water surface. The cages protect the device from beaver discovery and blocking with mud or debris but allow for juvenile and adult salmon passage. The adult Coho most likely entered this beaver dammed side channel in September through the device installed in July 2020 on WA Dept of Fish and Wildlife-Methow Wildlife Area property.
Our beaver/salmon/human coexistence strategies are working!!! Thank you to our partners in coexistence including WA Dept of Fish & Wildlife, WA Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, and USFWS. To learn more or seek help with any beaver challenges, call 509-289-2770!
2020 Methow Beaver Project Beaver Celebration - September 2020
Sign up for our virtual evening Edu-tainment event on September 19th and in-person site tours on September 20th. Follow this link to join the movement and celebrate partnering with beavers for healthy, sustainable and wildfire resistant watersheds!!
Catchy Beaver Tunes are Never Old News: It's Time for a Beaver Riot - February 2020
Click here to listen to GOTTA CHEW! by Ken Bevis (Wildlife Biologist with WA Dept of Natural Resources) with Julie Vanderwal (Okanogan Highlands Alliance) and Sandy Vaughn (Triple Creek Land Stewards)
We teamed up with Okanogan Highlands Alliance in January 2020 to share an evening of "Edutainment" sharing and celebrating watershed restoration actions occurring in Okanogan County! We featured original music, local musicians and informative presentations about the need and the strategies for adding structure to our streams to restore natural watershed processes like floodplain connectivity during high spring flows. What seems like a simple process, reconnecting floodplains, actually jump starts a series of processes that we all depend on like increased water storage, recharge of groundwater, and extended late season flows from the slow transfer of groundwater back to streams. This makes our watersheds more resilient to climate change (increased drought & wildfire), keeps our endangered salmon happier (all stream & riparian dependent critters really), and helps keep water flowing to human communities too.
Beavers Support Beef Production - February 2020
Jay Wilde, an Idaho rancher, figured out a crucial missing element from his parched ranch and range lands...beavers. Bringing them back has been a restoration love story. Find out more at the link below.
https://www.beefmagazine.com/sustainability/beaver-power-provides-year-long-water-idaho-ranch
Think Like A Beaver! New beaver Ecology Curriculum - November 2019
Check out Oregon State University's new 4th-5th grade Science curriculum focused on Beaver Ecology at the link below.
https://smile.oregonstate.edu/lesson/think-beaver
