Less than two hundred years ago tens of millions of beavers flourished across the Pacific Northwest. Much of Eastern Washington, which is now largely a dry desert, was then a moist wetland oasis, thanks to the work of the many resident beavers.
Unfortunately for the beaver, and for all other life in the region, in the 19th century a massive beaver genocide was intentionally perpetrated by the short-sighted Hudson Bay Trading Company. Amanda Parrish, Eastern Washington’s Beaver Project Director, offers some insight into what transpired in the area:
”…in the Pacific Northwest beaver were trapped out for political reasons. The Hudson Bay Company in Canada thought that if beaver were trapped out completely from the Pacific Northwest the United States wouldn’t expand into the Pacific Northwest, because the land would be completely devalued, and so the Hudson Bay Company actually established a fur desert policy in this area around the Columbia River.”
The utterly myopic and horrifically destructive plan perpetrated by the Canadian capitalist enterprise was to completely ruin the land by exterminating every last beaver, damn the consequences. But despite the systematic slaughter of millions of the hard-working creatures, beavers are now beginning to make a slow resurgence in Washington, thanks in part to a little help from the “Beaver Solution“.
The Beaver Solution is a project of The Lands Council (TLC), a non-profit organization based in Spokane, Washington. The group works diligently not only with the public to educate residents about the importance and many benefits of beavers, but to also relocate entire beaver families safely into new areas, where they can help with local sustainable water management and thrive.
The Beaver Solution’s mission is to preserve, manage and revitalize the forests, water and wildlife of the inland Pacific Northwest region by helping beavers to do what they do naturally:
“…build dams and store water, which slowly releases to increase flows in the late summer. After hearing that the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) was investigating several locations to build large new dams on canyon tributaries to the Columbia River to store early spring runoff and release it late in the summer, The Lands Council proposed a unique alternative – The Beaver Solution – reintroducing beavers to build dams to store spring runoff. Beaver dams also create wetland areas that retain rain and snowmelt, trap sediment making streams cleaner, increase groundwater levels, and create habitat for fish and wildlife.”
Here is a link to the entire radio interview on KEXP in Seattle with Amanda Parrish, Beaver Project Director, speaking with Diane Horn on May 21, 2011 about the Beaver Solution. You can also donate to The Lands Council’s beaver restoration project here.
About Rhonda Winter
[...] of more sustainable water management policies. Our species has largely ignored the incredibly beneficial work of the beaver, to our own detriment. Perhaps that critical mistake is now beginning to [...]