{"id":196679,"date":"2025-10-08T04:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T04:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/196679\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T04:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T04:44:14","slug":"bringing-beavers-back-to-syilx-homelands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/196679\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing beavers back to syilx homelands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, while completing a wetland assessment with the B.C. Wildlife Federation in the highlands above sw\u0313iw\u0313s<\/a> (Osoyoos, B.C.), Delaney Hall came across the remnants of an old beaver dam along Coteay Creek.<\/p>\n

As he continued on along the now-depleted waterway, Hall identified evidence of 36 more former dams, all of which were abandoned along a five-kilometre stretch.<\/p>\n

Of those 37, 20 of them are still in good enough condition to be patched up. Some have already been repaired, enabling them to hold back water to create the ponds and reservoirs that make dams so valuable to wetland ecosystems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ADelaney Hall, a tmix\u02b7 (wildlife) technician with the Okanagan Nation Alliance and a member of the Osoyoos Indian Band, stands near an old beaver dam structure upstream from Coteay Creek. In a five-kilometre stretch along the creek, Hall identified 37 natural beaver dams, 20 of which are still in good enough condition to be patched up and made functional again.<\/p>\n

About 15 kilometres downstream from the Mount Baldy Ski Resort, Coteay Creek quietly meanders through a large open field. This area surrounding the creek has become more like a grassland as the wetland has dried up and the beavers \u2014 or stunx<\/a> as they\u2019re known in nsyilxc\u0259n, the language of the syilx nations \u2014 have disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere haven\u2019t been beavers up here for like 30-plus years,\u201d said Hall, a tmix\u02b7<\/a> (wildlife) technician with the Okanagan Nation Alliance, a tribal council representing eight member communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere used to be millions and millions of beavers, and now there\u2019s not very many up in the highlands anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

But by mimicking beaver structures, people are determined to coax them back, explained Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you start restoring some of this area, the vegetation starts coming back. And beavers have been known to take over after,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn aerial view of Coteay Creek, looking downstream. The loss of beavers from the landscape has had an impact on many wetlands in the Interior.<\/p>\n

In the second week of September, Hall led a project with the tribal council, Osoyoos Indian Band and the B.C. Wildlife Federation. The team installed eight manufactured beaver dams along a one-kilometre stretch of Coteay Creek in this open field, in an effort to help revitalize the surrounding wetland\u2019s ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Between the human-made dam structures \u2014 also known as beaver dam analogues \u2014 the crew also implemented eight additional artificial creek obstructions to mimic natural log jams. They\u2019re known as post-assisted log structures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen trees fall over into the creek, it directs the water to the side,\u201d Hall, who\u2019s a member of Osoyoos Indian Band, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re using that to help widen out the system, because it\u2019s so low.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AHall gestures towards a wetland ecosystem, the result of an old still-functioning beaver dam upstream from Coteay Creek.<\/p>\n

\u2018The glue that holds habitats together\u2019<\/p>\n

Coteay Creek is a tributary of aksk\u02b7\u0259k\u02b7ant (Inkaneep Creek), which flows into suwiw\u0313s (Osoyoos Lake). The headwaters of both Coteay and Inakneep creeks are located just below Mount Baldy.<\/p>\n

Before the fur trade and settler colonialism decimated the population of beavers in syilx homelands, the semi-aquatic rodents and their dams played a critical role in the ecological functions of local wetlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere used to be like 400 million beavers they estimate, in the country,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now, there\u2019s a huge difference,\u201d noting that there\u2019s roughly 12 to 15 million left.<\/p>\n

Hall estimates that up to 90 per cent of the province\u2019s wetlands have been lost, and he said much of that loss is linked to the disappearance of beavers from the landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had wetlands all over the place, like in every waterway,\u201d he explained. \u201cPeople need to understand that beavers are a keystone species.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are the glue that holds habitats together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a few steps from a turn in the creek and into the field, what appears to be a small mound in the ground to the untrained eye is actually the remnants of the lowest beaver structure in Coteay Creek\u2019s former beaver dam system.<\/p>\n

Upon finding the former natural beaver dams, Hall spoke with some Osoyoos Indian Band Elders, who pointed on a map to where they\u2019d previously seen signs of beavers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talk to some of the Elders, they remember beavers in places where the evidence is totally gone now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The spot one of the Elders identified \u201cwas the exact same place I was talking about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He recounted the Elder telling him, \u201cYears ago, that whole [area] \u2014 where there\u2019s no trees and stuff \u2014 that was all underwater, that was all beaver dam. It was an old wetland back there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnThe open field surrounding Coteay Creek, near the site where 16 beaver mimicry structures were installed along the waterway. <\/p>\n

When beavers are allowed to build their dams unimpeded, those structures act like speed bumps to slow a stream\u2019s flow. They result in pools that hold water along a waterway\u2019s route, Hall said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBeavers create the environment that best suits them,\u201d he explained. \u201cIf you ever see a beaver on land, it waddles pretty slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pools of deeper water are an ideal place for the rodents to swim freely, where they build their dens and canals, the latter serving as\u00a0 \u201chighways for beavers,\u201d according to Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The canals are \u201clittle micro streams\u201d that stem from beaver ponds, \u201cacross valley bottoms and different landscapes,\u201d Fairfax explained at a webinar hosted by the tribal council in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pond is definitely a very large and important surface water feature, but the canals take a beaver from influencing half a square kilometre of land, to influencing multiple square kilometres of land,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Their dams slow down flowing water, spreading it out into floodplains and wetlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helps recharge the ground water and it slowly releases it over time,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you don\u2019t have any of that in a stream system, the water starts to channelize and then it starts to dig itself down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In other words, streams become faster without beaver dams \u2014 they widen and straighten, rather than meander, and contribute to the erosion of a stream\u2019s bed.<\/p>\n

Beaver dams make landscapes fire-resistant<\/p>\n

Wetlands are critical habitat not just for other aquatic beings such as fish and amphibians, but also land animals, including moose, deer and elk, Hall explained.<\/p>\n

But with more frequent droughts causing a growing number of streams to dry up, he said \u201cit\u2019s hard out here for the animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see them as our relatives,\u201d he added. \u201cThey help us sustain our lives, so we gotta help take care of them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Close-upBeavers are a keystone species, and their dams are critical for wetlands and the species that depend on them. <\/p>\n

And since beaver dams enable wetlands to keep their surrounding lands moist and green, they act as natural fire breaks, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fairfax said that beaver-dammed areas are about three times more fire-resistant than rivers without beavers.<\/p>\n

She explained that during \u201cmegafires,\u201d ecosystems with beaver activity in them offer significant protection from wildfires, becoming what are called \u201cfire refugia\u201d \u2014 areas that remain mostly unburned, or experience only low-intensity fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is helpful and beneficial for the soil and the organisms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important to have fire refugia available. These are the places that animals will seek out to survive the fire, especially those that can\u2019t outrun a fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, devastating floods and droughts are less likely to occur where there are multiple beaver dams along a waterway, because their structures slow water down and spread it out into the ground, absorbing water and holding it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A wetland is \u201clike a giant sponge,\u201d Hall said, \u201cit just soaks it all up, and slowly releases it over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaver dams help cool water temperatures for salmon<\/p>\n

In watersheds\u2019 highlands, beaver dams also help regulate water temperatures downstream, because they store cooler water up higher for longer periods, slowly releasing it throughout the whole year instead of all at once.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This cold water filtering into waterways also supports salmon as they return to spawn, which thrive in cooler temperatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we had beavers in the system,\u201d Hall said, \u201cwe had more fish than we could count.\u201d<\/p>\n

But with a lack of beaver dams slowing and holding water, as is the case at Coteay Creek, the water descending from its headwaters flows \u201cso fast now,\u201d Hall lamented.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore material and sediments have been filling our rivers, which has been destroying fish habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snowpacks in the territory are already melting more quickly due to warming temperatures brought on by climate change. But Hill said clearcut logging in the headwaters is accelerating this process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not only do tree canopies reduce local temperatures, but as more snowmelt and rain run off deforested parts of watersheds, these areas also suffer from further erosion due to cattle grazing, and landslides linked to flooding \u2014 all of which increases waterflow in streams and creeks, he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AAs the watershed has diminished, in part due to the loss of beavers and their dams, an influx of cattle has caused further erosion. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has degraded them, and they have suffered lots of erosion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we are faced with less snow every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

And unless watersheds are protected from top to bottom, he argued, \u201cit will continue to be an uphill battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are such huge cumulative impacts in the upper watershed from forestry, mining \u2014 all the other users,\u201dq\u02b7\u0259q\u02b7im\u0313cxn Tessa Terbasket<\/a>, the siw\u026ck\u02b7<\/a> (water) program lead for Okanagan Nation Alliance, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut also climate change \u2014 these megafires that have been going through and changing the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Imitate the beaver\u2019<\/p>\n

Terbasket said that protecting upper watersheds throughout the territory should be a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s less things up there now that hold the water back and slow the water down in the watershed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur system here is very dependent on that \u2014 if the water\u2019s not being held up there, and we\u2019re not getting that much snowpack, that means that we are in a drought for the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

While frogs, rainbow and brook trout can be spotted within Coteay Creek, most of the four-legged animals found roaming its nearby fields nowadays are cows and wild horses, with black bears and their cubs seen occasionally, too.<\/p>\n

\"WildWild horses, black bears and cows are often seen around Coteay Creek, as the wetland has gradually turned to grassland. <\/p>\n

On top of the lack of maintained beaver dams slowing the creek\u2019s flow, years of cattle trampling across Coteay Creek have also eroded the creekbed, cutting up to two metres into the ground in places.<\/p>\n

Knowing beaver dams\u2019 ability to help naturally maintain the creek\u2019s health and keep water in the wetlands, Hall felt this stretch of the waterway would be the perfect spot to install human-made structures to mimic a beaver dam\u2019s functions.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dirt lasagna\u2019: How to fake a beaver dam<\/p>\n

Beaver dam analogues are built by packing layers upon layers of locally harvested fir branches with mud from the creek. The mud is spread and firmed along the upstream side of the structure, reinforcing it and enabling water to slowly trickle down on its other side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, we\u2019re trying to imitate the way a beaver dam is built,\u201d said Hall.<\/p>\n

\"TwoMembers of B.C. Wildlife Federation\u2019s watershed team, Kyla Rushton, right, and Katie Blokker, build a beaver dam analogue along Coteay Creek.<\/p>\n

Leanne McDonald, a biologist with the federation, compared the technique to a \u201cdirt lasagna.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [beaver dam analogues] are here to help hold back that water, so that it\u2019s not straight-shooting further down,\u201d the intermediate restoration biologist explained.<\/p>\n

The federation has been installing the analogues in waterways across the province for years through their 10,000 Wetlands project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the beaver mimicry initiative in Coteay Creek was the first such pilot installation for Okanagan Nation Alliance, which hopes will lead to similar projects in upper watersheds throughout its territories.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Members of the Okanagan Nation Alliance and B.C. Wildlife Federation work together to build \u201cdirt lasagnas,\u201d layering mud and fir branches to hold back water.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be doing it shoulder-to-shoulder with everybody,\u201d Terbasket said, \u201cbecause we just see that we need to be doing this work. It just makes so much sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 10, McDonald was among five B.C. Wildlife staff members on site to train their Okanagan Nation Alliance and Osoyoos Indian Band counterparts on the technique.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Natural resource officers with the Lower Similkameen Indian Band also joined the crew later that week, hoping to take the idea back to their own watersheds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love for [Okanagan Nation Alliance] to be able to do this themselves,\u201d McDonald said, \u201cto have the capacity and the know-how to go find these sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The beaver dam analogues may last between two and 15 years in the creek. But the hope is that they attract real beavers to return to the waterways and take over the construction efforts.\n<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s really rewarding work\u2019<\/p>\n

The team also installed large poles to strengthen both the beaver dam analogues and post-assisted log structures, to keep them in place and to deter cattle from walking across the structures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cattle crossing the waterway has caused a lot of \u201cdegradation that we\u2019re seeing\u201d in the creek, McDonald said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that by raising the water levels, it will discourage them from wanting to walk through here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Their efforts started to pay off quickly. As they installed the structures over a week, they soon noticed the water level beginning to rise, with pools starting to slowly fill in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s immediate satisfaction and gratification building these structures,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cYou see the results immediately. It\u2019s really rewarding work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AAs the analogues take shape in the creek, water begins to pool and accumulate. The pools will trap sediment, which will in turn help to raise up the creek bottom, ultimately restoring the nearby floodplains. <\/p>\n

The pools behind each artificial beaver dam are also designed to trap sediment as water trickles through. That sediment will help raise up the creek bottom, increasing water levels with it and helping restore nearby floodplains.<\/p>\n

As the creek waters widen further into their adjacent flats, the hope is for the analogues to trap sediments and encourage the waterway to meander across the plain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more the water meanders, the better it spreads it out,\u201d Hall explained. \u201cIt gets everything greener in a wider area.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the structures were being built, the crews regularly used a staff gauge to measure a pool\u2019s water levels on the downstream side of each beaver dam analogue, to see how much water was flowing through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe constantly check to make sure that the water hasn\u2019t dropped too much,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it starts to go down one or two [centimetres], then we stop and let the pool fill up, and let it start going over the top again. Let the flow do its thing again, and then we\u2019ll start to build it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnTogether, the crew built 16 analogues in the creek from fir branches and mud; downstream is a post-assisted log structure. <\/p>\n

Crews were careful not to build the beaver dam analogues too tall too fast, however, as the structures could blow out come spring when freshet meltwaters make their way down from the headwaters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They plan to return next year to build them back up, and address any broken or sediment-clogged dams.<\/p>\n

The goal, Hall said, is to prevent the dams from fully blocking the flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always constant,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter they\u2019re all built in, the flow never changes \u2026 It\u2019s the same amount of water going through. It just slows it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDonald said they\u2019ll check on the structures twice more next year, during high flows in the spring and low flows in the fall. They\u2019ll also gather data and do any needed maintenance, such as adding more layers.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Hall said they want to build beaver dam analogues farther upstream, closer to the headwaters, which would extend the dams\u2019 current one-kilometre stretch six-fold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to start at the headwaters and keep more of that cold water up in the high country for longer,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThreeHall said the nations plan to build \u201chundreds\u201d of beaver dam analogues throughout their territory each year. <\/p>\n

Return of the beaver<\/p>\n

The analogues can survive from between two to 15 years, McDonald said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The secret to even longer-lasting structures, however, is to attract actual beavers.<\/p>\n

That, she said, \u201cis the ultimate goal\u201d \u2014 to \u201chave beavers on the landscape maintaining them for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fairfax, at the University of Minnesota, agreed restoring the species to local watersheds is vital.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be building their structures,\u201d she said, \u201cif you don\u2019t want the beavers back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hall and McDonald both envision a day when the large rodents return to their former habitats, ideally to take over maintaining the artificial structures \u2014 and once again steward their surrounding wetlands.<\/p>\n

\"AerialAttracting beavers back to the landscape will also draw other native creatures back as well, with Hall describing a restored wetland as \u201ca magnet for all wildlife.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBeavers are attracted to the sound of water, and that\u2019s where they go,\u201d said Terbasket.<\/p>\n

Although it might be hard to imagine how beavers would find their way to a dam analogue on a creek they\u2019ve not used in years, McDonald said there\u2019s \u201ca great opportunity\u201d in the province because the species are often seen as a \u201cnuisance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are trapping beavers in areas where they can\u2019t co-exist with people,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can release them here and they can take over a site like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just beavers who have the potential to come back to Coteay Creek. Other wildlife are expected to return to the wetlands, too, once the structures rejuvenate the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Hall predicts that \u201call sorts\u201d of birds would return to a healthy wetland in the area, along with other mammals such as mink, marten and muskrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a magnet for all wildlife,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018We need to act now\u2019<\/p>\n

One week after helping out at Coteay Creek, the B.C. Wildlife Federation crew assisted another syilx member community, Westbank First Nation, with similar beaver mimicry work, helping install beaver dam analogues in a headwater zone of the Derickson Swamp<\/a> wetland system.<\/p>\n

Terbasket said communities throughout the nation are really keen to be starting this work in their own watersheds.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing beaver mimicry work in the upper watershed really seems like a no-brainer,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s learn to do this together, but also it\u2019s so important to get our Elders\u2019 and Knowledge Keepers\u2019 input and direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Equally crucial, she added, is \u201csyilx-ifying\u201d this Western-science approach to beaver mimicry, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s our nsyilxcen words for it?\u201d Terbasket asked. \u201cWhat\u2019s the protocol and ceremonies that we need to also be doing for this work for it to be successful?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AHall gestures to a pool forming along the creek, the result of the 16 beaver dam analogues installed by the technicians, which will support the restoration of the watershed. \u201cWe need to act now \u2026 for future generations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

She said that Elders and other community members have also said they prioritize protecting and restoring their upper watersheds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hall said the nation plans to build hundreds of beaver dam analogues every year throughout their territory.<\/p>\n

He identified the headwaters of Vaseux Creek and McIntyre Creek as other waterways that would benefit from the efforts, as they are \u201cdangerously close to drying up in the summertime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re important spawning grounds for sockeye and chinook salmon in the Okanagan River system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so many fish coming back,\u201d he said. \u201cNow we need all the spawning areas that we can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shuttleworth Creek has seen its waters become dangerously slow, he said, stranding hundreds of fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also listed numerous other waterways in the area that would benefit from beaver mimicry: creeks like the Shingle, Ellis, and Mission; and rivers such as the Nicola, Salmon and Similakmeen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must stand up together and protect the ones that have stood up before us, to help us sustain our lives,\u201d Hall said. \u201cWe must protect our relatives \u2014 the ones who cannot speak for themselves. For we are the caretakers of this land.\u201d<\/p>\n

But to take care of the Okanagan Nation\u2019s watersheds, he warned, \u201cWe need to act now \u2026 for future generations.\u201d And beaver dams are not just an ecosystem and climate matter, either. \u201cOur way of life is being threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaver mimicry, and in turn trying to attract beavers back to their former environments, he believes, will \u201chelp make some real change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more of our waterways have been drying up in the summertime now,\u201d he said. \u201cBeavers can help change that, and revive our wetlands.\u201d<\/p>\n