Beaver Busters

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Journal Writer

POCATELLO - They've been maligned as an unstoppable plague and trapped to near extinction to satiate the whims of European style.

But to Larry Sherburne, beavers just might be the most productive animal to ever be despised.

“We've done everything we can for 200 years to get rid of them,” Sherburne said. “But it's amazing to see what they can do in one season. They really hold back the water and the siltation.”

For the past six years, Sherburne and a few friends have worked to reverse the damage of the past two centuries - educating landowners on how to work with beavers and, when that's not possible, live-trapping beavers and releasing them in strategic locations.

This year alone, Sherburne and other local “Beaver Busters” transplanted 18 beavers to new homes in Southeast Idaho.

“Everybody complains about low water years, but can you imagine what this country looked like before the white man came?” asked Sherburne, a fourth-generation Pocatellan whose engineering background gives him special appreciation for beaver's building abilities.

During one particularly colorful episode this summer, six young beavers weighing about 40 or 50 pounds each were placed in burlap sacks and packed in via horseback to a remote stream access in the Inkom area.

“It was kind of a rodeo scene,” Sherburne recalled with a laugh. “The horses weren't too happy.”

The owner of the property, who declined to give his name or exact location out of concern for the beavers' safety, said beavers hadn't been in the mini-ecosystem for 60 years.

Beavers, the third-largest rodents on the planet after capybaras and maras, are described by the property owner as “funny rascals.” The animals' quirks obligate team members to transplant them to new homes by Sept. 1. If they don't have time to establish a lodge by the time winter comes, the beavers likely won't make it through the season.

And Sherburne and his team must also be careful not to mix rival families as beavers are known to kill strangers outside their own clan.

But when it comes to ecological benefits of the animal, new research suggests the beaver is unparalleled in the Intermountain West.

“The beaver pond functions almost exactly like a wastewater treatment plant,” said Mike Settell, a graduate student studying environmental engineering at Idaho State University.

Settell said beaver activity settles sedimentation, provides oxygen to fish and adds keeps a healthy level of organic nutrients to riparian settings.

While researchers have tried to build artificial dams in Utah, Settell said they've been unable to replicate the success of beaver dams and have paid far more money for the lesser results.

“(The beavers) maintain that dam for free so they're pretty cost effective,” he said.

Settell was drawn to the project while serving on the Portneuf Watershed Council. He felt a pull to do more field work and spend less time in meetings.

After extensive research in Southeast Idaho, he's discovered about 90 percent of the water stored in a beaver dam is actually stored in the soil, keeping water flows regular even during drought years.

“There are a lot of creeks that are dry now that used to have water in them,” Settell said, attributing that in part to diminished beaver populations.

While Settell lends a valuable science perspective and Sherburne contributes his experiences as both a naturalist and engineer, the third regular member of the beaver buster team just might be the most prolific.

After all, the project runs under the auspices of the non-profit Native North American Education and Research Foundation directed by former Sho-Ban High School teacher Ed Galindo.

Galindo, who now works for the University of Idaho after receiving accolades for his work in Fort Hall, said many landowners get fed up with beavers plugging culverts and causing other nuisances and often kill the animals out of sheer frustration.

“If we can provide the landowners with consulting services, tools and materials to help them live with the beaver rather than exterminate them, we feel we are providing a win-win solution for the beaver, the landowners and the entire watershed,” Galindo said.

“You don't have to kill to find a solution for everything.”

To live-trap the animals, the team sets up a castor oil scented, spring-loaded contraption, that Sherburne described as looking like a “big clam shell,” near a river bank.

The devices are tethered to the banks so trapped beavers won't float downstream and drown.

“I don't think we've ever lost one,” Sherburne said. “When an animal steps in (a trap) they just close up.”

A number of the beavers were trapped this summer at the KOA campground near Lava Hot Springs, while others were trapped in Utah and relocated via ATVs.

The beaver busters are trying new technology as well, such as low voltage electric fences - similar to the ones used on dogs - to ensure beavers stay within a prescribed boundary.

By Dan Boyd

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