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Monday, February 10, 2014
Beaver Populations Dangerously Low in New Mexico Mountains
Statewide Beaver Habitat Assessment Maps Recovery on Federal Lands
Contact: Bryan Bird (505) 699-4719
Santa Fe, New Mexico – A state-funded assessment of potential beaver habitat in New Mexico by WildEarth Guardians found that 82% of streams on public lands could support the dam-building ecosystem engineer. And yet surveys have found dangerously low numbers of beaver in New Mexico’s mountain streams and rivers. Beavers could inhabit more than 2,100 miles of streams on national forests and BLM lands in the state. While the assessment did not identify how many of these miles are currently occupied, a survey in the Jemez Mountains to assess the validity of the computer model used to do the assessment did not find beavers at any of 18 stream sites.
The report is being released just a week after Senator Tim Keller and Representative Bobby Gonzales introduced a memorial in the 2014 legislative session calling on state natural resource agencies to develop joint recommendations on how to proceed with a statewide beaver management plan. Guardians hopes that the assessment will be used to identify and prioritize protection and restoration of streams and wetlands on public lands in New Mexico.
“This is a major step forward in understanding where beaver habitat can be improved to protect and restore streams and wetlands,” said Bryan Bird, biologist and project manager for WildEarth Guardians. “We now have a good idea where beaver can survive now on federal lands and where we need to first restore the habitat prior to restoring beavers.”
The beaver habitat assessment identifies potential, suitable, and currently occupied habitat. The model, as well as a full-day beaver and wetlands workshop, was the product of a contract with the New Mexico Environment Department. A Wetland Program Development Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the New Mexico Environment Department provided funding for the project.
“We are blessed in New Mexico to have abundant federal lands, where beaver could be relocated with little effort from places of conflict,” said Bird. “Many imperiled species such as the New Mexico meadow jumping mouse, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout and the Northern leopard frog are closely associated with beaver dams,” Birded added. “The model is an essential tool and first step in restoring beaver so that we can enhance watersheds for wildlife and downstream water users.”
Scientific research shows that beaver play a vital role in increasing river and wetland ecosystem resilience in the face of climate change. New Mexico would benefit from a strategic plan for statewide beaver management designed to capture the full watershed benefits and minimize conflicts with human land uses. Senator Keller and Representative Gonzales introduced Senate Memorial 4 in the 2014 New Mexico legislative session, which calls on state natural resource agencies to develop joint recommendations on how to proceed with a statewide beaver management plan.
WildEarth Guardians hopes to work with state agencies such as the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and the State Forestry Division in the development of a beaver management plan that will reduce conflict and manage beaver for their ecosystem benefits.
Link to Layman’s report
Link to final EPA report
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