WildEarth Guardians

Sunday, June 8, 2008
Busy Working For Beavers

Environmentalists, middle school girls and a master hunter join in an effort to help rodents thrive in human territory
Contact: WildEarth Guardians

Staci Matlock | The New Mexican

A master hunter agreed to let the Santa Fe Girls School and WildEarth Guardians erect fences around hundreds of young trees on his La Cieneguilla property.

In exchange, the hunter, Ed Sceery, agreed not to shoot the beavers building dams upstream from his property on the Santa Fe River.

It is the kind of private-public deal beaver advocates in the state hope can be arranged more often as the beaver population grows along New Mexico streams and rivers. Beavers cut down trees to build their dams, upsetting landowners, and sometimes block culverts, causing flooding. But beaver engineering feats that back up streams also restore water levels in shallow aquifers, reduce sediment and attract more wildlife to the wetlands they create. Advocates like Animal Protection New Mexico and WildEarth Guardians are trying to teach people about the benefits of beavers and about nonlethal means for resolving human conflicts with the big rodents.

WildEarth Guardians purchased the fencing materials used to wrap around Sceery's trees. On Friday, nine students from the Santa Fe Girls School along with 10 staff and interns from the nonprofit WildEarth Guardians in Santa Fe cut and erected wire cages around about 200 willows and cottonwoods on Sceery's place.

Just upstream of his La Cieneguilla farm is an 8.7-acre preserve, where beavers last year moved in and began building dams. The preserve is owned by the Center for Service Learning and leased to the Santa Fe Girls School for an ongoing restoration project on a small stretch of the Santa Fe River.

Sceery has another 100 or more trees to fence off, and Jim Madison, restoration director for WildEarth Guardians, said they'll fence more as they have money for materials and volunteers. "We'll continue to work with Ed ensuring that the human-beaver conflicts are mitigated and the beavers are allowed to exist," Madison said.

Beavers are most active in the spring and summer. Will Barnes, a biologist working with the school on the nearby river preserve project, said Sceery was concerned the beavers would start cutting down young trees he had planted around his farm. "We're trying to be good neighbors and protect the beavers at the same time," Barnes said.

The New Mexican was unable to reach Sceery for comment. The Web site for his company, Sceery Outdoors, which makes game calls for deer, elk and other animals, describes him as a master hunter.

A group of Animal Protection of New Mexico volunteers called the Beaver Brigade was setting up cages Sunday to protect trees on another private property along La Cienega Creek. Debbie Risberg, wildlife programs manager for Animal Protection of New Mexico, said someone had already shot a beaver in the area. They were trying to prevent any more beaver shootings.

Landowners are supposed to call the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish if they are having a beaver problem. The agency can trap and remove the animals or give permission for the animal to be killed.

Risberg said most property owners are happy to learn of ways to protect trees and properties without shooting beavers.

The group has held two workshops to teach government officials about two innovative, inexpensive measures for keeping beavers from blocking culverts and acequias. They put on a workshop two weeks ago for Santa Fe city and county staff with the New Mexico Environment Department.

Skip Lisle, a retired wildlife biologist, demonstrated his beaver deceiver - a simple wire cage around culverts that prevents beavers from plugging them up, with a pipe to allow water flow out of dammed-up areas.

Risberg said beaver dams create ponds, allowing water to seep slowly into underground aquifers. The ponds also soften stream edges and spread out water, creating the wetlands needed by so many wildlife species from birds to game. "Beaver dams really benefit all of us, especially in times of drought because there's more water storage," Risberg said.

On the Web:

For more information about the volunteer Beaver Brigade, visit www.apnm.org

Copyright 2008 New Mexican - Reprinted with permission