B.C. Wildlife Federation building artificial beaver dams in Thompson-Nicola

The B.C. Wildlife Federation (BCWF) is working to maintain existing and build new beaver dam analogues and post-assisted log structures as part of wetland conservation efforts in the Thompson-Nicola region.

Neil Fletcher, BCWF director of conservation and stewardship, said the project works with nature as a low-tech and low-cost means of restoring ecosystem health.

“We’re putting in these beaver dam analogues that hold water back on the landscape, help to reconnect floodplains, support fish and wildlife features, address drought and improve the overall health of these systems,” Fletcher said.

“We have three sites near Merritt and two sites proposed to be completed in the Kamloops area this year.”

Fletcher said the BCWF chooses target locations based on outside impacts and water levels.

“We’re identifying streams that are degraded either by cattle impacts, industrial impacts or fires that have gone through. These streams are generally impacted by being incised, which means water has been cut down and is not able to connect to their adjacent floodplains,” Fletcher said.

“In those situations, water runs off the landscape a lot faster.”

Fletcher said the beaver dam analogues have proven to be a successful means of wetlands conservation in other parts of B.C. and in the United States.

“Once we’re able to reconnect these floodplains, we’re able to see more water stored on the landscape, more resilient steams downstream, so this is providing more guarantees for water downstream for users or fish,” Fletcher said.

According to the BCWF, the structures have a knock-on effect when they are completed, providing more broad ranging-benefits.

“There are a whole lot of connections to climate change, fire recovery and drought resilience, I think these some of the big things that are solutions we are able to apply on the landscape which brings us and others hope that there’s ways to deal with these things that are beyond scope,” Fletcher said.

“Adapting to climate change is really challenging to fathom and it’s happening rapidly. I feel like there is a lot of interest in this type for work for those kinds of benefits and the opportunities it provides on scale.”

So far, the BCWF has set up over 100 human-made beaver dam analogues across the province, with plans to eventually reintroduce actual beavers.

“This would be a secondary phase, once we’re able to get these sites into a particular condition where they’re wetter and have more food resources on the landscape,” Fletcher said.

“We’re hoping beavers move in on their own or we can relocate beaves to some of these areas, so they can continue the good work and the maintenance over time.”