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Montana biologist: beavers are 'restoration professionals' that can help heal degraded streams
Summary
Tory Ritter of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks told a Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Group audience that beavers create habitat complexity, slow runoff, and can accelerate recovery of incised streams; statewide aerial counts and models suggest large unrealized potential for beaver-driven restoration.
Tory Ritter, a nongame wildlife biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, told a Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Group audience that beavers are among the most effective natural agents for restoring floodplain and stream function.
"A stream without beavers, if it's within the range of where beavers should be but it doesn't have them, it's boring," Ritter said, arguing that beaver dams, lodges and channeling create "messiness and movement" that store water, improve groundwater recharge and raise water…
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