Mr. Woolery's ranch on Beaver Creek outside Kinnear, Wyo., has been beaver-free for decades, but he could sure use their help now. A small beaver colony, he says, would engineer dams that raise the water table under his pastures, opening up drinking holes for his cattle. So the 64-year-old rancher put himself on a waiting list this year hoping state officials would bring him a beaver or two. Wyoming's Game and Fish Commission periodically plucks the rodents from drainage culverts.
It's a bit of a turnabout in these parts, where beavers have long been considered something of a nuisance—blamed for everything from damming irrigation canals and gnawing fruit orchards to just generally wreaking havoc with agriculture. In many states, it's legal to shoot a beaver on private land. In Oregon, the Beaver State, the nocturnal creatures can be designated as "predators."
But their slick skill set is what many landscapes now need, says a cadre of pro-beaver ranchers and environmentalists who work on behalf of people like Mr. Woolery. These beaver backers have a simple creed: Trapping, not killing, "nuisance" beavers, they say, can add value to wilderness reserves and farmland by increasing their water content.
That, in turn, restores fish habitats and native plants, which allow bigger species like moose, cougar and elk to thrive. "We call ourselves Beaver Believers because we found beavers do restoration work better than people," says Celeste Coulter, stewardship director at the North Coast Land Conservancy, a Seaside, Ore., group that urges developers to set aside land for beavers.
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