C鈥檞aam and Koptu were once a staple meal for the Klamath Tribes. They鈥檙e a rarity now 鈥� members are allowed to catch only two of the suckerfish a year. The ray-finned C鈥檞aam, with its long snout and the smaller white-bellied Koptu, with a large head and lower notched lip, are only found in the Upper Klamath Basin.
Once fished in their thousands as one of the tribes鈥� important First Foods, the fish populations were decimated when the health of their spawning grounds declined from a spate of dam building in the Upper Klamath Lake during the 1900s.
The lake has been plagued by toxic algae, which starve the fish of oxygen, and the tribes have seen suckerfish populations plummet from the tens of millions down to less than 45,000. They are now endangered. The C鈥檞aam, also known as can grow up to almost 3 feet long, and weigh 10 pounds. The Koptu, also called the , can reach 18 inches and live up to 30 years.
The tribal government has tried various tactics to restore fish populations: raising young fish to older ages before releasing them in the lakes, monitoring water quality, working with landowners to restore , and bringing a , which was eventually dropped, against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to save the C鈥檞aam and Koptu. Now the tribes are turning to an unlikely hopeful savior: .
鈥淭heir activity is a driver for the productivity and diversity for the whole ecosystem,鈥� said Alex Gonyaw, senior fisheries biologist for the Klamath Tribes in Southern Oregon and Northern California.
Last fall Gonyaw oversaw the construction of a beaver dam analog, a manmade structure that mimics a natural beaver dam and is used to attract beaver families.
Oregon is . And yet, state law classifies beavers as predators, meaning they can be hunted and trapped on private land across Oregon with few restrictions. Once an endemic species across the U.S. before the semi-aquatic rodents were trapped into near-extinction during , beavers are a vital component to the ecosystem, improving water quality and fish habitat. The animals are known to improve salmon habitat, but Gonyaw鈥檚 venture is the first attempt to use beavers to stabilize the suckerfish populations.
Two bills currently moving through the Oregon state legislature would respectively prohibit the taking of beavers on federally managed public land and exclude beavers from being classified as predatory animals.
鈥淲e hope fish biodiversity would increase and we would have an opportunity for tribal fishing rights to return,鈥� said Alex Gonyaw, a senior fisheries biologist with the Klamath Tribes.
鈥淥ur aim is to work with nature not against it,鈥� Gonyaw explains. The tribal government, which hopes to establish a stable fish population as a food source, wanted to reshape the land to provide healthy fish habitats. But they didn鈥檛 want to use bulldozers to reshape the Williamson River. 鈥淲e needed to hold the water back, and beavers do that naturally.鈥�
Beavers, a , have been found to help mitigate the spread of wildfires, thanks to their water-damming habits.
Gonyaw hopes the tribes鈥� efforts at attracting beavers 鈥� by using natural posts and woven willows to give the animals a foothold to make dams 鈥� will start to hold back water and that the historic vegetation, of local lily pads and bulrushes, will return.
鈥淎nd we鈥檒l eventually have a shallow lake wetland system again,鈥� Gonyaw said. 鈥淚f there is continuous standing water here, we hope fish biodiversity would increase and we would have an opportunity for tribal fishing rights to return.鈥�
No beavers have arrived 鈥� yet. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a long way from the nearest beaver dam, but if we don鈥檛 see activity in the next year, we鈥檒l work with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to move nuisance beavers,鈥� he adds.
Relocating beavers on private land is allowed, but it鈥檚 an onerous process to gain a permit, which is issued through the state. Individuals must obtain signatures from every landowner within four miles of the proposed site testifying that the landowners have no objection to the beavers being moved in.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e little engineers and they鈥檙e good at what they do, but there鈥檚 conflict. A lot of people don鈥檛 want them on their land,鈥� said Tod Lum, a wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
On public land, beavers are considered furbearers, so they can be hunted in season, and there are no limits on how many beavers hunters can trap. On private land, 鈥測ou can kill as many as you want, whenever you want, however you want, and you don鈥檛 have to tell anyone about it,鈥� explains Jakob Shockey, executive director of , a nonprofit working to increase public and private landowner support for beavers.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e so important for the environment that we can鈥檛 afford to have them trapped out,鈥� Shockey said, particularly when it comes to wildfires, which in 2020 were the most destructive in the state鈥檚 history, burning more than 1 million acres. Beaver dams create pockets of lush, saturated landscape that resists fires.
鈥淚f we could boost the health of (Oregon鈥檚) creeks, we could have a shot at our cities not burning down again. And the answer is relocating animals 鈥� beavers, to be precise.鈥�
The two proposed laws moving through the state legislature 鈥� HB 2843, which protect beavers on public lands, and HB 2844, which would take them off the predator list, would mean stricter policies around how, when, and where they can be killed 鈥� could make an 鈥渆normous鈥� difference in improving the health of Oregon鈥檚 landscape and biodiversity, said Suzanne Fouty, a hydrologist who helped legislators craft the bills.
鈥淚t is really serious what we are faced with, and we have very little time left to create conditions that help our wild and human communities be somewhat buffered against the impacts of climate change,鈥� Fouty said.
It is illegal to relocate a beaver without a permit, but one tribal program has been carrying out relocations in partnership with the state鈥檚 wildlife department discreetly for years. Tod Lum, a wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, has been working with the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians to move nuisance beavers onto federal land for the past decade.
鈥淲e鈥檙e considered the Beaver State, for good reason,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e little engineers and they鈥檙e good at what they do but there鈥檚 conflict. A lot of people don鈥檛 want them on their land.鈥�
Lum said most landowners are happy to have the beavers relocated rather than to have the animals undergo a lethal removal alternative, describing the trapping program, which is funded by the tribe, as an 鈥渋ntervention.鈥�
Relocating beavers is no mean feat. The animals prefer low elevation with low gradient land: the water flow is easier to control. However, those areas are usually heavily populated with people. Beavers are often considered a nuisance by landowners, as their dams disrupt water flow and can flood areas, and the animals particularly prefer felling alder, aspen, and apple trees.
Beavers are also highly territorial and won鈥檛 always stay where they鈥檙e moved. There鈥檚 a list of criteria when it comes to relocation, such as ensuring whole family groups are moved, and not just individuals; moving beavers in the right season; and staying within the same watershed. Lum sends the contact information of landowners who wish to have beavers removed but not killed to the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians. The tribal government then works to establish a suitable new location and eventually moves the animals.
Other tribal governments in Oregon work on attracting beaver naturally, rather than utilizing relocation initiatives that require a vast amount of hoop-jumping to gain permission.
Although the Klamath Tribes鈥� beaver projects are fairly new, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, situated in northeastern Oregon, are old hands at attracting beavers to their land.
The CTUIR鈥檚 program, Umatilla River Vision, was conceived in 2008 and laid out plans to fulfill a mission to protect, restore, and enhance First Foods 鈥� water, salmon, deer, cous, and huckleberry 鈥� for the tribe鈥檚 members. The river plays a pivotal role, and therefore, inextricably, so do beavers. Carl Scheeler, wildlife program manager for CTUIR, has been working on restoring a healthy river system for more than 30 years and often shares best practices with other Oregon Nations.
鈥淓arly on it was a challenge,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淚 remember putting together fish habitat restoration projects and spending a lot of money planting riparian species of plants only to find them mowed down by the beavers.鈥� But now, he explains, it鈥檚 a 鈥渄ifferent story鈥� after his team began creating favorable habitats for the beavers, attracting the beavers to specific areas that were identified by wildlife managers.
鈥淲e now have a recovering beaver population. Our motto is 鈥榳e build it and they will come.鈥� It鈥檚 the 鈥楩ield of Dreams鈥� for the beaver,鈥� Scheeler adds, referencing the famous 1989 Kevin Costner movie quote. 鈥淭hey are a very very important part of that dynamic river system.鈥�
Scheeler describes beavers as the 鈥淚ndian Corps of Engineers,鈥� holding the soil back during floods, creating an opportunity for water to stay longer in the system.
鈥淭hey create habitats which support all other wildlife in the system,鈥� Scheeler said. 鈥淲hen we鈥檙e talking about righting the wrong that has been done by past land management, we can reset things back to far enough where the beaver can then take over and recreate the habitat they used to create all over North America. We would not have the landscape that we have if it were not for beaver.鈥�
And, he adds, the land is 鈥渨ithout a doubt鈥� in a better, healthier condition than neighboring land where there are no beavers.
Tribal governments are already leading by example when it comes to using beavers to heal the land, however, there is still a long way to go until the animals are viewed as a necessary species rather than as pests.
鈥淲e need to stop killing beavers where they choose to live,鈥� Shockey said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 vital (Oregonians) have the ability to make better beaver habitat and give landowners the tools they need to peacefully coexist with the animals. They鈥檒l travel up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) to find new habitat, but it鈥檚 hard for them to start from scratch,鈥� he adds.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a love/hate relationship with beavers in Oregon,鈥� Lum said. 鈥淎 constant push-pull. Beavers are running out of places to be because man wants to live there too.鈥�
About the author:
Lucy Sherriff is a freelance multimedia journalist based in California. She reports on conservation and environmental justice stories and has been published in BBC, Al Jazeera, TIME, NBC, The Washington Post, and more. Prior to moving to the United States, Lucy was based in Colombia and won a United Nations Correspondents Award for her reporting on indigenous tribes facing water shortages, and deforestation in rural areas post-conflict.
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