MILLCREEK CANYON, Utah — Major changes are happening in one of the Wasatch Front ecosystems for the betterment of various species, wildlife habitats and humans.
"We're out here in Millcreek Canyon and we're building manmade beaver dams, also known as beaver dam analogs," said Robert Edgel, a habitat restoration biologist for the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources. "They're basically structures that mimic what a beaver would do."
Beavers are a keystone species, meaning they are able to change the environment to benefit the entire ecosystem.
“...Here in Millcreek Canyon, we don't have beavers,” Edgel said. "In the early 1800s, trappers came in here to trap beavers and Utah, and pretty much wiped out the entire population.”
DWR is working with Sageland Collaborative, a nonprofit that provides science-based strategies for wildlife and land conservation in Utah, along with other partners and volunteers to implement these beaver dam analogs.
“We're helping to improve the habitat by creating diversity of stream habitat for those fish to lay their eggs in, and as well as many frog species — boreal toads are here on the Wasatch Front,” Edgel said. “And by building these ponds behind the dams, it slows that water down and they need that slow water in order to lay their eggs in.
“And so that's a critical thing. Without these beaver dams, they can't survive here in this fast-moving stream. So for nature lovers, it's important, but then also for people who just want to have clean water down in the stream.”
Those analogs, Edgel says will improve habitat for Bonneville Cuthroat Troat, Boreal toads, moose, deer, elk and many other wildlife species.
Why beavers don't exist in Millcreek Canyon
When asked why not just introduce beavers into the area again, Edgel said because of human activity and development, the current environment wouldn’t be suitable for beavers.
“There's been efforts to reintroduce beavers, and they've been steadily increasing here in Utah,” Edgel said. “But in areas like here along the Wasatch Front, there's there's still very few. And often we still have to come in and remove them because they're causing problems, clogging culverts that flood roads or cutting down people's trees and knocking them into things.”
Edgel says creating beaver dam analogs can also help create more water storage for the state.
Utah's Watershed Restoration Initiative
However, building beaver dam analogs is just one component of a larger watershed project that DWR is working on throughout Utah’s Watershed Restoration Initiative.
According to Edgel, the forest condition is nearing an ecological threshold that makes it highly vulnerable to catastrophic fire.
DWR and its partners are also improving the health and diversity of forest vegetation in Millcreek Canyon by removing invasive species, reducing aggressive growing pine trees to allow more sunlight to reach lower vegetation.
“By coming in and thinning the forest, we reduce the fire intensity and risk of a catastrophic fire in the future," Edgel said.
Any fire in the area, Edgel says, could lead to landslides and cause debris flows that get into pipes that run into the city.
He says this holistic approach will create a positive impact on the health of the ecosystem and the wildlife and humans it serves.
“And by improving the health of this ecosystem, we're going to have a lot more wildlife up here, we're going to see more rabbits, more deer, elk. So we're just going to have a healthier population of wildlife that's important for wildlife watchers as well as hunters," he said.
