Behaving Like Beavers
Vesper Meadow Creek Restoration Project
by Kevin Fletcher, Restoration Planning Intern
A demonstration site for headwaters restoration
Vesper Meadow, and the creeks running through it, are characteristic of other headwaters across the United States. Many headwaters have been severely degraded by human activity in the last century, typically suffering from similar issues of disconnected flood plains, loss of overall stream complexity, and loss of biodiversity. Vesper Meadow Restoration Preserve is an example of a way forward for headwaters around the world. This vision goes beyond a typical nature preserve. Creating a model for community-driven restoration, monitoring, and sustained human-nature connection. There is also an emphasis placed on holistic education in the form of volunteering and other opportunities.
Looking south through the meadow, note the channel incision.
Creek incision creates a cascade of negative effects for native plant and wildlife habitat, and ultimately reduces ecosystem resilience.
Current State of the creek
Indian Creek and Spencer Creek (tributary of Indian Creek) are fed by springs just a few miles to the south, on the Buck Prairie Ridge. Past cattle grazing, removal of native riparian vegetation and other human impacts have left the creek in a degraded state. The narrow riparian corridors of both Indian Creek and Spencer Creek are severely lacking shrubs and the creek banks are steep and visibly eroding. Each of the two creeks are deeply incised and between 1 to 8 feet below the floodplain. The incision of the creek leaves the water table disconnected from the floodplain, and thus it is unable to naturally flood surrounding vegetation in the spring. In turn, this creates a cascade of negative effects on native plant and wildlife habitat, and ultimately reduces ecosystem resilience.
Indigenous Land
The Vesper Meadow Education Program honors the people of the land on which it works: Latgawa, Takelma, Shasta, and Klamath, and recognizes the legacy of Federally sponsored genocide and forced removal. Many of these people, now members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz and Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, await the fulfillment of ceded lands under unfilled Treaties. We work to reduce the adverse effects of colonization on the land, and support self-identified goals through partnership with Indigenous leaders and local Tribes.
The recent name change of the stream running through Vesper Meadow to “Latgawa Creek” is a welcomed shift. Our past referral to this creek as “Indian Creek” was a deliberate refusal to call it by the settler’s name, “Dead Indian Creek”, and gave recognition to the deeply- seated anti-Indigenous sentiment that persists in modern American society. And thus, the restoration of this creek is holistic in nature: ecologically, psychologically, and culturally.
The Beaver State
Pic Wikimedia Commons
Beaver are a keystone species that benefit the whole wetland ecosystem; creating habitat for many other types of wildlife, and helping ensure water security. Through the building of their dams and ponds they create complexity in the stream with woody debris accumulation and in meandering braided channels. Their ponds and dams help to capture sediment and keep the water cool, as well as help to maintain riparian vegetation.
With the intentional removal of beaver from the landscape over the last 200 years, many streams now lack the structural complexity and channel-floodplain connectivity necessary for a functioning ecosystem. Indian Creek at Vesper Meadow, is a prime example of a widespread problem for creeks across the Nation. Ninety-eight percent of waterways in the United States have been degraded and altered by human activity. Removing beaver from waterways, along with other human activities related to water diversions, heavy grazing, and disturbance to native vegetation have taken a big toll on our headwater streams.
Today, restoration practitioners are increasingly looking to mimic beaver’s dam building strategies, as well as reintroduce beavers to waterways for the restoration of creek structure and function.
A road runs through it
The construction of Indian Memorial Rd. effectively bisected the meadow and created a complete barrier perpendicular to the water flow across the meadow.
Irrigation structures of the past
In 1960, Rogue River basin-wide dam and canal structures were constructed for irrigation and water storage serving the developed areas of the Rogue Valley. During this time at Vesper Meadow, a small 3 acre parcel of land was sold to the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). The BOR a water diversion structure that would then carry water out of Indian Creek, through a canal, to the newly constructed Howard Prairie Reservoir for use by the Talent Irrigation District. This irrigation structure (pictured) was built deep, below the existing watertable and now results in continued erosion and headcutting of the banks. (Headcutting is a pattern of erosion that moves in the upstream direction and causes further incision of the creekbed.)
Snow melt and rain events cause the creek banks to erode in large amounts each spring.
Smaller water barrier structures:
Through the two waterways in the meadow, there are a couple of culverts and several small cement and wooden weirs. Weirs are artificially constructed water diversion structures implemented to change stream flow characteristics. Past landowners/ ranchers constructed weirs along Indian creek to divert water to constructed channels. This causes channels to remain dry for longer periods of time leading to erosion and loss of native vegetation.
Former culvert bridge.
Many of these artificial structures will be too costly to remove in the short term, but future planning will consider strategies for their removal.
Past removal of riparian shrubs: It is evident from aerial imagery in the mid 20th century that Indian Creek and Spencer Creek both were populated with willow along much of its shores. The large majority of the willow was removed by previous landowners. Removal of native vegetation has left its alluvial soils vulnerable to erosion. Further, the removal of willow is a significant loss for beaver, elk, bird, and pollinator habitat.
Vesper Meadow, aerial image summer 1957:
This aerial image was captured just a couple of years before water diverse structures were developed at Vesper Meadow around 1960. (Vesper Meadow is the meadow on the western portion, or left-hand side of the photo. Note the abundance riparian vegetation (presumed to dominantly be willow, also alder) growing along most of the entirety of the Tributary A and Indian Creek lengths.
What invasive species mean for the meadow ecosystem
Invasive species are of concern in the meadow, particularly noxious weeds like Canada thistle and Reed Canary grass. These are not easily removed and will continue to spread if not addressed properly.
Canada Thistle, Cirsium arvense is a noxious weed widespread throughout the Western United States. At Vesper Meadow, it has invaded from neighboring lands that are managed for timber and has proliferated along the eroded creek banks. Pic Wikimedia Commons
Invasive Species Mapping
Map showing a select few of the particularly dense patches of invasive species in the meadow.
Other non-native species like Meadow foxtail and Timothy grass have been introduced into the meadow for livestock grazing and have crowded out many native species in the last century.
Meadow Foxtail, Alopecuris pratensis is the dominant grass throughout Vesper Meadow. This perennial grass grows densely and prevents other species from being able to grow. Pic Wikimedia Commons
Invasive plants are generalists that can withstand wider tolerances of conditions, ultimately outcompeting native vegetation in a changing environment and climate. This comes at the expense of decreased biodiversity and other impacts to the greater meadow system as a whole.
Impacts to hydrology: Past grazing and trampling has removed much of the bushes around the creeks and severely reduced the middle and understory of the forested area of the property. The dry and incised nature of Indian and Spencer creek has resulted in a positive feedback loop for invasive species spurred by dry conditions and lack of native vegetation. This creates an environment that stays dry and incised from increased runoff and water velocity, this is increasingly true with climate change. The dry meadow conditions as a result of past cattle grazing are more suitable for generalists invasive species able to withstand greater amounts of water stress.
Looking south, and upstream of Indian Creek at the Vesper Meadow Restoration Preserve.
Oregon Vesper Sparrow, an imperiled grassland species that nests on the ground in meadows. Changes to meadows for agriculture and development over the last century have coincided with their populations decline. Vesper Meadow is working with partners to study the effects of nonnative invasive plant species on their habitat. Pic Mel Clements
Impacts to biodiversity: The invasive of plant species is accelerated by physical changes in the environment, incised stream channel, removal of native vegetation, and climate change. These factors combined have led to a decrease in biodiversity. Invasive species are organisms that can survive and compete in many niches, competing with native vegetation for limited resources in their limited niche. Once invasive species outcompete native vegetation in a niche, it can be difficult for native vegetation to reappear. This makes for a system that is less resilient in the future.
Native Species are impacted by the disconnection between the stream and the floodplain. The incision of the creek has caused a loss of spring inundation from the creek. Native food plants like Camas lily and Yampah depend on snow melt and high spring flows to flood the meadow and provide wet soils that they need. Similarly, migratory birds like waterfowl that need rely on wetlands and associated foods in the spring, have experienced a decline in their habitat.
Restoration: a new era
To reconnect the damaged creek structure and hydrology, as well as to encourage water security, wildlife habitat, and the native plant community, we will be implementing restoration strategies aligned with Low Tech Process Based Restoration.
Reintroduction of structural complexity in the form of willow structures.
Low Tech Process Based Restoration (PBR): protecting, enhancing, and/or restoring “normative rates and magnitudes of physical, chemical, and biological processes that sustain river and floodplain ecosystems.” PBR restores areas by mimicking the role of beaver in the ecosystem, creating more complexity in stream channels, increasing the amount of wood in stream beds, and works through letting the system do most of the work. PBR recognizes that to restore ecologically functional riparian areas, one also needs to restore the physical conditions and ecological processes that create and maintain those conditions into the future. This style of restoration includes constructing beaver dam analogs and post assisted log structures (structures made out of woody debris that mimic and promote the process of wood accumulation) in Indian Creek and nearby tributaries.
PBR restores areas by mimicking the role of beaver in the ecosystem
Map showing potential locations for beaver dam analogues and post assisted log structures along Spencer and Indian Creek.
Beavers will eventually find the BDAs and will continue the work, reinforcing and maintaining the current dams, and making more of them!
A beaver dam analog (BDA) is a permeable dam structure that mimics a beaver dam. They are typically constructed out of woody debris that acts like a real beaver dam trapping sediment, reducing water velocity and increasing flooding. Placement of woody debris in streams adds the structural complexity necessary for high functioning aquatic ecosystems. The flooding recreates the hydrologic connection between the stream and the plant community, in a formerly incised and degraded stream. Beavers will eventually find the BDAs and will continue the work, reinforcing and maintaining the current dams, and making more of them!
A conceptual diagram of restoring a creek to a self sustaining condition by implementing BDAs that are eventually taken over by beavers. Image credit Goldfarb 2018.
Rewilding for the future:
Waterways around the world are in dire need of restoration, low tech process based restoration gives the opportunity to restore as many waterways as possible. In the future, it is our hope that Indian and Spencer Creek are restored to a similar pre-colonial state. Once the streams and natural processes are restored, native vegetation and animals will become more abundant strengthening the overall ecosystem. Of course, there is not an end goal here for what Vesper Meadow should look like. Semi-permanent changes to the environment like climate change and habitat fragmentation, make it difficult to restore to a pre-colonial state entirely. Vesper Meadow will be an ongoing process looking to inspire and teach others through science, education, and community involvement.
Further Resources
Goldfarb, B., 2018a. Beavers, Rebooted: Artifical beaver dams are a hot restoration strategy, but the pojects aren't always welcome. Science, 360(6393): 1058-1061. DOI: 10.1126/science.360.6393.1058
Pollock, M.M., G.M. Lewallen, K. Woodruff, C.E. Jordan and J.M. Castro (Editors) 2017. The Beaver Restoration Guidebook: Working with Beaver to Restore Streams, Wetlands, and Floodplains. Version 2.0. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Portland, Oregon. 219 pp. Online at: https://www.fws.gov/oregonfwo/promo.cfm?id=177175812
Wheaton J.M., Bennett S.N., Bouwes, N., Maestas J.D. and Shahverdian S.M. (Editors). 2019. Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes: Design Manual. Version 1.0. Utah State University Restoration Consortium. Logan, UT. Available at: http://lowtechpbr.restoration.usu.edu/manual
