Declining Beaver Populations in Rocky Mountain National Park (Natural Resource Preservation Program)

Research Task: 83279NA.3.0
Task Manager: Bruce Baker

Beaver are a keystone species whose populations throughout Rocky Mountain National Park have declined since the 1940s. The goal of this research is to understand how beaver influence landscape processes and why populations have declined. Our approach will (1) replicate previous Park-wide beaver surveys and identify possible limiting factors in each drainage; (2) evaluate the effects of the Grand Ditch (de-watering the Colorado River and its tributaries) on beaver ecology and landscape processes in the Kawuneeche Valley; (3) evaluate mortality and dispersal as factors limiting beaver populations; and (4) evaluate the interaction of beaver and elk as a mechanism of declining willow. Results will be used to map and age beaver-created landforms and well as riparian communities associated with all beaver-controlled landforms. Scientists will also develop a vegetation succession model and a model of the role of beaver in landscape formation and valley hydrologic regime and vegetation patterns.

 For more information contact Bruce Baker

Related Products

Publications

• Beaver assisted river valley formation
• Simulation modeling to understand how selective foraging by beaver can drive the structure and function of a willow community
• Beaver dams and overbank floods influence groundwater-surface water interactions of a Rocky Mountain riparian area
• Hydrologic interations between an alluvial fan and a slope wetland in the central Rocky Mountains, USA
• Efficacy of tail-mounted transmitters for beaver
• Interaction of beaver and elk herbivory reduces standing crop of willow
• Resilience of willow stems after release from intense elk browsing
• Why aren't there more beaver in Rocky Mountain National Park?
• Beaver vs. floods in controlling hydrological processes on floodplains
• Relative importance of beaver and low recurrence-interval floods in controlling water table position of mountain riparian wetlands
• Genetic methods improve accuracy of gender determination in beaver
• Beaver (Castor canadensis) in heavily browsed environments
• Beaver (Castor canadensis)
• Nest predation on black-tailed prairie dog colonies