My View by Julia Morgan
My partner, Alex, and I live in an old adobe schoolhouse in Ocate, about an hour’s drive north of Las Vegas, N.M. We raise Valais Blackneck Goats with our two livestock guardian dogs and are also volunteer wildland firefighters.
On the particular stretch of Ocate Creek located across the road from our house, there are a series of large beaver dams and ponds. Over the years, we’ve been witness to the amazing impact the beavers have on the local ecosystem, including for both ourselves and our animals.
The biggest positive impact of beavers is raising the water table. Beavers don’t technically “create” water, but by slowing the flow of the creek, the beavers are allowing the water to deeply infiltrate the land.
Last year we had a really bad drought everywhere else but were still green down by the beaver ponds. The water was maintaining the grass, maintaining the willow and maintaining the habitat. The decreased flow also means the beavers are helping to avoid erosion along the creek.
The beavers have also increased the width of the creek, which has helped with fire spread. Two years ago, the Cooks Peak Fire raged on a ridge near the house, and it crossed in one section but not in another.
Down the stream, we saw the fire had stopped where the beaver dam and slides were. By the time fire got to our creek area, the beaver ponds literally subsided a fire that had moved to the ground. What an incredible tool such ponds would be to suppress wildfire throughout the state.
We are strong supporters of efforts to restore and coexist with beavers throughout New Mexico to save water, recharge aquifers, mitigate flooding and drought, reduce wildfire damage, create aquatic wetlands habitat, and provide more clean, cool water to all life that relies on it — includes ourselves and our animals.
The state would be smart to invest in getting more beavers in more places where they can help people, livestock, wildlife and the land.