MILLVILLE – Beavers can be a help or a hindrance to landowners depending on the situation. Utah State University has a Beaver Ecology and Relocation Center located in Millville. They trap the beavers, then test them and release them back into the wild.
The facility is locked and is not open to the public.
The Beaver Ecology and Relocation Center has become a valuable resource for landowners who want to enjoy the ecological benefits that beavers have to offer.
Nate Norman, the lead field biologist, said they catch as many as they can during the season from snowmelt until the snow flies. He is trained and certified to trap and relocate beavers.
Norman is working as a team with the Division of Wildlife Resources in their efforts to remove and relocate this specific animal.
“We trap an average of 70 beavers a season,” he said. “We’ve been trapping and relocating them for about six years.”
Morgan Herald and Josie Hansen of Zootah carry the beavers from the Beaver Bunkhouse to a truck for transportation to the release site.
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Becky Yeager is the manager of Beaver Bunkhouse in Millville and a volunteer coordinator for the effort.
The Beaver Bunkhouse is like a hotel with several different cages. Yeager makes sure the animals are registered and quarantines them to make sure they are disease-free. She cares for the animals and when she determines if they are healthy enough for the large rodents to be released into the wild.
On Tuesday, June 4, a group of about 15 people showed up to witness the release of the two young beavers they captured and paired.
“We have two beavers that are probably fall 2023 calves,” Yeager said. “They are unusually small for subadults and too large to be this year’s cubs.”
The two young beavers were separated from their families and one arrived with a bite mark.
“The injured beaver was sent to Zootah, where it was nursed back to health,” he said. “His name is Snickerdoodle and he is male. Roamer is staying at the Beaver Bunkhouse and he is female.”
The USU team began partnering with Zootah last fall to rehabilitate its injured beavers.
“We’ve decided to do an experimental pairing attempt with these two little guys to see if we can get them to bond,” Yeager said. “They are too small to live alone and we believe they will be more successful if reintroduced into the wild.”
They didn’t want to raise them in captivity for two years and then release them with little skills or exposure to their natural environment.
“We began this introduction with intensive monitoring by our volunteers,” Yeager said. “Lots of interactions between the two beavers, sometimes aggressive, but the behavior softens as the days go by.”
Staff were confident that the pairing had been successful and that the beavers were ready to be released into the wild.
The beavers were released in a safe, undisclosed location with few predators, available shelter, and plenty of food.
The ponds that beavers create help retain water and allow it to seep into the soil and recharge aquifers essential to mitigating droughts and climate change.
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