This was originally posted as a response to a blog comment that expressed concern over our use of trapped beaver as bait for our camera stations.  The comment also questioned the need for the project and our decision to study wolverines.  We hope that this response will adequately address these issues and provide a greater insight on why we do what we do.

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We understand and appreciate the frustration with our use of beaver as the preferred bait species for the rare forest carnivore study. They have been historically overharvested for their pelts and castor, and there have been many struggles in rebuilding a stable beaver population in our region.  As wilderness advocates, we are very much aware of the critical role that beaver play as a keystone species in Pacific Northwest ecosystems.  Their collection of woody debris and aquatic leaf litter forms the backbone for a complex food web that supports many creatures, including juvenile salmon and migratory waterfowl.  In addition, they are perhaps one of our greatest allies in the restoration of riparian and wetland habitats, in the stabilization of stream banks and soils, in the improvement of water quality, and in the protection of sensitive landscapes from large water-level fluctuations.

Little is know about the presence of wolverines and other rare forest carnivores in the Idaho Panhandle and western Montana.  Our goal in partnering with IDFG and ICL in this project is to inform agency decisions about land use and management in the areas these animals inhabit.  Proper conservation measures for these creatures cannot be taken without information on the size and range of their populations.  We hope that in providing this information, we will help reduce human/animal conflicts and provide the baseline data necessary for continued biodiversity monitoring in our region.  Camera stations, like those used by our project, have proved to be one of the least invasive and most effective ways to collect data on these elusive creatures, requiring little human disturbance to deploy and allowing for the study of multiple species at the same time.  Our study also supports conservation efforts for other rare forest carnivores including Lynx, Marten and Fisher.

The beaver we obtained for the camera stations in this study were legally trapped in accordance with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations.  ODFW regulates beaver trapping throughout Oregon, where beaver are taken during authorized seasons by licensed trappers.  In most Oregon counties, beaver have established a healthy and abundant population, and the trapping season occurs annually just like the elk or deer hunt.  Lacking their native predators, the beaver population is controlled much like deer and elk through state wildlife regulations.  The number of beaver taken is not influenced by our decision to obtain carcasses for this study.  Beaver are not trapped for their meat, and once the commercially valuable pelt and castor are removed, the carcass is generally discarded or sometimes sold.  For the rare forest carnivore study, we use these carcasses for bait and essentially recycle them back into the food web.

The decision to responsibly trap beaver is a personal one, just like fishing or hunting, and is often very important to families who have been doing it for decades.  While we may or may not personally agree with the ethics of harvesting animals, we can try to understand the decisions of those people who take part in this activity, and hope that they do so in a way that contributes to the overall health of the greater ecosystem. We are all consumers in our own way, and there are many different ideologies and beliefs that guide our actions.

Many trappers and landowners alike choose to remove beavers that continually cause damage to homes and property. Beaver do respond well to being live-trapped and moved, but it is not always successful or possible to relocate these animals to a new home.  There are several other ways to discourage the efforts of beaver that are constructing dams on private property and other sensitive areas such as culverts, but they are often trapped in the end after dam removal or other measures fail.

Many of our baits have also been the quarters of road-killed deer, which are “harvested” by vehicle traffic along our motorways.  Processing these deer is extremely time consuming for the IDFG biologists who already have limited funds and even more limited time.  Hauling these deer off busy highways in rain and snow also puts IDFG personnel in a very dangerous situation.  For legal as well as liability reasons, the harvest of road kill is not something that we can ask volunteers to handle. These quarters work well as a supplement to the beaver baits, and though it makes sense to use them when possible, the reality is that we could not process enough to provide the project with a sufficient bait supply.

Wolverines are indeed glamorous and elusive, but they are much more than that.  In this era of worldwide climate change, they serve as an important indicator species for one of the most rapidly changing environments on the plant.  They have evolved to make their living in the deep snows of glacial mountain ranges and other wild alpine zones, and require well-established snowpack for reproductive success.  Acquiring accurate information about which specific areas they use is essential to determining critical habitat needs and potential locations to conserve. The snowpack inhabited by the wolverine also provides the essential water source that sustains the alpine meadow and its myriad creatures.  Thus, the success of wolverine populations illuminates the health of an entire ecosystem.  They have an incredibly complex social structure that involves multiple generations and multiple “families”, and though they may not be considered a keystone species, they are still vitally important to maintaining the healthy carnivore population that ultimately keeps food webs in check.  With the potential to be listed as a threatened/endangered species, they provide a stirring reminder of the determination and creativity that it takes to survive against all odds, including human threats.  This is why they are the face of this project.  At the end of the day, wildlife management is not a contest between species, but rather a balancing act that ensures the continued success of the whole ecosystem.

We understand and appreciate that conservation issues are very complex and that differing opinions on conservation practices exist, so please feel free to contact us directly at mustelids@scotchmanpeaks.org if you have specific questions or concerns about our protocols and partnerships.  Thanks again for voicing your concerns on this issue, and we hope that we were able to address them adequately.