Riverkeeper’s Clean Water Attorney, published in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law

Beaver are well known for damming small streams, creating ponds and wetlands. Beaver ponds are very important habitat for young coho salmon, and many other types of fish and wildlife.

Unfortunately, people often destroy beaver dams, sometimes mistakenly thinking that beaver dams block salmon migration. And the State of Oregon allows property owners—mostly timber companies—to kill unlimited numbers of beaver, which sometimes eat newly planted trees. Removing beaver and beaver dams from salmon streams destroys habitat that young salmon need to survive, and has contributed to coho and other salmon being listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. In a recent article published in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, Miles Johnson, Riverkeeper’s Clean Water Attorney, discusses how private citizens and non-profit organizations can use the Endangered Species Act to protect both beavers and the coho salmon that use beaver ponds.