Adopt A Wildlife Acre

Busy Beavers, Healthy Watersheds

Beavers build healthy, functioning streams.  By building dams, beavers slow the flow of water, create side channels, and diversify habitat for many other wildlife species.  Even more, when beavers cut trees to eat and use for their dams and lodges, they introduce habitat complexity into our waterways and promote regeneration of populus and salix species.  Through all this, beavers have been proven to increase water tables and widen the riparian vegetation corridor, providing more cover for wildlife and helping cool water temperatures.  These ecosystem changes are becoming more recognized for the positive impact beavers have for many species as well as drought resiliency.  However, damming and tree felling near human infrastructure may cause concerns over long-term integrity of roadways or damage caused by falling trees.

National Wildlife Federation: Solving Conflicts for Ecosystem Resiliency

The National Wildlife Federation’s Beaver Conflict Resolution Program addresses these concerns and increases tolerance for beavers on the landscape by reducing human-beaver conflicts using nonlethal methods.  2025 was a year of milestones for us.  We expanded our Program to cover over half of Montana – that’s more than 74,000 square miles!  Our staff were busy helping both private and public landowners install exclusion fences to protect against culvert plugging, tree wrapping to prevent tree cutting, and pond levelers to reduce flooding.  We celebrated our 100^th installation this year and finished up the season with 114 projects installed since the Program’s inception in 2019.

Our program success is grounded in our diverse partnerships. By collaborating with state and federal agencies, nonprofits, and road departments for training opportunities, we are building a community of practice across Montana so that beavers can do what they do best while not inhibiting irrigation or road passage.  This year, we hosted two workshops and six installation trainings for our partners to build on this community of beaver enthusiasts.  While our program helps landowners protect their infrastructure, our conservation goals are focused at watershed-level scales, the more partners we have doing the work, the bigger the impact.  Using long-term, nonlethal solutions means beavers can continue their natural behaviors, human infrastructure is protected, and our ecosystems are more resilient.

Check out the resources below for more information about beavers, water, and our work!

Wading In Water, Sharing Common Ground

Montana Beaver Working Group