Please, in My Backyard!

Folks like to refer to Tami DuBow as the local beaver expert, but she chuckles at the title.

DuBow, who received her degree in wildlife biology two years ago, said she works as an environmental consultant specializing in helping people all over the county deal with beavers in a non-lethal way.

“Beavers are a keystone species,” she said. “They affect everything—I’m sure we don’t even begin to know how.”

Currently, riparian and wetland habitat in the western United States comprises less than 2 percent of the land while providing habitat for 80 percent of western wildlife species, DuBow said.

“Sure, people get frustrated with beavers,” she said. “It’s challenging, especially when people’s driveways get flooded.”

But if people were able to keep beaver dams in place, what they would then have in their backyard is a wetland—and we need the wetlands, DuBow said.

Bellingham resident Dr. Patricia Otto said she discovered she enjoyed the new wetland system on her property after a single male beaver moved in four years ago.

She said different male beavers have come and gone during the four years, but she has learned to live with them.

“I think people are going to be working with beavers more and more now,” she said. “We’re going to have to learn to live with them.”

When she first noticed a beaver on her 100-acre property near Lake Whatcom on Agate Bay Lane, Patricia said she was worried.

“I was afraid that if he got his dam high enough, he would flood our driveway,” she said.

With the help of a beaver expert from Maine, the Ottos built a diversion dam to make it difficult for beavers to block the culvert and flood the driveway.

Now that access to her home is secure, Patricia said she has enjoyed watching the beavers work and observing the new habitat they have created around her home. In fact, Patricia said she plans to turn her property into a personal wildlife preserve.

This type of non-lethal system has been proven to work. DuBow and her husband, Frank Corey, have successfully installed several beaver deceivers around the county. Beaver deceivers are trapezoid-shaped fences built around points of vulnerability such as easily plugged culvert openings. The couple recently instructed Bellingham Public Works employees in building and using beaver deceivers.

The Ottos haven’t had a beaver yet this year, but Patricia said she would love it if they would return to her backyard.