M.S. Ecology Student Amanda Aulenbach has research highlighted in GMUG Watershed Newsletter
Taylor Park is an area of interest for beaver restoration considering the historic presence of beavers in the area and the benefits beavers would provide in reversing stream incision and degradation. Restoring degraded streams in Taylor Park will promote suitable beaver habitat. However, the likelihood of beaver recolonization is dependent on identifying the ecological drivers influencing beaver presence.
My research focuses on identifying those ecological drivers by collecting habitat covariates important for beaver occupancy, such as stream width, stream gradient, and riparian vegetation cover. I am using EcoMetric’s site-specific BRAT model (see Macfarlane et al. 2017), to select 30 sites with current beaver activity and 30 sites with capacity for beavers but no current activity. Additionally, I am using aerial imagery to map beaver ponds throughout Taylor Park from 1970-2021. I am calculating changes in beaver pond area to get a temporal pattern of beaver occupancy. My research objectives are (1) to compare habitat variables at sites with beaver activity to sites with capacity for beavers but no current activity and (2) to document changes in beaver occupancy throughout Taylor Park over the last 50 years. Understanding beaver occupancy in arid and semiarid environments is critical for future management of riparian wetland ecosystems in the western U.S., especially with the prevalence of drought and water scarcity increasing.
