When our team returned to Earl Ranch this fall for routine maintenance and effectiveness monitoring, one year after building ten Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) in the stream flowing through the property, the signs were unmistakable: freshly peeled branches, packed mud, and the glint of pooled water spreading across the floodplain. The beavers were back.
“If you build it, they will come” might not have been written about beavers, but at Earl Ranch, it fits perfectly.
Earl Ranch is a 208-hectare property in the East Kootenays that was purchased by the provincial government in 1974 from Gordon and Lorna Earl and designated a conservation area to support wildlife. Historically, the area was used by the Ktunaxa people for hunting, fishing, and gathering.
The B.C. Wildlife Federation first began restoration work at Earl Ranch in 2018, completing a project that restored nearly nine hectares of wetland and meadow habitat to support wildlife such as ungulates, western painted turtles, sandhill cranes, and American badgers.
Building on that earlier work, BCWF returned to the site in 2024 with a focus on restoring natural stream processes and improving hydrologic resilience using Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration (LTPBR) methods.
In collaboration with Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi’it (Tobacco Plains Indian Band), the Watershed Team constructed ten BDAs designed to mimic beaver dams. These hand-built structures help slow water, create deeper pools, and reconnect floodplains—laying the groundwork for beavers to one day return.
For years before this most recent effort, the stream at Earl Ranch had run low, its banks dry and its wetlands fading. As a result, the floodplain had lost its ability to hold water, filter sediment, and nurture fish and wildlife. Signs of historic beaver activity were evident, including old dams and chewed stumps. But with little food, water, or shelter, beavers hadn’t occupied the site for years.
Often, people ask why we do this kind of restoration work and suggest it would be easier and cheaper to simply put a beaver in the stream. But without viable habitat such as food, water, and shelter, beavers would be quickly predated or move elsewhere. Our goal is to create habitat that beavers will like enough to move in on their own, and we’re thrilled that it’s happening.
“Our team was excited to conduct monitoring and maintenance in the spring at Earl Ranch to see how our project withstood the winter after building in October 2024,” recalls Geneva Bahen, Junior Restoration Practitioner with BCWF.
“When we arrived, we noticed some fresh beaver chews at our most downstream BDA,” she says. “By the time we returned in the fall, I was hoping we’d see that beavers had taken over the site throughout the summer months.”
“At first, I was disappointed not to find new chews where we’d seen them before,” Bahen continues. “But as we walked upstream, we started noticing freshly chewed willows all over the place. Then we noticed freshly packed mud on three of our BDAs and beaver chews added to the structures, woven into our constructed material. To top it all off, we found a brand-new beaver dam in the floodplain, pooling water that was diverted by our most upstream structure.”
For a project designed to attract beavers, this was the ultimate endorsement.
“A few of our structures got the golden stamp of approval from the beavers,” Bahen says. “They clearly liked what they saw. We noted that beavers placed branches and packed fresh mud on at least three BDAs and started constructing a new dam. There’s so much activity that we’re confident they’ve moved in, likely spending the winter in a bank lodge supported by one of our BDAs.”
Birch Matkowski, Junior Restoration Biologist with BCWF, agrees that the beavers’ return is one of the clearest signs of ecological success.
“Their return is one of the strongest indicators of project success,” Matkowski says. “They’re clearly happy with the BDAs we built, and now they’re taking over the maintenance work for us.”
“Seeing beavers take over the work we started feels deeply rewarding,” she adds. “The goal was always to kickstart natural processes, not to maintain them ourselves. Watching beavers move back in during within our year of implementation is the best kind of success.”
“There is water everywhere,” Bahen says. “They like a complex, messy habitat with lots of deep-water accessibility to stay safe from predators. Upstream of the BDAs our team constructed, the riparian vegetation has had a great response, shooting up from little knee-high saplings to overhead greenery.”
The beavers’ dam-building has slowed the flow of water, raised surface levels, and recharged groundwater, hydrating the floodplain and sustaining lush vegetation even through dry spells.
“The structures the beavers are maintaining look fantastic,” Bahen says. “It’s great to see this nature-based technique truly integrate with the species and ecosystem present. The beavers found our ‘starter home’ and have gotten to work. I’m excited to see the place when they’ve finished a few more renovations.”
Projects like Earl Ranch show what’s possible when restoration works with nature rather than against it. By rebuilding the physical template of streams and floodplains, BCWF’s Watershed Team gives beavers and other species the chance to do what they do best—engineer and maintain healthy, resilient ecosystems.
Across the province, 167 BDAs and 66 PALS have now been constructed through BCWF’s 10,000 Wetlands Initiative, in partnership with Indigenous governments, stewardship organizations, and community volunteers. An additional 70+ BDAs have been built with the support of in-kind and financial support by our team. Each structure is built with a single goal in mind: to create the right conditions for life to return.
This success also underscores the importance of continued investment in watershed security so that projects like this can continue across British Columbia.
“In the end, it’s incredibly rewarding to see nature take over,” says Bahen. “We set out to build the foundation, and the beavers are doing the rest.”
This project was made possible with support from the BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund and the Province of BC’s Watershed Security Fund.
If you’d like to be a part of this work and help us keep our momentum going through 2026 and beyond, consider donating to Watershed Restoration through the following link: www.bcwf.bc.ca/donate.
BCWF Watershed Team 
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