Montana moves toward beaver transplant pilots; conflict-resolution program reduces need for lethal removal

At the Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Group meeting, Tory Ritter described Montana’s steps to streamline beaver transplants and highlighted conflict-mitigation tools used across the state.

Ritter said the state recently completed a public comment period on a draft beaver transplant program and that a burdensome existing pathway (which can take months to process) makes rapid conflict responses impractical. "It takes like 3 months to do it," he said of the current process; he added that the agency had planned to bring a pilot for approval to a February commission meeting but had pushed that item to April.

Ritter described the Montana Beaver Conflict Resolution Program, run by the National Wildlife Federation with key contributions from Sarah Bates, which installs devices (for example, controlled-flow pipes through dams) that allow beavers to remain while preventing unwanted pond levels and flooding. "They have these really well designed devices ... where you can choose how high you want the beaver pond to be," Ritter said, and credited the program with enabling more restoration work by reducing the need for removal.

On trapping and lethal removal Ritter said nonlethal mitigation can resolve about 75% of conflicts but acknowledged that "there will always be at least a quarter of those conflicts where you do have to just completely remove the beavers," and he endorsed retaining removal as a last-resort tool while expanding translocation and tolerance measures.

Ritter said the agency hopes pilot transplant projects will preapprove receptive drainages for receiving beavers and that success could lead to a more efficient state program to move animals into beneficial sites.