ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) — Some watershed councils on the Oregon coast are looking for ways to help beavers and humans coexist.
The Necanicum Watershed Council is hosting a series titled “Listening to the Land” with the North Coast Land Conservancy, a land trust that owns properties from the Columbia River Estuary to Lincoln City.
Wayne Hoffman, MidCoast Watersheds Council coordinator, says beavers are rodents that can be big pests, making water flow onto roads and across property, and gnawing on valuable trees.
But Hoffman says the industrious animals can also be incredibly useful.
He told the Daily Astorian that he was part of a series of studies that showed a decline in beaver dams across the region in 2006 and 2007, and he says it’s time to find ways to help the animals recover.
