Living With Beavers at Bald Hill - Open House on the Bald Hill Path, Saturday, January 31st, 4-6 pm.

[Matt Benotsch]

Beavers in Mulkey Creek at Greenbelt Land Trust's Bald Hill Farm have been busy doing beaver things – building dams, dropping trees, creating habitat for turtles and amphibians and dragonflies and birds – and sometimes flooding out the City of Corvallis’s Bald Hill paved path, one of the only universally accessible paths in Corvallis.

That’s a problem. Greenbelt, along with partners at City of Corvallis, Marys River Watershed Council, and NOAA have been working on a solution that keeps the path open and makes space for the beavers to do their thing – a notch exclusion fence - the first of its kind in Oregon.

A simple structure of fence panels, wire, and fence posts has been installed over a notch cut in the dam that is causing the flooding along the path. It is designed to limit the amount of water that can build up behind the dam, and keep the beavers, who are triggered by the sound of flowing water to repair the dam, from accessing the notch and stopping the flow. It is also designed to allow fish to move freely through the ponds. The fence has a floor on the pond side that the beavers can’t get under and extends past the notch to keep them from working on it from below the dam. 

Will it work? Will nature’s engineers find a way to conquer the fence and raise the water again, or will they be ok with a water level that still works for them but keeps the path open?

Explore the answers to these questions and learn more about beavers, the exclusion fence, and how to encourage and co-exist with beavers on the urban edge, on Saturday, January 31st, from 4 – 6pm on the Bald Hill Path. You will be able to see the fence, talk with the partners involved in the project, and maybe even see some beavers beginning their work day at dusk. More info HERE.

Free, no registration required, drop-in anytime from 4-6 pm. The closest access is from the NW Oak Creek Drive trailhead parking lot.

Questions: contact Outreach Manager Matt Benotsch, mben...@greenbeltlandtrust.org

 

MATT BENOTSCH (he/him) OUTREACH MANAGER   greenbeltlandtrust.org (541) 915.3687 (c)   (541) 752-9609 (o) Mail: P.O. Box 1721 Corvallis, OR 97339 Office: 101 SW Western Blvd, Ste. 111