First Beavers Belong! Workshop a Huge Success

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Animal Protection of New Mexico’s first beaver outreach event, held on September 30th in Taos, highlighted the value of beavers and the role they play in restoring our riparian areas and watersheds and how they can help keep water on our land in New Mexico. An enthusiastic crowd–including landowners, agency representatives, lawyers, resource managers and biologists attended the all day event.  The workshop was a huge success, measured not only by the feedback from participants but also by the flood of calls and emails we’ve received since the workshop.

Morning presentations included the natural history of beavers, as well as ways to co-exist with these “furry engineers.”  Presenters were: Sherri Tippie, founder of Wildlife 2000 in Colorado; Skip Lisle, founder of Beaver Deceivers International in Vermont; Paul Polechla, Ph.D., U.N.M. Research Associate Professor at the Museum of Southwest Biology; Josh Rector, Depredation Coordinator for the New Mexico Game and Fish; and rancher and conservationist Sid Goodloe.  New Mexico’s Department of the Environment was also represented. 

Participants learned humane beaver live-trapping and relocation methods, how to install beaver mitigation devices and tree-wrapping techniques to prevent beaver damage.  The workshop also served as a training ground for Animal Protection of New Mexico’s “Beaver Brigade,” a volunteer corps that will help mitigate landowner-beaver disputes reported to NMDGF.

Animal Protection of New Mexico would like to thank everyone who made the Beavers Belong! workshop so successful and who have helped APNM launch this ground-breaking project to ensure beavers thrive in our water-thirsty state!  They include Beaver Toyota in Santa Fe, Best Western Kachina Lodge in Taos, Cid’s Market in Taos, The Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust, Far Flung Adventures in Embudo, Taos Land Trust, Trader Joe’s in Santa Fe and the Vigil Law Firm in Albuquerque.

In addition, we would like to extend our gratitude to landowners Rebecca and John Brown, and John Miera and his family, without whom the field portion of the workshop would not have been possible.