TY - JOUR T1 - The beaver and the stream JF - Journal of Soil and Water Conservation SP - 108 LP - 109 VL - 39 IS - 2 AU - D. Scott Brayton Y1 - 1984/03/01 UR - http://www.jswconline.org/content/39/2/108.abstract N2 - RIPARIAN habitat on public lands in the arid West has become a scarce commodity. In southwestern Wyoming, on land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), more than 80 percent of this habitat has been lost to accelerating streambank erosion and a lowering of the water table. On these severely eroded streambanks, life-supporting vegetation, such as willow, is replaced by sagebrush and greasewood. Wildlife abandons such areas. This has threatened the survival of the rare and environmentally sensitive Bear River and Colorado River cutthroat trout, which once thrived there. In an effort to restore damaged riparian habitat, personnel with BLM's Rock Springs District began implementing various soil stabilization techniques, including one technique that has captured the imagination of natural resource managers throughout the West. Nature's engineers About five years ago, three fisheries and wildlife biologists from the district began experimenting with a unique, low-cost means of improving stream habitat. Bruce Smith, the fisheries biologist and Larry Apple and Dick McCuistion, wildlife biologists, found some “eager beavers” who were willing to work without compensation. Moreover, the beavers didn't even require room and board because they could build their own homes … ER -