{"id":47183,"date":"2025-06-05T13:51:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T20:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=47183"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:25:13","slug":"beaver-fever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/beaver-fever\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaver fever"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As conservationists know, these clever dam-building rodents are a boon to recovering wetlands. But they can also contribute to flooding that causes catastrophic damage to acequias, which are crucial to traditional farmers in villages like Chimay\u00f3, New Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This story<\/a> was originally published at Searchlight New Mexico<\/a>, a NMPBS partner.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aerial
The Los Potreros wetland, with Chimay\u00f3 visible in the distance. Nadav Soroker\/Searchlight New Mexico<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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By Molly Montgomery, Searchlight New Mexico<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twice last year, in the spring and fall, water burst from the Rio Santa Cruz and poured into the tiny northern New Mexico community of Santa Cruz, between Espa\u00f1ola and Chimay\u00f3. It cracked concrete ditch liners and spilled into houses and a trailer park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigating the first flood, acequia commissioners and mayordomos \u2014 the elected leaders of New Mexico irrigators who\u2019ve used the water from hand-dug ditches for centuries \u2014 discovered an abandoned beaver dam. It had been there a while: the wood had softened and whitened, and willows had grown up around it. It had trapped more than seven feet of wet silt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spring flood, which occurred after a heavy rain, spread so much silt that it was impossible to remove the dam. Come October, the river swelled again during another storm and carried branches, basketballs, stumps, shoes, brush and bottles downstream. The willows around the dam caught the debris and the water rose up against the heap and rushed over the banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Low
In the Los Potreros wetland, the Rio Quemado cuts through the remains of a beaver dam that broke a couple of years ago. Nadav Soroker\/Searchlight New Mexico<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dredging the channel and raising the banks required use of a bulldozer, a backhoe and a trackhoe. More than once, the equipment sank into the silt. In all, the surrounding ditch organizations had to spend around $35,000 to repair the damaged waterways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acequia organizations typically have very little money. After they spend what they raise from member dues on maintenance and repairs, they\u2019re usually left with a couple of thousand dollars in their annual budgets, at most. That year, the acequia spent whatever extra money they had on flood repair, getting assistance from Rio Arriba County (around $18,000) and the East Rio Arriba Soil and Water Conservation District (around $5,000). The flooded area was in Santa Fe County, but, acequia leaders say, they couldn\u2019t get assistance from Santa Fe officials. Because Rio Arriba constituents were affected by the flooding, the two Rio Arriba entities agreed to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past few years, citing evidence that beavers can make a place more drought-resilient, Santa Fe County and a prominent national conservation nonprofit, Defenders of Wildlife, have encouraged the presence of the big, paddle-tailed rodents in a stream system that includes the Rio Quemado and the Rio Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stemming from those rivers is a dense network of dozens of acequias, which, with gravity and gates, make it possible to divert water to farmers\u2019 fields.  People in the communities around Espa\u00f1ola and Chimay\u00f3 depend on it to irrigate their chile, corn, melons, berries, stone fruits, greens, carrots, flowers, alfalfa and other crops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irrigators along the streams are frustrated and worried about the time and money that beavers could cost them. The memory of the floods in Santa Cruz looms \u2014 a flood or a block can cost tens of thousands of dollars and leave farmers without reliable access to water in a season when they need it most. With drought intensifying, they\u2019re under increasing pressure to share a limited resource and don\u2019t want to navigate another area of stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow we have to worry about beavers?\u201d says Brian Martinez, a parciante (water recipient) on the Acequia de la Puebla in the community of La Puebla who grew up digging ditches in Chimay\u00f3. \u201cI don\u2019t know of any acequia that would be doing somersaults to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several acequias leaders contend that they\u2019ve received inadequate communication about planning by the county and Defenders of Wildlife \u2014 some find the communication they have received to be disrespectful and condescending \u2014 and many view the two organizations as outside entities that shouldn\u2019t be able to impose their ideas about local waterways without signThe issue is especially fraught, given the history of Santa Fe-based environmentalists in northern New Mexico, who have, more than once, argued that they know better than Chicano residents how to take care of the natural world, and who have sometimes blocked them from practicing traditional agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey need to come and see what our issues are,\u201d Ross Garcia, commissioner on the Acequia de los Ortegas in San Pedro, says. \u201cWe\u2019ve been irrigating for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefits beavers can bring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, environmentalists around the world have been singing the praises of beavers, pointing to them as a natural solution to the climate crisis. The dams they build alter the flow of water, slowing and spreading it. Their storage tactics allow the ground to soak in water, which, during dry stretches, can seep back out.ificantly more community input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Streams throughout the western U.S. that once ran year-round started running dry during droughts; when beavers took up residence again, the streams began to flow year-round once more. The wetter an area is, the less likely it is to ignite in a wildfire. And studies indicate that beavers\u2019 aquatic engineering revitalizes biodiversity and mitigates dangerous bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beavers are native to the mountains and valleys of northern New Mexico. Hoping to establish the positive trends the creatures can bring about, Santa Fe County and Defenders of Wildlife have implemented projects that involve welcoming the animals \u2014 who move in on their own and are not released \u2014 into wet areas around Chimay\u00f3. Various laws make it illegal to remove beaver dams and kill beavers, and conservationists argue that learning to live alongside them is well worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peggy Darr, a wildlife biologist who worked with Santa Fe County during the creation of a controversial wetland and now advocates for beaver conservation with Defenders of Wildlife, is planning to install beaver dam analogs (BDAs), which mimic beaver habitats, on the Rio Santa Cruz and the Rio Quemado. BDAs can attract beavers to take up residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the goals of BDAs is to have beavers take over and improve upon our restoration work, as there are not enough resources, financial or otherwise, to do the critical work beavers do for free,\u201d Darr wrote in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santa Fe County also encouraged beavers to move into a Chimay\u00f3 wetland, called Los Potreros, which the county has worked to conserve over the past few years. Historically a wetland and then a grazing pasture, the area was put up for sale and slated for development in the 1990s. In response to community concern and advocacy, Santa Fe County eventually purchased the area in the name of \u201ccultural preservation and conservation of traditional agriculture and natural habitat,\u201d according to county communications coordinator Olivia Romo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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