Beaver Works Oregon has been busy as the proverbial beaver to restore beaver habitat in LaPine and Collier Memorial State Parks. Along with Oregon State Park staff and other partners, Beaver Works has been planting willow, dogwood, and black cottonwood cuttings along stream and river banks, then installing wire fencing to allow the cuttings to sprout and become established. They also installed Chronolog stations that allow for the public to contribute photographs and document the project’s growth.
In two focal areas of work at the state parks, Beaver Works Oregon and others made an assessment of potential beaver habitat in the summer of 2023 and indicated it was suitable to sustain beavers but not in the current condition.
In the spring of 2024, crews planted several enclosures worth of willow and dogwood poles near the Dead Slough, an old oxbow along the Deschutes River, upstream from the Big Pine Tree in LaPine State Park. Over 1,100 willow and red-osier dogwood sticks were planted in several enclosures. The enclosures are to protect the young poles as they sprout and begin to grow. The area had seen beaver activity in the past with chewed trunks but nothing recent.
In 2023 and 2024, volunteers and staff planted over 2,600 willow and black cottonwood poles along the Williamson River and Spring Creek tributary in Collier Memorial State Park to replace some of the trees and shrubs lost to the 2020 Two Four Two fire. Though park staff were seeing beaver activity post-fire, the lost habitat was not sufficient to keep the beavers around.
In addition to the plantings, several photo monitoring stations were installed, called Chronolog posts, so that the public could also participate in the project.
“We monitor the enclosed plots for three years at each site and track things like soil temperature, pH, survival, and growth by species and point of origin,” said Maureen Thompson, Beaver Works program manager. “But after less than a year, the storytelling I can think of is about the positive relationship we have with the park, collaborating with Trout Unlimited, and finding funding from the Oregon Wildlife Foundation and Deschutes Soil and Water Conservation District to make it happen. We have a volunteer recording trail camera footage of wildlife at LaPine, and my favorite trail camera of all is the one at Collier Memorial Park along Spring Creek.”
The Chronolog posts include a notched post where a user can place their cellphone to take photographs of an enclosure to document the growth of the plants. Images collected by users will create a timeline of habitat restoration and wildlife activity in the area. The photos can then be uploaded to an online database at chronolog.io.
“Possibly the most accessible planting right now at LaPine is near the Fall River Tubes fishing area,” added Thompson. “In October, we planted a variety of wetland and upland plants along an unsanctioned spider trail and erosive hillslope near a beaver den. If everything is going well, this spot will be hard to find since we worked with Trout Unlimited to disguise and visually deter people from cutting their own path toward the beaver den.”
For those interested in volunteering with Beaver Works, contact Maureen Thompson through the website at beaverworksoregon.org.
This article appears in Source Weekly May 15, 2025.
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