Field experiments to assess passage of juvenile salmonids across beaver dams during low flow conditions in a tributary to the Klamath River, California, USA.

ABSTRACT: Across Eurasia and North America, beaver (Castor spp), their dams and their human-built analogues are becoming increasingly common restoration tools to facilitate recovery of streams and wetlands, providing a natural and cost-effective means of restoring dynamic fluvial ecosystems. Although the use of beaver ponds by numerous fish and wildlife species is well documented, debate continues as to the benefits of beaver dams, primarily because dams are perceived as barriers to fish movement, particularly migratory species such as salmonids. In this study, through a series of field experiments, we tested the ability of juvenile salmonids to cross constructed beaver dams (aka beaver dam analogues). Two species, coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and steelhead trout (O. mykiss), were tracked usin

SUBMITTER: Pollock MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9129030 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature