The Beaver Meadows Visitor Center auditorium in Rocky Mountain National Park was the place to be on Sunday, April 6, 2025. 130 people attended the auditorium to learn about beavers from a Winter Speaker Series presentation, “How Beavers will Save Rocky.” Nick Morris, a park guide at Rocky Mountain National Park, shared lesser-known facts, ecological roles of beavers, and active restoration efforts to bring this keystone species back to Rocky.
Using his interpretive skills, Morris introduced the North American beaver through several photos and illustrations, distributed beaver pelts around the room for people to examine and touch, and invited the audience to participate in a group game to “discover the little beaver inside all of us,” said Morris.
Native to Rocky, beavers are large, aquatic mammals that can weigh up to 40 pounds. They have numerous adaptations that allow them to thrive in riparian habitats year-round. While slow-moving on land, they are extremely adept, strong swimmers. Within 24 hours of being born, baby beavers are able to swim on their own! Webbed hind feet and a large, flat tail helps propel beavers through the water. They can swim around 4-5 miles per hour and can remain submerged underwater for up to 15 minutes.
A translucent third eyelid, called a nictitating membrane, protects beavers’ eyes while underwater, allowing them to “open their eyes and look around without getting water in their eyeballs,” said Morris. This also helps them make exact building adjustments to their dams underwater.
Waterproof fur with two layers keeps beavers warm while swimming in cold temperatures. The first layer consists of guard hairs, followed by a layer of air pockets within each individual hair, which act as insulation. To illustrate this impressive adaptation to their riparian habitat, Morris compared the function of insulated winter jackets to beaver fur.
As a keystone species, beavers enhance ecosystem biodiversity and resilience, benefiting both the landscape and other present species. The “existence of beaver dams and colonies can help forests bounce back from wildfires and will help make us more resistant to climate change and water scarcity,” said Morris.
A significant way beavers positively impact their ecosystem is by building dams. Trees and shrubs are used as building materials that beavers gnaw on with their large, self-sharpening teeth. “Building dams and creating or expanding wetlands dramatically alters the landscape which provides habitat for a multitude of other water loving species,” (NPS.gov). Beaver dams not only create ideal habitats for riparian species and raise the water table, but they also saturate the ground and make it easier for people to access drinking water from underground aquifers.
Before European colonization, historical beaver populations in North America were estimated around 300-400 million but declined to 100,000 by 1990 due to overhunting. Soft beaver pelts were a highly desired commodity, used to make hats which symbolized societal status. The quick decline in beaver populations also contributed to the loss of wetland ecosystems in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Present day management plans are in place within Rocky to restore the historical wetland ecosystems and beaver populations. Repairing a riparian system “takes a lot of commitment on the part of the management agency,” said Morris. “There has to be a certain alignment of goals to make this kind of progress.”
Current efforts include fencing to protect riparian areas and willows from excess elk browsing and building human-made beaver dams (beaver dam analogs) to support future beaver populations. The park has taken a “build it and they will come approach,” said Morris. Allowing willows and other riparian plants to grow creates an ideal habitat for beavers to build dams and thrive in Rocky Mountain National Park again.
Rocky Mountain National Park and Rocky Mountain Conservancy are part of the Kawuneeche Valley Restoration Collaborative (KVRC), a multi-agency effort to restore the riparian wetlands of the Kawuneeche Valley on the west side of the park. You can learn more about this long-term effort by visiting www.kvcollab.org. On the east side, the Conservancy supports the park’s efforts to restore wetland areas and overbrowsing of elk and moose by funding exclosure fencing, wetland restoration interpretation, and an elk and vegetation management plan.
To learn more about beavers and riparian restoration and monitoring programs in Rocky Mountain National Park, NPS.gov has additional resources and information. You can find those resources on the park’s website at The Kawuneeche Valley Restoration Collaborative – Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service) and Beavers – Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service).
We’d like to thank Nick Morris for sharing his time and expertise with us. The Winter Speaker Series are free events, made possible by the Rocky Mountain Conservancy and generous support of members and donors. We hope to see you for upcoming presentations.