Of all the existential threats the beavers deal with on a daily basis, the threat of epic flooding, pollution, and habitat loss are likely the most daunting to the local beaver population. In the time since I began documenting these beavers it has become clear that the human impact on the beavers is enormous. There are some impacts that appear much to difficult to change, such as our effect on habitat loss. People will continue to develop in this region, and unfortunately that means beavers will lose some territory.
There are changes that can be made rather easily to effect change. The simplest change would be to make all storm drains in PG county have grates to prevent litter from going into the river. All the litter that is thrown into the streets in PG county finds its way into the storm drain system when it rains, and the storm drains ultimately all flow into local water ways (like the Western Branch of the Patuxen River or Federal Spring Branch). By adding drainage grates in PG county, we could greatly reduce the amount of litter that makes it into our local rivers and streams.
One very large impact all this street water drainage has on the beavers comes by way of biblical flooding. The western branch of Pax. River’s water level has been known to rise over 16′ is some of these floods. This is because all of the street water from most of the suburbs in PG county is drained into the river. These massive floods do real damage to the beavers habitats, destroying lodges and displacing the beavers. Displaced beavers are significantly more vulnerable to predators.
Schoolhouse Pond Beaver Project 