Living Better with Beavers: Effective Coexistence Strategies & How to Apply Them
Course Description
Living Better with Beavers will explore and define beaver coexistence strategies that are effective and scalable to match the growing interest in and needed prioritization of natural climate solutions. If you are working in restoration or water management, from low-tech process-based restoration, large wood placement, wetland mitigation, transportation infrastructure maintenance, meadow remaking, beaver-based restoration, agricultural irrigation, beaver relocation, or stormwater management, coexistence is an essential management and climate resilience tool to add to your toolkit.
Join us for a deep dive into conserving existing beaver habitat and expanding beaver benefits by managing human conflicts with our native ecosystem engineer, the American Beaver! This course will include a classroom discussion of coexistence strategies and case studies, field visits to several in situ coexistence applications, and a hands-on workshop to design and build a common coexistence device: the pond leveler.
Instructors: Alexa Whipple – Project Director, Methow Okanogan Beaver Project, a program of Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation, graduate of BeaverCorps, Beaver Institute
Elyssa Kerr – Executive Director, Beavers Northwest
Dates: October 8-9, 2026
Location: Twisp & Winthrop WA, Methow River Watershed
Pricing: Stay Tuned
Course objective and anticipated skill transfer
The course is intended to demystify coexistence strategies and their application, implementation and management. Skill transfer will include:
- Building communication skills to develop human partnerships and better assess actual conflict and potential solutions,
- Reviewing beaver coexistence strategies to better understand appropriate contexts and applications,
- Permitting of in-water strategies in Washington,
- Recognizing real and perceived fish passage challenges and the appropriate coexistence strategies, and
- Monitoring and maintaining installed devices.
Primary goals of the Beaver Coexistence Workshop:
- share knowledge of beaver coexistence strategies and their best management practices,
- share guidelines for the most appropriate application of beaver coexistence strategies in diverse ecosystems and human infrastructure density,
- review and discuss permitting strategies for regulated beaver coexistence strategies,
- share real world examples during site tours,
- provide hands-on experience implementing coexistence strategies and constructing/repairing coexistence devices.
Material to be covered
Day 1 – October 8th, 2026, Classroom session and field tours
- Benefits of Beavers
- Beaver History & Human Relationship
- Modern Day Beaver/Human Conflicts
- Resolutions to conflict – general & contextual
- Permitting
- Monitoring, Adaptive Management & Maintenance
- Site Tours
Day 2 – October 9th, 2026
- Hands-on flow device construction and installation
- Hands on tree wrapping & electric fence crop/orchard/irrigation protection
Target audience and recommended prerequisites
Target Audience: Beaver Management Practitioners, Aquatic/Riparian Habitat Managers, Built-environment/Infrastructure Managers, State or Federal Lands Managers, State Regulators, Private Landowners
Recommended Prereqs: None
Recommended pre-short-course reading and/or web sites
Participant Technology Requirements
Laptops required? No
Software to be loaded prior to class: N/A
Participant Equipment and Field Requirements
Does the course include a field component? Yes
List any clothing or specialized equipment students will need to provide:
PPE includes but is not limited to:
- eye protection
- ear protection
- sun protection
- head protection (hard hats and sun hats)
- Gloves
- Long sleeves
- Long pants
Additional Gear/Supplies Recommended:
- Decontaminated rubber knee boots and/or hip waders (we will have extra hip waders if needed)
- Decontaminated Chest waders (no felt sole wading shoes)
- Personal flotation device (PFD aka “lifejacket”) for any in-water work participation
- Layers for cold/inclement/wet weather
Skills required
- Comfort working around water, swimming and able to self rescue in cold water.
- Walking on uneven surfaces with continuous obstacles.
- Traversing along a river corridor through riparian plant communities, over downed trees and over various substrates.
- Ability to navigate and avoid beaver chewed plant staubs and collapsed beaver bank dens.
Expectations on the field component
Participants will be:
- visiting existing beaver coexistence projects on private and public lands which will require walking on uneven surfaces,
- helping build coexistence flow devices
- carrying sometimes large, heavy or awkward materials over uneven ground either alone or in coordination with other participants
- working with or near others with cutting tools and sharp objects to build coexistence devices or prepare trees and wrapping materials for protecting trees
- working with a solar charger and solar panel to power electric fencing deterrent strategy
- traversing near or in water to install beaver coexistence devices
- working with shovels or rakes to move sediment as needed for installation of a coexistence device
Logistics and FAQs
What is the cancellation policy for this course?
Short course registrations can be cancelled by the participants.
Refunds will be issued according to this schedule: Stay Tuned
➡️ 30 days or more in advance: Full refund minus processing fee
➡️ 15-29 days in advance: 50% refund minus processing fee
➡️ Within 15 days of the course: Attendee substitutions allowed, but no refund
Registration cancellation requests must be submitted in writing to shortcourse@rrnw.org
RRNW will issue full refunds to all participants if the course is cancelled by RRNW
Instructor Bios
Alexa Whipple
Alexa is the Director of the Methow Okanogan Beaver Project, a program of Methow Salmon Recovery Foundation. As a Restoration Ecologist, she works for sustainable, effective, and collaborative solutions to challenging environmental and social conditions. She is an advisor to the WA Beaver Working Group and a 2020 graduate of BeaverCorps, the Beaver Institute’s Wetland Manager Beaver Coexistence training program. Alexa has called the Methow & Okanogan Watersheds of the Upper Columbia in northcentral WA State home since 2001 where she helped manage her family’s farm and groundwater well services business for 15 years. She is a Wildlife Biologist who has studied beavers, songbirds, carnivores, plant communities, sustainable agricultural practices, and post-wildfire recovery of western riverscapes. Alexa completed her BS in Wildlife Biology at Virginia Tech and MS in Ecology at Eastern Washington University where she focused on beaver-mediated restoration of degraded streams across western North America.
Elyssa Kerr
Elyssa Kerr stepped into the role of Executive Director in 2019 after nearly three years managing projects and programming for Beavers Northwest. She holds a BS from the University of Washington as well as a certificate in Nonprofit Management. Elyssa has been working in the Pacific Northwest as a restoration practitioner and environmental educator since 2014. She is passionate about exploring and maintaining the amazing habitats that beavers create and enjoys sharing the benefits of these ecosystems with people of all ages through interactive and experiential programming. She has installed many beaver management devices throughout the region and has assisted with implementing similar programs across the Western United States.