Rivrguy -
You are right I do need to get out more!

Yes there are lots of beavers in most of our river basins. I probably should have said that what is lacking are beaver ponds and not beavers. In the part of the State that I do get out some (norht Puget Sound - specifically the "S" rivers) there are not anywhere near as many beaver pond complexes as there once were. Yes a big part of that lost is from conversion of the lowlands to urban sprawl and farmland. However in the forest lands I just do not see the mix stands of trees that once were common. My understanding is the beavers need such species as apsen, alder, cottonwood, etc for their diet and get little benefit from the various conifers.

During the the 1970s time and again I saw long standing beaver pond complexes disappear after the area was logged and then "sprayed" to eliminate the non-conifer vegetation. Whie it is the nature of beaver ponds to come and go what was really important was as those complexes were lost they were not replaced elsewhere in the drainage.

What I see today are beavers that are primarily river bank dwellers and not pond builders. Just earlier this week I saw another example. Last year at this time beavers began construction of a dam on a nice basewall side channel. At the time I wonder what the heck they were doing. Sure enough after taking down the small handful of hardwoods and gnawing a bit on a cedar they have now moved on.

I would love to see some information about beavers doing well in monocultures of Douglas Fir.

BTW -
I refer to my boat (16 foot lund Alaskan) as "My Office" and I try to spend as much time as possible in that office or tramping about my favorite river systems. Now off for a couple days of Chinook chasing.

Tight lines
Curt