As many a landowner knows, beavers can radically alter their environment through dam building, sometimes causing damage. At the next Draper Natural History Museum Lunchtime Expedition talk, Jerry Altermatt from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) discusses the many positive benefits that can also result from the presence of beavers.

The free lecture is titled Ecosystem Engineers: The role of beavers in restoring and maintaining Wyoming’s riverine ecosystems and takes place Feb. 2 at noon in the Buffalo Bill Center of the West’s Coe Auditorium.

Those who prefer to attend virtually via Zoom webinar may do so by registering at us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_HuVDtGykRoKnq31_DS-kqQ.

“The positive benefits of beavers in riverine ecosystems include flood attenuation, wetland habitat creation, and water quality improvement,” says Altermatt, a terrestrial habitat biologist for the Cody Region of WGFD. “Of particular importance in Wyoming is the benefit of storing water on an arid landscape.”

To use beavers as a tool for riverine ecosystem restoration, biologists from the WGFD live trap beavers on private lands where they are causing damage and translocate them to streams in need of restoration. In the past five years, the Department’s Cody Region has translocated more than 70 beavers to 15 locations, resulting in 60-plus dams. Altermatt shares the details and success of the program in his presentation.

Altermatt has been a terrestrial habitat biologist for the Cody Region of WGFD for more than 30 years. He received a Bachelor of Science in biology at Dickinson State University and continued his graduate studies at the University of Montana. His work in the Cody Region has focused on implementing habitat enhancement projects for the benefit of big game, upland birds, and waterfowl.

The Draper Museum’s Lunchtime Expedition lecture series has been made possible through support from Sage Creek Ranch and the Nancy-Carroll Draper Charitable Foundation.