Beaver Cohabitation + Human Foodways

We at LivingFuture Foundation's SHO Farm in Vermont have been involved in many wildlife coexistence efforts, both on our farm in our practice of wildlife-assisted agroforestry, as well as a collaborator with other organizations.. Only in the last 5 years have we been privileged to deeply embrace and explore the world of beavers first-hand. This because all three SHO ponds now host beaver colonies.  The pond closest to the farmhouse has transformed the most dramatically by the combined dynamics of increasingly-frequent high-intensity rain storms, severe flooding, and the beaver-introduced alterations to the pond ecosystem. (see photo sheet)

Our 20-year practice with relational foodways has always involved working in synergy with plant, tree, fungal and wildlife communities as sovereign beings, and the beavers' arrival in 2021 offered an entirely new and qualitatively different opportunity for collaboration between two keystone species.

Severe flooding in Vermont in 2024 almost destroyed the pond close to the farmhouse, dramatically breaking the dam and causing total erosion of a downhill field--now a deep canyon--exposing the beavers' winter food cache and lodge entrance.

For months we brought poplar, alder, willow and birch branches and black locust logs to the blowout location, and the beavers built a dam that retained the pond, albeit at about a 4-foot lower level. We also brought poplar saplings to them during the winter to assist their survival.

The beavers simultaneously dammed a nearby seasonal stream and created a wetland where another wet farm field once existed.

So while there were what felt like devastating losses, we learned with time that there were unimaginable gains.

Needless to say, as much as we were shocked by the transformation of a beloved pond (and the two stately weeping willows surrounding it), we were transfixed by the ever-emerging diversity of life, including mink and waterfowl that the new waterways attracted, the huge uptick in frog populations and frog song, the remarkable new presence of complex water habitats in the middle of a rural, mountain farm.

Initially, we worked closely with Skip Lyle who who has a Master’s Degree in Wildlife Management and is the founder of Beaver Deceivers. He specializes in installing flow devices, often on municipal lands to protect roads and other infrastructure, but he argued against a flow device in our case, assuring us that as long as beavers were present, they would maintain the pond.

Though the sheer force of beavers and  flood waters changed the pond irrevocably, we slowly realized we were in a unique position to offer a complementary approach to beaver cohabitation, doing what we've always done: cohabitate in mutualism; understand disturbances as opportunities and new life niches.

In this case and for this project, we think it most appropriate to focus on private land stewards as our audience since municipalities often focus mostly on flow devices, and on seeing beavers as a 'problem', offering the option of adding plantings within and adjacent to waterways that can serve as both wildlife habitat and human foods. Essentially, creating a robust, perennial garden in and around the beaver wetlands, to simultaneously create regional food sovereignty and wildlife habitat. We don't want to romanticize beavers as some may tend to do because there are real consequences to be aware of and anticipate as land stewards.

We've already begun to introduce wild rice/manoomin, wapato, watercress, crayfish, walking onion, and other edge plantings, but we want to systematically research, consult with First Nations and Indigenous wisdom holders, and move forward very deliberately with this project, especially since the beavers have removed or are removing many of the perennial trees around these areas, and because larger swaths of exposed soil come and go, offering the kind of disturbance that correctly-timed placing of new plants could add food, beauty, habitat, and resilience. The timing of plantings is essential to take advantage of seasonal, newly exposed banks, soils and mucks. Thus a sensing human presence is essential for introducing plants at appropriate times.

In Melissa's work as a chef she gathers 'small amounts of many things' from surrounding fields and forests, and makes soy-like sauces, misos, and condiments from wild plants that offer a level of nutritional amplification and storability that can serve to 'turn people on' to the flavors that surround us. She has already made a delicious 'soy' sauce out of a wetland plant called tuckahoe seeds (arrow arum) that tastes like chocolate!

Combining culinary/fermentation skill with small harvests of wetland plants, we will host educational tastings of what we make with the beaver-habitat plantings. We have found this to be a wonderful way to reach people with what emerges from vital habitats.

We have the support of Patty Smith, the beaver expert from Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, of the Vermont Beaver Coexistence Forum, of Green Mountain Wildlife and Habitat Alliance, and have reached out to others at the Beaver Institute, as well as local ecologists. They all expressed interest in receiving the results of this research, and have invited Melissa to speak about the project in the near future.

Melissa, who will be the project lead, has spoken widely at fermentation/culinary conferences and venues about how koji-based fermentation (the organism that creates soy sauces, miso, and sake) can bring the land closer to us, and us closer to the land. She is an avid educator (read: She'll talk your ear off if you ask) on these subjects. She's formally trained in permaculture, biodynamics, and organic farming methods, so spans multiple disciplines between cuisine/food culture, agriculture/food systems, and land/ecology--including the non-human communities who make their home with us.

If awarded, this grant will pay for plants, support honoraria for consultation with First Nations and Indigenous wisdom-holders where appropriate and welcomed, in researching plants to try, help pay for labor to install the plantings, and then to harvest and experiment with the results. Rigorous photo and video documentation on social media accounts (which has always been our practice) will accompany documentation of all this work as we refine it over the years, sharing it widely.

Our long-term goal is to encourage and facilitate the expansion of upland wetlands and water communities, to show how wetland habitats and regional food sovereignty need not be at odds, and can be, in fact, essential for climatic stability.

Beavers are already remaking many rural landscapes--and being allowed—even welcomed—by some human communities to do their work. This project helps people meet that change not only with damage control, but with imagination, food, habitat, humility, relationship..and fun!

We have hosted successful, elaborate educational tastings in the past, so offering tastings at the farm and at speaking events offers great promise for engaging wider audiences.

As for budget, we're asking for $15,000  to accomplish the planting of three ponds within one year, calculating about $5000 per pond as a beginning target. Each planting will be designed for each pond's unique biome and proximity to the farm buildings, with a selection of plants that can be propagated from the initial planting, if they thrive.

While we have partial plant lists from culinary work with wild, moisture-loving perennials, we need to do more in-depth research as to the many other options for plantings, the ecological consequences, the ceremonial and sovereignty considerations of the plants, engaging in conversation with the places, the beings, the plants themselves as to where they would feel most at home.

This will be a part of the design process, alongside casting the spirit and languaging as relationship between sovereign beings. The designs will be shared as part of our project, as well as follow-up observations about what works and what doesn't.

We plan to use as many seeds as is feasible because they are less expensive, but where establishment is vital and weed competition is strong, the budget for plants from reputable sources will be important.

Much effort will go to create a coordinated planting plan, working with a combined crew of local volunteers and paid team members that we've worked with in the past on other riparian plantings, and food-gathering and culinary projects.

There is widespread interest in this project. If we are able to fund the project, we have a strong prospect of including a cohort from Middlebury College (a 45 minute drive from us) both in the design and installation of some of the plantings.

Our local elementary school that borders the farm has also collaborated with us in the past, and we would offer outdoor classrooms to come and observe the beaver habitats and taste what has been created from the surrounding plants. In short, the beneficiaries, participants and interests are wide and deep should this project go forward.

Thank you so much for your work, and your consideration!