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Beaver Ponds Of The Boulder Mountain
For most of the twentieth century Boulder Mountain was known by western anglers as a remote area in southern Utah where they could go and explore countless beaver ponds and lakes in search of big cutthroat and brook trout. You would have to search far and wide and still be hard pressed to find a healthy active beaver pond [ beavers in residence] on this mountain in 2009. What once was a forest that held vast numbers of hidden beaver ponds with solid well maintained dams and beaver lodges heaped with fresh cut logs has undergone a dramatic change. The forest is still the same for the most part. There has been some damage by beetles to date and no doubt more to come. There has been some clear cutting. The Forest Service has conducted a seemingly endless series of controlled burns on the Boulder Mountain through the years. There always seems to be a proposed timber sell in the works. All of the typical business of managing a forest occurs here on this section of the Dixie National Forest. Overall, this forest is in good shape. It has been managed well indeed. The bark beetles have not been so kind to other areas of the Dixie National Forest. We should be grateful that this area has not been completely ravaged by beetles yet.
For the casual observer who drives along the east end of the Boulder Mountain on Scenic Byway 12 in route to either Capitol Reef National Park or Bryce Canyon National Park, everything looks much as it did decades ago before the road from Grover to Boulder was paved. The new paved highway was a welcome change for locals and tourists alike. The "old timers" still living in Boulder and other neighboring communities on either side of the mountain recall when the mountain road was still very primitive. The beautiful paved highway we take for granted at times today was nothing more than a wagon track over sandstone, boulders, mud and deep snow drifts not so long ago. That wagon track evolved over time and then became passable in four wheel drive vehicles throughout most of the year as that type of transportation became available in the 1950's. Soon the road was improved to a graded dirt road, which would often revert back to rutted wagon tracks almost overnight after a heavy downpour. Sudden violent thunderstorms are common in the mountains of southern Utah. Eventually the road was graveled and completely paved including scenic turnouts in 1984. It is easy to forget how difficult it was to travel over this mountain just to arrive at the trailheads to the lakes and beaver ponds in those days.
Getting to the some of the old fishing spots is still very difficult since the spur roads that lead to many of these destinations or to the eventual trailheads reaching even further into the backcountry are as rough as they ever were. The forest looks much the same as it did thirty years ago. The elk are still in the secluded meadows. Deer bounding across the trail are a common sight. Fewer cattle are grazing in the meadows these days. Most of the stockmen from the nearby communities like Boulder have gone on to greener pastures.
The very nature of a beaver pond is to not last, forever. A beaver pond is only a temporary pond at best. Not like a natural lake that may have existed for thousands of years. More like a man made reservoir, with a limited time span. This time span cannot be predicted accurately for either man made or beaver made dams. No man made reservoir lasts indefinitely, that is certain. In the case of beaver dams, there are a few variables that bring on it's ultimate demise. Natural erosion causes the pond to fill in with sediment over time. This will cause the pond to become shallow and allow grasses to encroach inward from along it's shoreline. Other factors start to play a role in the life span of the pond. The beaver are constantly at work finding enough to eat as well as repairing and maintaining their dams and lodges. They are also slowly eating themselves out of house and home. The beavers supply of building material, a mix of willows, spruce and aspen that surround the pond is being depleted by their efforts. Over time the beaver may cut back the available brush and trees until it is just too far to drag material to the pond. Loss of available food and the building up of sediments spells the end for the beavers and their home. Eventually they will move on, to start a new dam and build a new home. The process starts all over. Beaver will usually begin the process of moving on by building satellite ponds upstream and downstream from the main pond. But what about the old pond? It still holds water. Are there trout there? Big trout?
Depending on the average depth of an old beaver pond, with deeper holes near the lodge and dam, trout can exist there for many years even after the beaver have moved on. As long as the dam remains intact enough for the pond to retain water at a sufficient depth to over winter trout, the old beaver pond will continue to remain a viable fishery. Other variables also need consideration, such as the particular species of trout in the pond. If the trout in the pond are Yellowstone cutthroat trout [Oncorhynchus clarki bouvieri] for example, which was the case in many beaver ponds on Boulder Mountain, then the pond may contain a small number of very large fish. Yellowstone cutthroat trout will not usually proliferate and overcrowd their environ here. Brook trout [Salvelinus fontinalis] on the other hand will usually propagate to the point of overcrowding, until ultimately stunting occurs. If this is the case, then the pond may contain higher numbers of very small fish.
The delicate balancing act of managing small lakes and beaver ponds on the Boulder Mountain and elsewhere in Utah as fisheries lies in the hands of UDWR fisheries biologists. This is not an easy task by any means. Decisions on which lakes and ponds are showing signs of overcrowding by brook trout and in need of treatment are tough to make. These decisions are supposed to be made based on data collected from the field, such as gill netting and electro-shocking samples. These two methods of collecting the necessary data are the only tools available to fisheries biologists. It is not very practical for them to just go out and fish at these places to determine what condition the trout are in. Many anglers are skeptical and criticize UDWR fisheries biologists over their alleged data collected. Arguments over whether a particular lake or pond is currently overcrowded and therefore a candidate for treatment [rotenone] will continue to ensue between wildlife biologists and anglers.
This particular pond is merely a natural catch basin that fills with snow melt each year. Though it is quite full in the spring, by fall it is very shallow. This pond is managed as a put and take fishery. If trout manage to over winter two or more seasons, then anglers catch very nice fish. It is a great place to bring kids. Many local families bring their children here to get them introduced to fishing. This little pond is very convenient, a great little fishing hole! However, this is not the kind of fishing destination that serious anglers would travel hundreds of miles for. This is definitely not typical of the trophy trout waters that have made the Boulder Mountain so famous.
There are beaver ponds that still hold enough water to over winter trout. When these trout are brook trout, they can over populate the pond. If the pond receives enough pressure from anglers then a balance is achieved. This pond can and often does hold some very nice trout for several seasons after the beaver are removed. When the dam is blown out with explosives, then it is all over as far as big fish are concerned. There will still be schools of diminutive brookies that inhabit the small stream running through the pond, but the big fish cannot exist in that type of environment.
It has been decades since beaver inhabited some ponds like the one shown above. There is a great amount of regenerated growth all around these ponds. Beaver could re-establish a healthy colony at this particular site very easily. However, they cannot possibly do this if they do not even exist anywhere in the area. If you would like to see beaver at this site or numerous other sites like this on the Boulder Mountain in your lifetime, then some proactive measures have to be taken. It is ridiculous to assume that the beaver will migrate naturally into this particular area or anywhere else here. This assumption might be feasible if everything here was in a natural state. If the beaver had moved out on their own do to natural conditions, it would be reasonable to assume that they would eventually return when conditions were more favorable. But these beaver and all of the other beaver on the Boulder Mountain were removed by the hand of man. To be more specific, the Forest Service and UDWR are responsible for the extirpation of these beaver from this mountain. Why these two agencies did this is a mystery. You would have to get either agency to admit their culpability before you could ask why it was done. Both the Forest Service and the UDWR continue to adamantly deny any involvement in the extirpation of the beaver from the Boulder Mountain. This policy of abject denial comes even after many witnesses observed both agencies either killing beaver by shooting them and or blowing up their dams and lodges with explosives on numerous occasions over several decades. Ironically, the UDWR is now purportedly involved in establishing a new beaver management plan to restore the beaver to some of their former habitat [Boulder Mountain?].
This extermination of the beaver might have been conducted by the Forest Service in the same way and for the same reasons that the porcupine was exterminated from this forest several decades ago. “Anything that hurts a tree” was once the motto among old school administrators within the Dixie National Forest. The removal of the beaver could be part of an aspen decline study still being conducted by the Forest Service. Managing aspen forests on southern Utah’s Boulder Mountain is another ongoing Forest Service project. The Forest Service fails to even mention the beaver in their [published] studies on aspen ecology. If you think that you know a lot about beaver, or always wanted to know more about beaver ecology, then check out this difinitive 50 year study on beaver from Colorado.
With fewer old beaver ponds still holding water on Boulder Mountain like the one in the image above, as each season passes, management strategies for those ponds that remain as well as the rest of the small lakes and reservoirs need to consider the opinions of the anglers who fish there. Input from local anglers should be treated as valid data and that input considered as management strategies are developed by UDWR fisheries biologists. They [local anglers] are the ones that fish in these spots more than anyone. Their insight as to the condition of a particular fishery is often just as accurate if not more so than gill netting and electro-shocking data. Witness accounts, digital images and especially fish that are regularly harvested from these locations is proof positive as to the condition and worthiness of a pond or lake as a viable fishery. It is no wonder that UDWR fisheries biologists take a dim view of laymen and their negative commentary towards them and their official data. Many local anglers believe that lakes and beaver ponds on this mountain have been inaccurately evaluated and ultimately treated with rotenone based on alleged data that may or may not have been actually collected in the field but rather....collected with a keyboard and a mouse! UDWR has attempted to alleviate this problem and assure that they are being heard by inviting anglers, and other sportsmen along with water users and stockmen to come together at round table discussion groups [RAC]. After several years of these RAC committee meetings, many sportsmen have come away discouraged feeling that their opinions were not really considered and that it was only an appeasement process. Lakes, beaver ponds or any other type of fishery that was being considered for treatment and restocking and the subject of discussion at RAC meetings was destined to be treated irregardless of the opinions expressed at these meetings by committee members. The outcome was always just a foregone conclusion.
Either way, once an old beaver dam is blown up with dynamite, which is often the case during rotenone treatment there is no way to successfully rebuild and ultimately refill the pond. The beaver have either moved on or as is the case with most beaver ponds on the Boulder Mountain, have been extirpated. UDWR fisheries biologists will usually blow up a beaver dam to expedite the process of draining it, in order to facilitate the spreading of rotenone. When there are no beaver currently living in, or even anywhere near that pond, then the pond as a viable fishery is doomed at that moment.
Most anglers would agree, that their main objective when they travel a long distance to fish, and the Boulder Mountain is a considerable distance from most of the urban areas in Utah, is that they experience some quality time. Quality fishing time. What does that mean to most of us? Catching bigger fish more often than we would at fishing destinations closer to the urban sprawl. Having a chance to enjoy a small lake or beaver pond, however convenient or remote it might be, without having to put up with crowds of people and all of the litter found at most public fisheries these days. Maybe even harvesting a few fish and cooking them over the coals of a campfire. For many of us, this is how it was way back when. Back when you could still find a place like that. Those places still exist on the Boulder Mountain. However, the number of beaver ponds and small lakes still worthy of being described as true "quality fisheries" is shrinking at an alarming rate. The beaver is for all intents and purposes extinct on this mountain. Once the beaver have been completely extirpated, they are not likely to return on their own. Then it is just a matter of time before all of these old ponds revert to meadows, which is the nature of a beaver pond in the first place. All beaver ponds eventually decline until they become nothing more than a wet meadow. This natural process can take as long as a century or more with no interference from man.
The next time you find yourself at one of these hidden jewels on Boulder Mountain, pull out your digital camera and take plenty of shots. Get pictures of this old beaver pond to help you remember how it used to be when you sit in your easy chair by the fire telling your grandchildren stories of the big cutthroats and brookies you caught on Boulder Mountain back then, when there were still beaver ponds here.
For now we still have trophy quality brook trout and many other species of trout including the two native sub-species Bonneville Cutthroat [Oncorhynchus clarki utah] and Colorado River cutthroat [Oncorhynchus clarki pleuriticus]. These re-introduced native cutthroat trout have also reached trophy proportions in many instances where they have been stocked. If you would like to see all of these fine trout existing in truly wild places and not just in static situations such as small barren catch basins and manmade reservoirs, then beaver [Castor canadensis] must be re-introduced just as these native cutthroat trout were.
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