Beaver ponds hold 66 percent of the coho salmon

Oregon legally recognized beavers as wildlife in 2024, a modest bureaucratic milestone for an animal that has been on the state flag the whole time. Until then, the state classified them as a nuisance species. Now they are being treated as the fix for one of the country's most ecologically impaired sets of waterways. Research changed the calculus. Oregon State University scientists found that beaver ponds and alcoves made up about nine percent of one system's habitat but held 66 percent of the coho salmon. Ponds store cold water, act as firebreaks and slow flooding, benefits that landed harder once Oregonians started struggling to breathe in wildfire smoke or find insurance. In early 2026, Tribal members built beaver dam analogs on the Warm Springs Reservation to draw the animals back. Salmon populations have rebounded. "There are so many things in ecology that are demoralizing," says biologist Maureen Thompson, "but not beavers."