Speaker will be Tom Willms

Beavers As Partners in Watershed Restoration

North American beavers (Castor canadensis) are often described as “Ecosystem Engineers.” Tom will be presenting on a project that aims to partner with beavers in watershed restoration in response to increased floods, droughts, and wildfires in the Nicola Valley. He will describe completed and ongoing projects that involve building artificial beaver dams, called “beaver dam analogues”, and re-introduction of beavers to these habitats.

Tom Willms teaches fish and wildlife biology at the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and co-Chairs their Environmental Resources Technology program. Tom is a Registered Professional Biologist and holds a PhD from the University of Northern BC where he studied interactions of juvenile Pacific salmon and thermal refuges in streams. Curiously, it was his interest in fish that led him to now be working with North America’s largest rodent.