PS: Not room here for all transcripts from my notes. But here are some of the more pertinent ones:
Wisconsin DNR fisheries biologist Scott Braden: “Beaver Creek and Buckhorn Springs were really beaten up by beavers. There was some brook trout reproduction in the headwaters. But they couldn’t get downstream; they were basically gone. All that was left were dark, sedimented backwater sloughs full of lily pads. It was just terrible. We were walking through chest-deep muck. It really gave you an idea of how much damage overpopulated beavers do. After Wildlife Services trapped beavers and removed dams, that cold water started rushing downstream and scoured out all that muck and debris, making lots of habitat. Within two years, there were just thousands of brook trout throughout the system.”

Minnesota fisheries biologist Jeff Tillma: “Forest management here is geared toward aspen, and the rotation is about forty years. That means there are lots of young aspen on the landscape, and that creates prime beaver habitat. Also there’s a lack of shade and large woody input in the streams. Wood isn’t allowed to get old. The trees beavers cut down are so small, they don’t stay put. We’d like better coordination between forestry and fisheries for longer-lived, uneven-aged management. Our beaver management is small scale because of the expense. We do only a handful of streams in each area, and we do them annually. If we stop for any length of time, beavers return. We’ve seen very encouraging results—more and larger brook trout.”
 
Kim Toulouse, the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s former conservation educator: “The Truckee River, where they’re trying to recover Lahontan cutthroat trout, is overrun with beavers — bank dwellers because the mainstem is too big for dams. On a number of reaches, beavers have decimated the entire cottonwood population on both banks. That has removed shade and insect populations, primarily terrestrials. Replacing the cottonwoods have been mainly [nonnative] invasives like tall whitetop. It’s very difficult to treat. It takes over everything, and it releases a toxin that prevents the spread of natives.”
 

I mentioned two in the piece — Bill Somer and Kim Toulouse.

Also: Marc Bacigalupi, Brainerd Area, MN

Jeff Tillma, fisheries biologist, MN DNR

Jason Suckow, Minnesota and Wisconsin Wildlife Services State Director

William J. Paul, Minnesota Wildlife Services
Deserae Hendrickson, MN DNR Duluth Area Fisheries Supervisor

Todd Richards, assistant director of fisheries, Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife

Max Wolter, DNR fisheries biologist, Hayward, Wis

Jen Johnson, fisheries biologist, Michigan DNR

Bill Bakke, Native Fish Society

Kurt Beardslee, director, Wild Fish Conservancy

Deserae Hendrickson
MN DNR Duluth Area Fisheries Supervisor

Dr. David Wattles, MA

Humans have proven their inability to “control beavers,” as you would have learned had you paid attention to my piece. I didn’t make up the facts I reported. Check them out yourself. That’s easily done. Not sure what point you are making with the pet-dog attacks. As for wolves, worry not. They don’t attack humans. The fact that you haven’t seen places in your Colorado mountain valley “overrun by deer” doesn’t gainsay the fact that the East is overrun by deer. My son, Dr. Scott Williams, is a deer biologist in Connecticut. A 10-year study by the U.S. Forest Service reveals that, at more than 20 deer per square mile, there’s complete loss of cerulean warblers, yellow-billed cuckoos, indigo buntings, eastern wood pewees, and least flycatchers. At 38 deer per square mile, eastern phoebes and even robins disappear. On my son’s research areas he’s had as many as 100 deer per square mile. If you would like to learn about deer overpopulation in the East, I direct you to my piece in Estuary Magazine at: https://www.estuarymagazine.com/2023/09/the-most-dangerous-animal-in-america/