Celebrating Best Practices

The OCWC has worked, over the years, with organizations and cities across North America to gather and share information on 'best practices' when it comes to wildlife and the environment.

We value the leadership of Mike Callahan and the extensive work of the Beaver Institute to develop and promote progressive practices to coexist with beavers. He connected our Centre to Leonardo Cabrera, the Ecologist Team Lead at the Rouge National Urban Park. We enjoyed collaborating with Leonardo and congratulate him and the Rouge Park for its initiative in installing flow devices and in using public education to further the understanding of beavers as essential ecosystem engineers.
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Over the past five years, the team at Rouge Park has monitored several beaver dams using on-site visits and cellular trail cameras. Their goal has been to understand the full picture of beaver activity and the broader wildlife communities that rely on these wetlands. What they’ve found is truly remarkable: flourishing biodiversity, ranging from waterfowl and turtles to mammals that utilize the dams as natural bridges.

​“It has been quite an amazing learning,” said Leonardo Cabrera. “Beaver dams and ponds in Rouge National Urban Park [are] creating important aquatic habitat for waterfowl, turtles, and mammals that use dams for crossing between areas.”

​But with such rich ecosystems come complex management needs. Beavers, as natural engineers, can cause water levels to rise unpredictably, sometimes putting nearby trails, trees, or infrastructure at risk. Rather than destroying the dam or removing the animals, the Rouge Park team turned to a more balanced solution: a flow device, also known as a pond leveler.

In 2024, the park built and installed its first pond leveler with help from the Beaver Institute. The system consists of a submerged pipe that allows water to flow through the dam at a controlled rate, effectively managing flooding risks without disturbing the beavers’ habitat. The team constructed a custom metal cage to protect the pipe’s intake from beaver interference, then floated the whole structure into place.

Of course, building the device was just one part of a broader effort. The team also fenced off select high-risk trees to reduce safety concerns, essentially sending a message to the beavers that some trees are off-limits. As Cabrera put it,​

​“We are just telling beavers, ‘these trees are not for you, they can be dangerous to us if they fall.’”

​This kind of targeted tree protection helps mitigate risks to public safety and infrastructure while letting beavers continue their important work nearby. Public education played a role, too, with signs at trailheads and near dams encouraging people not to disturb these busy builders.

Their work is part of a growing movement to shift how we think about beavers, not as a nuisance, but as essential ecosystem engineers. A recent TVOkids episode titled The Architect, part of the Secrets of the Forest series, helps share that message with a younger audience. The episode introduces kids to the fascinating world of beavers, showing how these animals transform their landscapes and why learning to live alongside them matters more than ever.

At OCWC, we’ve long supported humane and evidence-based approaches to coexisting with wildlife. We’re encouraged to see growing interest in tools like flow devices, tree protection, and public education. These strategies are not just practical solutions, they also reflect a deeper respect for the species that have shaped these ecosystems for generations and for the natural systems that support us all.

Let’s keep working toward a city that makes room for wildlife and learns from them, too!