Beaver Camp

Saturday and Sunday, September 27th and 28th from 9am – 4pm
Free Event, Donations Appreciated

This free, weekend immersion is for fans of wetlands who want to become advocates for beavers in their communities. Enjoy two full days of learning and exploring with experts: Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers International, Dr. Denise Burchsted, engineer and river scientist, and Patti Smith, BEEC naturalist and beaver enthusiast. This opportunity includes four classroom sessions, learning to construct a “beaver deceiver” flow device, and visits to active beaver sites and beautiful wetlands created by beavers.

Classroom Sessions:

• Beavers and Healthy Streamscapes with Dr Denise Burchsted
• Streamtable Demonstration with Dr Denise Burchsted
• Beaver Biology 101 with Patti Smith
• Beaver/Human Conflicts and Solutions with Skip Lisle

Beaver Deceiver Construction, two tracks:
Deceiver Curious: Those interested in understanding the basics, but not planning to install flow devices will attend an intro lesson, then visit beaver pond sites to learn more about beaver habitat.

Deceiver Constructors: Want to try your hand at installing a flow device? Work with Skip on an installation.

Overnight camping
Overnight camping at the BEEC grounds is available Friday and Saturday night. We offer a grassy area for tents, or an open-sided barn for primitive camping. Suggested donation of $25 per night per party for camping.

Please fill out this camping reservation form to reserve overnight camping at BEEC during Beaver Camp.

Meet the Beaver Experts

Skip Lisle
Biologist Skip Lisle has devoted his career to solving beaver conflicts. He pioneered pipe and fence systems and has installed his high quality flow devices across the country and around the world. They save taxpayers $, road crews frustration, and keep beavers and their wetlands in place. Skip’s passion for his work is matched by his refusal to be outsmarted by beavers. Because every site is different and every beaver is different, every installation requires new solutions. Skip’s approach to the work has evolved and diversified accordingly. Skip lives in Grafton, Vermont.

Patti Smith
Patti is a naturalist at the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center and has been immersed in the world of beavers for almost two decades. She has been adopted by the beavers who occupy the flowage in her backyard and has been documenting their trials and triumphs, as well as their day-to-day activities around the seasons. Her book, The Beavers of Popple’s Pond, published in 2014, is her account of the early years of the beaver project. As a naturalist at the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, she has taken hundreds of people out to beaver habitat, and has worked with people to resolve beaver conflicts. As a wildlife rehabilitator, Patti has raised orphans of many species, including beavers.

Dr. Denise Burchsted
Engineer and river scientist (fluvial geomorphologist) Dr. Denise Burchsted studies natural river systems—the way rivers behaved before Europeans arrived. What she has learned will surprise you, and yes, beavers were an important part of the picture. What were the landscapes and riverscapes of Vermont like in the days before the fur trade? Burchsted studied geoscience for her PhD at the University of Connecticut. She has a diverse background with training in civil engineering (BS from UConn) and ecology (MFS from Yale University). Her research has focused on blending these disciplines to study the aquatic landscape across various scales. She is interested in the application of her work to the management of rivers and wetlands. Her research has featured the role of beavers in creating complexity in river systems.