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Changing Lives, Conserving Life:
A Conversation with Nick Hagan
This month sets in motion a new phase for the Montana Beaver Conflict Resolution Project, with the launch of Nick Hagan's new role as Beaver Conflict Resolution Specialist with Montana Freshwater Partners, based out of Livingston. We recently caught up with Nick to learn more about the journey to this exciting new role.
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Back in 2019, you volunteered on a beaver mimicry project that restored Montana's prairie streams. How did that volunteer experience shape your interest in beavers and their habitat?
I think it's fair to say that experience changed my life. I volunteered for that National Wildlife Federation (NWF) restoration project as a Montana Trappers Association member so I was already familiar with and interested in beavers. What I wasn't familiar with was this whole other side of conservation and restoration. It was the NWF project that introduced me to low-tech process-based restoration (LTPBR). That forever changed the way l look at water in the West, and in turn, the way l look at beavers. After realizing the potential of beavers and beaver mimicry to improve habitat and store more water on the landscape, l knew l wanted to keep working in this field.
Since then you've been building skills as a coexistence and restoration professional in the Beaver Institute's Beaver Corps program. What aspects of that training have felt especially meaningful to you?
The BeaverCorps Training Program has been a crucial part of my evolution as a restoration professional. Mike Callahan, founder of Beaver Institute, has done a great job of not only developing the program, but fostering a community of dedicated beaver believers. That connection with other non-lethal practitioners has definitely been the most meaningful aspect of the BeaverCorps program. Just as the NWF project opened me to the possibilities of LTPBR, the BeaverCorps introduced me to an entirely new dimension of beaver work.
Under the leadership of Elissa Chott, the Montana Beaver Conflict Restoration Project has seen great success in Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' (FWP) Region 2, in west-central Montana. Like you, Elissa has also been part of the Beaver Corps training, but you'll be working in FWP’s Region 3, which spans across southwest Montana. What is it about this part of the state that inspires you?
Southwest Montana is a part of who I am. My family landed here in the 1950s and we've been here in some form or another ever since. I've always been very interested in place, both how place shapes people, and how people shape place. Place is about belonging and connection, just like family. Place gets wrapped up in your identity. The most distinctive places have the most distinctive people. Southwest Montana is that kind of place. It's hard not to be influenced and inspired by that. But l think that character is one of the reasons we’re seeing such explosive growth and, for me, that has lent a sense of urgency to the work. Despite all the development and change, this is still a wild place full of wild things. That’s part of who we are and that’s worth protecting.
If you had to describe one particularly memorable encounter you've had with a beaver – or a species benefitting from a beaver – what would you choose?
I caught my first trout on a fly in a beaver pond far up in the mountains in a creek I won't name. I never saw that beaver, but that scene has always stuck with me. It's like the richness of the beaver pond imprinted on my newly hatched fly fishing mind. Since then, l've never passed a beaver pond without thinking about trout.
This pilot season for the Montana Beaver Conflict Resolution Project in Region 3 is just getting started and it will go through the fall. What else do you want folks in Region 3 – and beyond – to know about you or the beaver-related services you have to share?
I want people to know we're here working for them, our families, our friends, and our neighbors. This isn't just about conserving beavers, it's about preserving this landscape that we're all a part of. That's especially true in a place like Montana. I think people in Montana take a lot of pride in the wildness and our ability to live and work and play alongside it. This program aims to help foster that relationship.
I also want people to know how grateful I am to Elissa Chott, for paving the way for me through her service to Region 2. She's done incredible work, not only with beavers but with the conservation community at large. I wouldn't be where I'm at without her guidance and example. Similarly, I’d like to thank Sarah Bates, former Director of Western Water for NWF's Northern Rockies office, for encouraging me to pursue this work, and Shelby Weigand, current NWF Senior Coordinator, Riparian Connectivity, for allowing me to do just that. Shelby has been instrumental in expanding this project into Region 3 and beyond. Claire Gower, FWP's Region 3 Non-game Biologist, and Aaron Hall, formerly of Defenders of Wildlife, also deserve recognition for developing this position. And finally, I'd like to thank Wendy Weaver and Leah Swartz of Montana Freshwater Partners in Livingston, MT. They were the ones that offered to house my position in Region 3, and their willingness and enthusiasm were the final pieces of this program puzzle. Without them, I don't know if we'd have a program this summer.
I want to thank all these people because l think it’s important for people to know that this program didn't just happen. It has taken years of dedicated people putting in countless hours and much thought into developing the program and all the infrastructure that sustains it. Those behind-the-scenes people are the reason I’m here, and I’m grateful to all of them for their passion and perseverance.
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