Okay, there are a lot of beaver videos here. Some general information, but most are how ordinary folks are changing their habits to rewild their land. I find that the most encouraging. Gnaw away at this post as you have time.
This guy has a great intro into all things Beaver and Climate:
Nov 30, 2022Beavers are dam-building, furry little cuties but did you also know that these adorable rodents can help protect landscapes from wildfires and drought and fight climate change?
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Jul 17, 2023When beavers build dams, the changes they make to their habitat can improve everything from biodiversity to drought resilience. Researchers at Boise State University and Utah State University, in collaboration with NASA’s Applied Sciences Ecological Conservation program area, are adding remote sensing data to a suite of tools to measure what happens when beaver are reintroduced to an area. For people managing water resources and conservation efforts, predicting which streams can support beavers and monitoring how water and vegetation change once they return is critical. Using satellite data makes it possible to monitor large areas and track changes over time. Learn more about how NASA helps strengthen ecosystems: https://nasa.gov/feature/researchers-… For more information about NASA Earth Science Division’s Applied Sciences Program, visit our website: https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/ Credits: NASA Applied Sciences Video footage: Boise State University
More on NASA project:
Researchers Become “Beaver Believers”
After Measuring the Impacts of RewildingAries C. Keck
Researchers are using NASA Earth observations to monitor impacts of beaver restoration on water availability in drought-prone ecosystems.
Ecologists and ranchers alike know that rivers and streams with healthy beaver populations support more biodiversity, are more drought resilient, and keep water available on the land for more days of the year. But witnessing the impact of nature’s engineers on a single stream is easier than measuring it across a region, or choosing which of a hundred streams is an ideal site to reintroduce beavers.
Now a NASA-supported effort in Idaho adds remote sensing data to the suite of tools used to predict which streams can support beavers and to monitor how water and vegetation change once they return. Read more here
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Jun 8, 2022Beavers can be a nuisance — but they might also offer some real climate benefits. David Haakenson thinks about water a lot. That’s because the farm he owns in western Washington experiences frequent, catastrophic floods. And climate change is making that trend worse. “We had floods in October. We had floods in November, December, January, February, and March,” said Haakenson, the owner of Jubilee Farm. “There’s this kind of anxiety that involves — like, when you look out on the field and say, ‘Wow, I make my living off that field and now it’s a lake.’” To protect Jubilee Farm, Haakenson is looking to an unlikely ally: Beavers. Because it turns out, beavers might actually offer some real protection against climate impacts like flooding and wildfires — if people can learn to live with them.
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Dec 14, 2020This is a neat story about dreams coming true. Preston, Idaho rancher Jay Wilde had a dream of restoring beaver to Birch Creek on his cattle ranch near Preston in Southeast Idaho. He tried to restore beaver on his own nickle, but they didn’t stay. Jay eventually reached out to Joe Wheaton, a watershed scientist at Utah State University, who helped him solve the puzzle. See how Jay worked with Wheaton and Nick Bouwes from Utah State and Anabranch Solutions to introduce beaver successfully with a science-based plan and low-tech woody structures to create deep-water habitat for beavers.
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Oct 26, 2021Could the American beaver—”nature’s engineers”—be Colorado’s secret weapon to cleaning up waterways and abandoned mines? Rory Cowie thinks so. Cowie has been a hydrologist for more than 15 years. He explained that Beavers are known to be keystone species, meaning they are critical to their ecosystem and the other species within it. In the case of the beaver, their engineering skills build vital water areas. “They attract and increase the biodiversity of wildlife coming into those areas, which is really important to the overall ecosystem health,” Cowie elaborated. The animals also improve water quality. When water sits in beaver-built ponds, it soaks into the ground and the porous earth acts as a filter before the water re-enters the water system down river. Read the full story: https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/rocky-mou…
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This one is rather long, but the last 10 minutes are great, so don’t miss them.
Oct 21, 2022Beavers, which were hunted to extinction in Britain in the 16th century, are making a comeback and in the process are helping to restore valuable wetland ecosystems. Known as nature’s engineers they restore wetland habitats through dam-building and felling trees, slowing, storing and filtering water in their habitat, which attracts other wildlife and reduces flooding downstream.In the UK, 90% of wetland habitats have been lost over the last 100 hundred years. These waterlogged environments are rich in biodiversity and the loss has led to a drastic decline of wildlife. They are also important in countering the effects of extreme weather conditions, storing and absorbing the water flow during floods and storms.
Guy Henderson heads to Devon to see beavers flourishing in English rivers. Derek Gow, a key figure in rewilding beavers, shows the difference they have made to his land. As the former farm was being transformed, Gow also introduced a number of other lost British species, turning it into a biodiversity hotspot. Recent changes to legislation mean the beaver now has protected status in England as it does in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.
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Despair only limits future action – Simon Clark
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Okay, that’s enough about our neighbors, the beaver, for today. I’m going to focus on rewilding in the next couple of post before I tackle some more technology advancements. Some fun solar, wind and geothermal advancements are in the works. I hope the video presentations work for you guys, I like them because I think seeing people’s enthusiasm and commitment works better than just reading dry facts.
This is a doom and gloom free thread
TaMara
I have no idea where everyone is today, so I’m going to put up a general open thread next.
trollhattan
Have backpacked across beaver dams in the Sierra Nevada that are utterly solid and amazing engineering feats. One seldom sees a beaver, though.
In the Valley they’re not popular with folks who maintain levees, as they’ll tunnel Very Large tunnels into them, sort of contra a levee’s task of keeping water to one side only.
sab
I have told this beaver story in BJ comments before.
When Cuyahoga Valley National Park was started, one of the things on their land was an old automobile junkyard on the banks of the river. They cleaned out thousands of old car wrecks and decided it would be a good spot for a parking lot for park visitors. Some beavers thought otherwise. They moved in and built a dam, which flooded the site. So the park people tore out the dam. The beavers rebuilt it. The park people tore that out. The beavers rebuilt it again. So the park people gave up and left the dam, and built a much much smaller parking lot nearby. They also built a wooden causeway across the new beaver marsh so that park visitors can go out over the marsh and watch the now abundant wildlife without bothering the wildlife.
The beaver marsh is now one of the most popular sites in the marsh. Lots of birds, water lilies, and of course beavers paddling around. And the river isn’t shifting its course after every major storm like it used to do.
pieceofpeace
Well, I for one, like this article and that scientific exploration is including the many benefits we get from wild and free animals, like beavers, birds, fish, wolves and many others. I still wish the powers that be would have and might still appreciate (as in “Do something to promote their value and talents!”) their contribution to the land and health of those living on it.
Mousebumples
Starting to plant seeds this weekend. Reinroducing some native plants is on the list. We have some already (Golden Alexander, I think it’s called), and I’m looking to add more of those. Although, apparently it’s better sown in the fall, so I’ll hold that one for a few months….
I’m supposed to “remove all weeds”, but – LOL – we have a bunch of dandelions that we don’t care about. However, unless I want to use lawn chemicals (ick), I don’t think it’s easy to get rid of them. So I’ll just hope some of the new seeds grow and prosper.
Mousebumples
@sab: that reminds me of the story of reinroducing wolves to the West – Colorado, even, maybe. Beavers returning were part of that story. I’ll go see if I can find more details other than my memory.
ETA – It was Yellowstone. (link)
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
On Instagram, I follow a number of foster kitten accounts, which has led to Instagram offering me wild animal rehab accounts, which are generally wonderful. There is one account which is a beaver rescue and the baby beavers in her house are amazingly cute. She gives them towels and stuff to make dams in the hallway with, since they are going to practice making dams no matter what.
H.E.Wolf
About 15 years ago, our city water utility created a stormwater catchment pond/mini-park with some nice landscaping and pedestrian pathways.
Beavers moved in. The park managers put chicken-wire collars around the trees they wanted the beavers to leave alone, the beavers have a neighborhood fan club, the park gets lots of pedestrian traffic (the dam is right next to the pedestrian path) and everyone is happy.
trollhattan
@Mousebumples:
IIRC something like because wolves preyed upon abundant elk and deer, and made them generally behave more warily, their feeding on saplings was reduced and beaver had access to more small trees for their construction efforts.
We still have commercial grazing in the Sierra on federal land and as a result, alpine meadows are trampled and wrecked, reverting to forest. Cutting grazing and reintroducing beavers would slow that process and it’s now well recognized high meadows retain a lot of water to help slow runoff and extend it into fall. This helps the watersheds and reduce fire risk.
But those cattle ranchers have a lot of political clout.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Mousebumples: Oh yeah. I have been a big supporter of Defenders of Wildlife for decades, who were a big force behind the wolf restoration at Yellowstone. They turn out to be such a keystone species. Through their pack kills, especially during winter, a lot more protein is added to the system. Even song bird eggs hatch better becayse everyone is getting more protein.
And the creeks are not being eroded and the trees which grow along the creeks are regrowing because the elk are not hanging out in the shallows eating all the new shoots anymore. You can get trapped by a wolf pack if you hang out in the creek. Benefits everywhere. (Except for coyotes- wolves will deliberately kill coyotes. But we have plenty of other places for coyotes)
Wolves are wonderful
ETA I see Trollhatten got there before me
Another Scott
There’s a park near us outside Alexandria VA that has an interesting history.
Huntley Meadows:
Clever and useful beasties. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
We have many beavers on the land around our second house, but occasionally one decides to build a dam that would flood the only access road. It seems like once every three years. We hate trapping them, but there are many others thriving nearby and we leave them alone. They really are amazing.
wjca
We tried to get rid of beavers because we were sure we didn’t want them messing up our better ideas of how to best use the land. Took us a while, but we are finally figuring out the beavers are smarter about such things than we are.
Similar with wolves and other predators. Similar with Native American land management practices.
We are certainly slow learners. But it seems like some of us are gradually getting a clue.
Trivia Man
I vaguely recall hearing about a program to sir drop beavers into idaho like 50 years ago or something. Parachutes didn’t work so they gave up on it.
prostratedragon
@Mousebumples: I saw a PBS documentary on this a couple of years ago. Before and after images of one valley were both startling and encouraging.
Go beavers (clap)! Go beavers (clap)!
trollhattan
@prostratedragon:
OSU alums everywhere thank you for the support. :-)
https://teamcolorcodes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Oregon-State-Beavers-Logo.png
MomSense
I’ve been watching them swim in the cove outside my window. I’ll try to get some video of them and send it to you.
gene108
@wjca:
I think the trade in beaver pelts, in the 18th and early 19th century, had a lot to do with beaver population decline.
CaseyL
Carkeek Park, near me and much beloved, has a family of beaver that moved in a couple of years (?) ago. They took up residence in a designated wetland trail, and built a quite impressive dam (40-50 feet long, maybe 10 feet wide), and at the far end of the dam’s curve is their lodge. They flooded the nearby walking trail, so there are cones and yellow tape warning people off. Park workers also put chicken wire cages around trees they don’t want the beavers to gnaw on.
It is a wonder to walk along the trail and see the dam. It’s wonderfully constructed, complete with long pole buttresses holding it up along its rear – and has incorporated least one park bench (you can still see the armrests). It is a wonder to see the pointed-end trunk stumps of the trees they’ve felled to build with. The pond created in the curve of the dam is a favorite with ducks, there are always a few there paddling sedately.
The only conflict is with the salmon restoration program, which releases fry (baby salmon) every year into Piper Creek, one of two main creeks that runs through the park and across the beach to Puget Sound. The dam is just off the creek near where the creek connects to Puget Sound. The dam reduced the flow of water through the creek to a mere trickle – baby salmon need fast-running water to make their getaway to the Sound. After a LOT of discussion, the salmon folk expanded the width of Piper Creek near where the dam interfered with it, and so far that’s been sufficient to let the salmon babies through.
Everyone – the park people, the salmon restoration people – agree that the best course would be to let the creek find its own new path past the dam, which in the normal course of events would happen. But Carkeek is an urban park, smack in the middle of a residential area, and the creeks can’t just go wherever they want to go because there are houses and streets, yards and driveways, in the way.
There are beaver in most, if not all, the Seattle urban parks that have creeks running through them. Magnuson Park, which is right on Lake Washington, has at least one enormous dam-and-lodge. Even a little tiny park a couple miles east of me (where I did some trail maintenance work a few months ago) which is part of the Thornton Creek complex has a beaver family.
I’m not entirely sure, but I think, various beaver advocacy groups have facilitated the spread of beavers into our urban parks, particularly the ones further away from the Sound and the lakes. It would be difficult for beaver to find them on their own, what with all the traffic and human stuff in the way.
Rachel Bakes
I love beaver stories! Will watch all these tonight. Been watching videos on rewinding from an organization called Mossy Earth. Very soothing and fascinating projects all over Europe and some elsewhere.
doing my part lately by yanking invasives and teaching my daughter to identify them (she in turn educated her Sr year Geo Science classmates). She can tell when I’ve been walking the neighborhood from the wilting garlic mustard plants I leave behind.
Ahasuerus
Q: Why is the beaver the mascot of MIT?
A: Because the beaver is the engineer of the animal world, and the MIT student is the animal of the engineering world.
(I know, I know, but I thought it was funny when I first heard it, half a century ago…)
Peke Daddy
@Ahasuerus: Also the mascot for Cal Tech.
Ohio Mom
@sab: That beaver lake and the story of how it came to be was a delightful surprise of our family trip to Cleveland last summer.
There was a big national stamp show Ohio Dad wanted to attend — he is a serious collector — and looking at the map, I said, “How about we make the drive more interesting by going through this park?”
I was expecting some pretty scenery, did not know I was about to fall in love with beavers. I still wonder how they made their way there to begin with.
NobodySpecial
One of my viewing pleasures is a fellow on YouTube named Post10 who spends his time unclogging culverts in places like logging areas and under roadways that are frequently targeted by beavers. He’s very adamant about the benefits of beavers as long as they’re not endangering roadways. Very educational and satisfying.
sab
@Ohio Mom: I am so glad you saw it and liked it. It is one of my grandkids favorite places.
sab
@Ohio Mom: I think they have always been there but frustrated, hoping for the big dam but mostly blocking tiny streams.
Dan B
@sab: It’s amazing to read about people loving the Cuyahoga river. When I was growing up it was a thing to be avoided all the way from Cuyahoga Falls just north of Akron. At that time the falls were covered in mounds of noxious foam.
Craig
Really late to this, but seems like the place to flog one of the best, most unique movies I’ve seen in years. Hundreds of Beavers. A mainly silent B&W feature about… . Just see it. A tribute to the sight gag.
https://youtu.be/JeZyTVTG9lI?si=5XFYBhZiIt2Ap76P
Craig
H.E.Wolf
The beaver is on the face of MIT’s class rings! If you see someone wearing one, ask them “What course were you in?” They don’t call ’em majors over there.
PS: Love your ‘nym. Any chance you’re a Sayers fan?
sab
@Dan B: Siblings came in from all over One sister from La Jolla, another from Bedford mass. Brother from Marin County Ca. Nephews and niece from all over Ca.
We have hotels all over, but they all wanted to stay at the Sheraton overlooking the actual Cuyahoga Falls.
Not a convenient location, but there are the Falls.
No One You Know
I’m excited to report that after a year of two neighbors and myself introducing native wildflowers (1 front lawn, 1 rear lawn, 1 naturalized lawn), a hive of wild honeybees have camped in a berm on the edge of my pond, under some mature red- hot pokers that I let self- insulate with their own dead leaves for four+ years. Someday I’ll figure out the name of the white- flowered tree they adore in high summer.
I found them cleaning up the poker, thereby messing up their front entrance… until about a dozen came out to investigate.
We are all looking forward to seeing them thrive!
Matt McIrvin
@Mousebumples: The most famous person with my last name–I assume he’s a distant relative, but I’m not sure exactly how–is a rancher in Washington state who keeps getting in the news for his one-man crusade to exterminate wolves. I think of him whenever these stories come up.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: I had to look it up and yep: Oregon State is the land grant school for Oregon*. Which makes the Beaver fit nicely.
*I wanted to say I actually knew this but no coffee brain needed confirmation.
2liberal
are you the one who set the river on fire?