Archives for 2024

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, 2022

Beavers 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, 2023

When 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

JUL 17, 2023

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, 2022

Beavers 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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Climate Solutions: Beavers Doing Beaver ThingsPost + Comments (35)