Time for another chapter of our popular serial “This week in Urban beavers”. When we last tuned in beavers that showed up in cities were routinely exterminated, except those crazy lucky beavers in that Bay Area town. Mar-something I think its called.
Too bad there’s not a research paper or something talking about how valuable they can be.
Reintegrating the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) in
the urban landscape
David R. Bailey | Benjamin J. Dittbrenner | Ken P. Yocom
In recent decades, ecological restoration and landscape architecture have focused on reintegrating ecological processes in the urban environment to support greater habitat complexity and increase biodiversity. As these values are more broadly recognized, new approaches are being investigated to increase ecosystem services and ecological benefits in urban areas. Ecosystem engineers, such as the North American beaver (Castor canadensis), can create complex habitat and influence ecological processes in natural environments. Through dam building and wetland formation, beaver can create fish habitat, diversify vegetation in riparian zones, and aggrade sediment to increase stream productivity. As beaver populations have increased in urban areas across North America, their presence presents challenges and opportunities. Beaver can be integrated into the design of new and established urban green spaces to improve ecosystem functions. If managed properly, the conflicts that beaver sometimes create can be minimized. In this paper, we examine how landscape architects and restoration ecologists are anticipating the geomorphic and hydrological implications of beaver reintroduction in the design of wetlands and urban natural areas at regional and site levels. We present an urban beaver map and three case studies in Seattle, WA, USA, to identify various approaches, successes, and management strategies for integrating the actions of beaver into project designs. We make recommendations for how designers can capitalize on the benefits of beaver by identifying sites with increased likelihood of colonization, leveraging ecosystem engineers in design conception, designing site features to reduce constraints for the reintroduction and establishment of beaver, and anticipating and managing impacts.
My goodness. Will you look at that abstract, It’s almost like research proving that beaver can be valuable in urban settings. Who would say something crazy like that? I mean sure they can trap the false leg or two before it finds its way to sea, but how can beaver dams really help any city?
Whoa. You know what’s really funny? Is that I know this crazy woman who has been flogging these same points for 11 years! But she knows nothing about beavers. She’s a child psychologist so no one listens to her. Funny coincidence. When she was published professionally it was in a Wiley Journal too, go figure. But that’s neither here nor there.
It’s not like that beaver study has any graphs or anything that prove in some settings beavers make things better.
Wow. You know what’s really interesting? I remember reading something like this in the urban beaver chapter in Pollock’s restoration guidebook 2.0. I think it was written by Ellen Wohl, Greg LeWallen and Perry-something. I wonder if he mentions that version in the references?
Dam. Well he if Mr. Bailey never even read that part he missed out. Because it was extremely tight writing by one of the top hydro-geological professors in the country.
Okay, its true, every major work builds on the work of those gone before, and we’re all standing on each other’s shoulders, but don’t you think one should mention those shoulders? At least in passing?
Ahem.
Well urban beaver benefits are published officially now. And that’s a great thing for folks on the ground trying to find ways to prove they shouldn’t be killed.
You’re welcome!
