Middle-schoolers, Conservation Corps team up to hunt for nature’s engineers

To improve water in the Clark Fork River, it might be time to employ some talented engineers. Especially if they work for free.

Over the past five years, as dam removal and restoration work has improved more Western rivers, agencies and organizations have recognized the benefits that beavers could add to watersheds. So the Lolo National Forest wants to know where and how it might employ such an inexpensive helper, and the Clark Fork Coalition offered to help.

“I know, for the Lolo National Forest, climate and wildfire mitigation are things they’re really looking at. Beaver habitats store water and recharge groundwater so they can be effective at addressing climate change and wildfire,” said Clark Fork Coalition Education Manager Lily Haines.

In 2014, the Clark Fork Coalition conducted a watershed vulnerability assessment for the Lolo National Forest and found several streams with water quality problems, including high water temperatures, dwindling water quantity and sediment pollution.

Remember a few days ago when we read about them winning the grant from USFS for this work? Well this article brings it all to life, and it delights me very much. In this world there are two very unpopular groups that, lets be honest, everyone dreads dealing with: Beavers and Middleschoolers.

This combines the two annoyances beautifully. 

I love this picture with a firey passion and they white hot heat of 1000 suns. It is just SO middleschool. No other group could work as hard and still seem so  awkward and out of place. I love it!

Beaver dams cause streams to slow down and pool, which can clean the water by causing sediment to drop out. The ponds and surrounding wetlands can offset drought and reduce wildfire risk by keeping vegetation green. In addition, the ponds create good trout and wildlife habitat.

The problem is, due to trapping, damaged habitat or poor water quality, beavers are gone from many streams.

So each summer, six middle-school scientists spent a week wading along mountain streams and collecting data under the watchful eyes of two team leaders from the Montana Conservation Corps. A total of 30 students from around Montana learned to collect biological information over the course of five separate weeks this summer.

The kids measured stream width and gradient – beavers prefer more level slower-moving sections – stream pool depth, and the trees and vegetation along the stream. Starting at the mouth of the stream, they made measurements every 300 yards for as they could go, as long as stream conditions would still support beavers.

How much do we love this story? Pretty dam much, I can tell you.

Then, armed with good information and the best science, certain streams might eventually be managed for beavers, which will then manage the streams for everyone.

Occasionally, landowners concerned about flooding or loss of trees along streams don’t want beavers around. So Clark Fork Coalition employees are working on conflict resolution and tools that reduce flooding such as pond levelers. But on streams where those don’t work, managers could install beaver-dam analogues to create similar conditions to improve streams.

“One of the things they say is beavers is second only to man for their ability to manipulate the environment. Which means they and their habitat can do a lot of work to help us out,” Haines said “And we don’t have to pay them.”

Wonderful! That’s such a great use of two things that are so often woefully unappreciated: Youthful energy and beaver engineering. No wonder this program won the grant competition. I’m so happy everything worked out.

Getting young people to understand how they fit in the big picture is so important. Although sometimes its the young ones that teach you.

Now if you’re inspired to watch a young persons progress against incredible odds you definitely should check out Greta Thurnberg’s passage as she makes a sailing trip across the Atlantic. The whole journey is accessible and on Windy.com. where you can zoom in to see what they’re doing through tweets and instagram. We are having so much vicarious fun watching her success. The sailboat slipped into the right wind overnight and they toodled along at 24 knots. This morning she’s exercising with her team – dad and filmmaker – on the rails