Something tells me this label is going to stick. Chalk it up to the fact that most of us have zero idea what to do about global warming. We know it’s really really important. And we can all think of folks and corporations to blame for it. But when it comes to actual solutions we are plum out of ideas.

It’s nice to think that a rodent might have us covered.

Beavers engineering resistance to onslaught of climate change

Beyond the benefits to beavers themselves, their work has a long list of positive side effects that help local ecosystems thrive. This complex is lush with plant life, and at least one fresh-looking scat deposit. Fairax calls the droppings a “huge pile of evidence” that the wetland is a hospitable stop for deer and elk.

“There’s so much different habitat here,” she said. “If you like eating little herby things, we’ve got it on-site. If you like eating other animals, we’ve definitely got that on-site. If you need to hide under the sticks, there’s plenty of them. If you like to swim like a frog, there’s tons of water pathways you can take. So pretty much all these different organisms, when they come to the beaver ponds, they’re getting ideal habitat for themselves, too.”

The April study – “Beaver: The North American Freshwater Climate Action Plan” – is largely a summary of existing research, pulling together and contextualizing established science about rivers and beavers. It makes the case that beavers once were pivotal in shaping and maintaining healthy riverscapes before their populations were crippled by years of trapping.

I have seen this show up in so many places. I am sure right now in flooded Kansas there is some biologist shaking his head and thinking, would it have helped if we had more beaver dams on the river? Of course it would have helped. Not fixed it. But helped.

In reality,” he said, “it’s not out of our control. Here is something that we can do. Here is something that we can think about as an adaptation and mitigation strategy – returning riverscapes to their natural state. And that’s going to give us climate change protection and resilience.”

That protection and resilience comes in a few forms. The first is a safeguard against flooding. Rising temperatures are increasing the frequency of heavy rain and rapidly melting snow. In the channel of a narrow stream or river, that surge of water is likely to quickly overtop the banks and flood. Beaver wetlands, with their wide swaths of soggy land, would help spread some of that water out and limit flooding downstream.

Just as beaver complexes are helpful in the face of too much water, they have proven useful in areas with not enough. High-mountain snow serves as a kind of natural reservoir for the region, slowly releasing water throughout the spring and early summer, assuring a steady supply to the places where humans divert and collect it. But as the West continues to rapidly warm and dry, snowpack is getting smaller and melting earlier. Beavers, meanwhile, are essentially building miniature reservoirs in mountainous areas throughout the region.

You would think, that if there was this inexpensive resource all across the contiguous united states that could do this work for free with only the resources every state can easily afford we would let them have at it.

Drought also means an increased risk of wildfires, and beavers have proven their mettle against the flames. Even in areas completely ravaged by wildfire, where tree trunks are reduced to blackened toothpicks and soil is left gray and ashen, beaver complexes survive unscathed. The wet earth and thriving greenery resist burning, leaving oases of green in the middle of the lifeless moonscapes left by wildfire.

Spreading water out across valley floors also has proven benefits for water temperature, water quality and even carbon sequestration. Moving water laden with sediment, nitrates or carbon slows in beaver ponds, allowing particles to settle or get consumed by microbes, unlike in a fast-moving stream.

Jordan said allowing or helping beavers to expand their work would help more areas, at least locally, steel themselves against more extreme weather conditions brought on by climate change. But he knows the industrious animals won’t turn things around entirely.

“We have to have a diverse portfolio of potential responses,” he said. “Some of them are mitigating the impacts – that is trying to solve the damage that’s already been done, and others are adapting – trying to solve or fix the damage rather than return and return conditions to the way they were before. Beaver-modified floodplains are playing both roles.”

The study suggests humans could help boost the work of beavers through policy changes. In many jurisdictions, beavers are considered pests that can be killed if they’re agents of crop damage or caught plugging culverts, flooding roads or property.