Well as many outlets that carried the beavers and climate change story are now carrying the beavers can’t fix everything story by rerunning that article and its nutria photo or kindly supplying another one. Of course NO ONE has challenged them or said that the information is as wrong as the image. But who are we to be surprised?
At least the Pacific Forest Trust still thinks beavers can help. Their newest issue reads thusly with an actual beaver photo to boot.
The ongoing drought that has gripped the West has helped many people understand the vital importance of nature’s water manager, the beaver (Castor canadensis), in regulating our water supply, as well as reducing wildfire impacts and providing critical habitat for many fish. But beavers have been extirpated from much of their home range in California, with a resulting drop in groundwater supply, rivers running low-to-out-of water in the summer, and the loss of vital fish habitat. So, we celebrated mightily upon seeing the return of beavers to one of our conserved properties in the headwaters of the Feather River above the Sierra Valley.
Well now that’s a nice welcome back if I every read one! The feather river is one that has done the best job bringing stake holders to the table and securing their contribution for the welfare of everyone. And beavers have been part of the conversation for years. Mostly “Wish we had some”.
The Feather River supplies the Oroville reservoir, which forms the core supply for the State Water Project, and the Sierra Valley is North America’s largest alpine wetland. PFT has protected five properties and nearly 4,500 acres in the Sierra Valley (including the first conservation easement completed in the Valley at Valley View Angus Ranch), recognizing its importance for water, as well as wildlife. Help us help beavers by donating here!
Well sure! Money for beavers is like investing in water which is like investing in everyone. I’ll drink to that, Beavers are climate change superheroes and ecosystem engineers we can all afford to hire.
A little burst of beaver blessing news and you forget. You forget that all around us their water saving dams are destroyed and they themselves are trapped and despised. Well some people forget. We probably never will.
The beavers that live alongside the Hunnewell Town Forest trail off of Oak Street in Natick haven’t been backing down from the challenges of those breaching their dam over the past month in Little Jennings Pond.
As the town’s Conservation Commission indicated at its Aug. 11 meeting, the Natick Public Works Department was authorized to “punch a hole in the dam” in September, and it did.
But the beavers came right back and plugged the gap, keeping a section of the blue trail in the Town Forest off limits to people.
Since then, at least a couple more breaches have been executed, one that was erased rather quickly, and now a more ambitious one of which a Natick Report reader has shared photos.
Punch a hole in the dam? Who says that? Who authorizes such things? Where are we?
Of course whether you punch a hole in the dam or blow it up or “notch” it as we delicate californias say the beavers are not suddenly homeless. Because, now listen to this very carefully, BEAVERS DO NOT LIVE IN THE DAM.
Claire Rundelli, planner conservation agent for the town, said that after the Public Works breach earlier this month there weren’t any additional approvals for breaches. When asked about the beavers during the Sept. 15 Conservation Commission, she said “we’ve heard nothing from the beavers in recent days.”
The Commission held a town-wide beaver discussion in March in conjunction with the Trails and Forest Stewardship Committee, and Open Space Advisory Committee, and it ended with consensus to adapt to the beavers rather than trap them. The thinking was that other beavers would just come back to the area and rebuild the dam.
Natick has rerouted an oft-flooded trail at the Town Forest to avoid the beaver dam’s impact. Flow devices used to address beaver issues in other parts of Natick’s complex and large watershed were deemed unlikely to work in the relatively shallow water along the Town Forest trail.
Really? Flow devices won’t work and the beavers haven’t contacted you in recent days? I’m shocked. They usually send perfect messages detailing their plans by email. Honestly, if people want you to coexist with the beavers STOP PUNCHING THE DAM. This might come as a shock to you but punching is not coexisting. I learned that in my yoga class. You should come. I’ll save you a space.
I’ve been waiting for this, and apparently so has most of the media because this morning it’s running on Yahoo news and a bunch of other recycling sites. Just remember beavers, you had a day in the sun, a week really. It was grand.
The beaver is a unique ecosystem engineer that can create a landscape that would otherwise not exist, thanks to the animal’s ability to build dams. As we experience more frequent heatwaves and drought, the potential role of beavers in safeguarding against these risks has captured widespread attention.
Beaver habitats are claimed to lower local stream and air temperatures, and by maintaining water supplies, provide insurance against drought. Greater water storage may also improve the resilience of a landscape towards wildfire.
However, it is important to consider the significance of beaver habitats as a solution to our changing climate from both human and wildlife perspectives. It’s not as simple as saying beavers can protect human society against the effects of extreme weather.
I don’t believe ANYONE is saying that, you silly person. Of course we need more solutions and tools than just beavers. The point is that beavers can HELP if we let them.
Beaver ponds and wetlands can cover wider areas and store more water than the stream that would flow without them. However, beavers are restricted to relatively small streams.
To achieve a water capacity large enough to supplement human supplies, beavers would have to construct an unrealistically large number of ponds across the same catchment. Even then, the water storage would be dispersed across many shallow ponds, making extraction for use in a water supply network unrealistic.
What an increase in beaver ponds can do is provide more refuges for wildlife at a local level, while allowing the slow release of water downstream during dry periods. Such refuges can be critical for wildlife during a drought, and so help preserve an area’s biodiversity.
Greater water storage will also increase an ecosystem’s resilience to climate change. This has been demonstrated during this summers drought. Beaver wetlands in Devon’s River Otter have irrigated the surrounding area and kept vegetation alive, preserving a habitat that many animals depend on.
Unrealistically large number of ponds? Unrealistic according to whom? Beavers aren’t daunted. They can take on plenty of unrealistic jobs. And used to handle much much more. What is UNREALISTIC you mean is the notion that humans could possibly share that much territory with beavers to allow them to MAKE those ponds. And I agree with your unwritten argument. “In order for beavers to make a meaningful contribution we’d need to start killing them less, and that’s unlikely to happen.”
Bodies of water can also reduce the air temperature surrounding them because their evaporation has a cooling effect. However, unless the water bodies are very large, or high in number, this easing tends to diminish rapidly with distance from the water. This would make it difficult to rely upon beaver ponds for cooling benefits for human settlements.
Beavers also tend to open up the canopies of nearby forests by felling trees during the construction of dams. This can reduce shading and allow more direct sun exposure, which complicates any potential cooling effects.
However, felling can also increase habitat complexity, supporting a mixture of meadows and wet woodland. The natural disturbance caused by beavers can create floodplain woodlands that are wilder and wetter, allowing greater biodiversity. In some cases, this can also slow the flow of water and improve water quality.
This same process of opening up the canopy can also increase local water temperatures. However, this can be heavily moderated by the interaction between surface water and groundwater.
This means the outcome for water temperatures will be highly river, dam, and pond dependent. For this reason, research into the thermal impact of beaver habitats has proved inconclusive.
No. No. No. The research has proved inconclusive because some researchers did it wrong and refuse to learn from their mistakes. Measuring the top inch of the pond temperature is the WRONG way to do this. And last time I checked the Climate change papers was in a published in a peer reviewed journal. Which your article certainly isn’t.
Wildfires have been extensive across Europe this summer. Research has shown how the preservation of beaver habitats can improve the fire-resistance of the landscape.
During wildfire, the area of vegetation density loss in beaver habitats was approximately three times smaller than in areas without beavers in the western USA.
However, questions remain as to whether this protection could ever expand to the scale necessary for human settlements. Even if this is not realistic, beaver habitats provide crucial protection for local habitat and wildlife against wildfire.
I do not think that question has ever been raised. The point isn’t that beaver scan FIX fires and droughts any more than wearing seat belts can prevent car accidents. The point is that they can HELP if we let them. Let them help.
This summer has also brought new climate extremes and a prolonged period of drought. With more of this predicted, the debate surrounding mitigation measures is growing. Beavers enjoy enthusiastic support in this regard.
However, it would be wise to temper expectations for the role of beavers as a drought solution for human settlements. Nevertheless, by offering a local buffer against the ravages of drought, heatwaves, and wildfire, beaver habitats carry the potential to help stimulate nature recovery and reverse biodiversity loss.
In the UK, beavers have recently received legal protection, but face a future of expansion into human landscapes. The decades ahead will require some nuanced landscape decisions that can incorporate beaver habitats into large-scale nature recovery and restoration schemes. Beavers are showing that their impacts can offer added levels of ecosystem resilience to a changing climate that we would be wise to embrace.
All we ever said. All that was ever argued. Beavers can help if we help them help. End of argument. Oh and your photo isn’t a beaver, which means you don’t actually have any information or knowledge about what you’re spouting about.
Even Ohio is getting the message about beavers. A friend sent this from a recent trip to Cincinatti. Of course it doesn’t say anything actually positive about the beavers fighting fires or saving water or where to go for more information about these superheroes but it’s a start, and I can see a little ecological vandalism in their future…can’t you?
The ongoing drought that has gripped the West has helped many people understand the vital importance of nature’s water manager, the beaver (Castor canadensis), in regulating our water supply, as well as reducing wildfire impacts and providing critical habitat for many fish. But beavers have been extirpated from much of their home range in California, with a resulting drop in groundwater supply, rivers running low-to-out-of water in the summer, and the loss of vital fish habitat. So, we celebrated mightily upon seeing the return of beavers to one of our conserved properties in the headwaters of the Feather River above the Sierra Valley.
The beavers that live alongside the 
