Every so often someone makes a mistake and actually says something reasonable about beavers. Even in Alaska where they are blamed for global warming and ruining the permafrost.

As beavers gain foothold in Arctic Alaska, some see benefits in how they reshape the landscape

“We think of these beaver ponds like oases in the Arctic, oases of warmth, biodiversity, permafrost thaw,” said Ken Tape, an ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “We used to think Arctic streams were these little free-flowing things about as wide as my office. And it turns out that once beavers get involved, that’s not what our Arctic streams look like. They look like wetlands because of all these beaver dams.”

Tape — together with Benjamin Jones, research assistant professor at the Water and Environmental Research Center at UAF; biology doctoral student Sebastian Zavoico; and Northwest Alaska writer Seth Kantner — traveled by snowmachine from Nome to Kotzebue in recent weeks to study how beavers are changing the landscape.

While the implications of beavers’ increasing presence aren’t yet clear, several Northwest Alaska residents welcome the change. Beavers, they say, provide an additional food source for locals and create a more diverse environment.

More diverse is good right? I mean a more diverse environment is what you want, right?

While the implications of beavers’ increasing presence aren’t yet clear, several Northwest Alaska residents welcome the change. Beavers, they say, provide an additional food source for locals and create a more diverse environment.

“Unlike other animals in the Arctic that sort of migrate or move with the seasons, beavers are very reliable,” Kantner said. “They are almost like money in the bank: If you ever get hungry or we have starvation or need furs and need food, they’re an incredible resource.”

Um. Okay. We can always eat them later. I guess that’s a positive. But you know what ELSE? You can always eat all the fish and birds and caribou that move north because of the access to increased water too. And if you don”t eat them you can have those fish and fowl populations LONGER.

Researchers knew that the beavers have used springs and hot springs to gain a foothold in the Arctic because those are the first places where the habitat is really available, Tape said. So out of curiosity, they set up time-lapse cameras to observe them at Serpentine Hot Springs.

I like the idea of beavers utelizing hot springs, and if you click on the headline of the article you can watch a  nice video of a beaver slipping by in freezing conditions and a hot tub. Sorry I can’t embed it but it’s fun.

Kantner, who was born along the Kobuk River, has his own experience to share. When he was growing up, there were already beavers in the area and people used them for meat and fur. He said he always had a lot of respect for beavers as animals.

“I personally always admired them because, you know, it lived very close to where I lived and had been hard-working all the time as I am too,” he said. “We sort of felt like we lived a little bit more like beavers because they were just a mile or two away in their latitudes with their hard work and hardscrabble life, and there we were, in our little sod igloo with a tunnel entrance.”

Changing the Arctic

When beavers make ponds, they alter the hydrology and tend to thaw the permafrost, Tape said. This can be a big issue in locations with a lot of ice-rich permafrost, like the Baldwin Peninsula and the northern part of the Seward Peninsula, though for now, beavers are actually occupying a relatively small part of the Arctic, Tape said.

“It’s not that every single beaver pond is thawing permafrost, but a lot of them do,” Tape said. “We think that they’re accelerating climate change. Is it a huge deal? Not clear right now.”

Ohhhh PULEEZE. Is it a problem that all those melting icebergs make the sun more reflectant and heats the ocean? Are icebergs hastening global warming?

There is one researcher in this article that actually does not make me want to pull the rest of my hair out.

Kantner pointed out that of all the causes for the warming Arctic, an increased beaver presence might not be the biggest. “The land is definitely melting but I’m not about to blame that on beaver,” he said.

Thank the GODS for Seth Kantner, Northwest Alaska writer. If one man out of ten can make sense in Alaska we can hope for some day 2 and then half and then all.

Well, a girl can dream anyway.