Nice new article out of Canada’s National Geographic. I can’t remember them being this nice about beavers before. Maybe it has something to do with their election,’

Beavers and the art of ecological resilience

It starts with the sound of running water. There’s something in a beaver’s rodent brain that draws it to the sound, compelling it to build. To dam. To slow the flow. To hold that water in its little chunk of landscape a little longer. The beaver is following its instincts to build a home, with easy access to tasty morsels to gnaw on: aspen, willow, birch, maple. But it’s doing something more. It’s creating a more resilient watershed.

During the 1940s, a bizarre project saw beavers parachuted into Baugh Creek, Idaho, because they were seen as a nuisance in cities and towns. The beavers did what they do best and created a lush mosaic of ecosystems.

My goodness. I never read these kind of articles from Canada. Do you think there’s something in the air?

Seven decades later, in 2018, a wildfire swept through Baugh Creek. Satellite imagery showed a remarkable picture: that beaver-engineered, verdant valley appeared unscathed amid the wildfire-charred hills.

Researchers have found that beavers contribute more to keeping water in the landscape than climate, precipitation and temperature combined. As beaver dams slow water down, backing it up into ponds, this not only creates habitat for a biodiverse ecosystem but better protects the landscape from increasing droughts and fires that accompany warming temperatures associated with climate change.

Beaver dams also filter the water, which removes contaminants and moderates water temperature. When deeper beaver ponds “stratify,” separating into layers, they create cool refugia for various fish species, which can attract protein-loving predators to beaver ponds. The nutrient-rich sediment and still water also cultivate plants for grazing herbivores. Ponds eventually give way to lush meadows as, once the beavers’ journey to trees becomes too far, beavers abandon their dams to begin all over again somewhere else.

Holy schmoly bat man. Grey owl would be so proud!

The resulting landscape is a patchwork of meadows and wetlands — with a range of ages and successional stages — that become more diverse as beavers repeatedly colonize and abandon their dam sites. With droughts, wildfires and flooding predicted to increase in Canadian landscapes, perhaps we can let beavers do what they do best: create resilient watersheds for the future.

There is also an awesome graphic on the page which you are going to have to explore yourself. Trust me its worth it. In the mean time I’ll just give you the theme music.