How did we miss this story? Well, know how. I was just out of the hospital when it broke but still. I let you all down. I am so disappointed in myself. You will probably leave and read some other website about beavers that is updated daily. And you should.
Except there is no other website like that. In all the world. For better or worse I’m still the only person insane enough to do this every morning. So you’re stuck with me for now. Sorry and you’re welcome.
What a great title!
Beaver: A Willing Ally in a Drying World
Taos, New Mexico was once a vital link in the beaver fur trade, linking the streams of the Southwest to markets in St. Louis and further East. Today, however, beaver are not part of the local economy, though some landowners and other interest groups might be changing that.
Aaron recently visited Taos speaking to the Rio Fernando de Taos Revitalization Collaborative — a collective of elected officials, agencies, groups, and individuals working to bring a New Mexico river back to life — about living with beavers. Why? Because beaver are vital to healthy and resilient ecosystems. Where there are beaver, there are plenty of other native wildlife. Beaver, North America’s largest rodent, are truly an ecosystem engineer, creating wetlands, ponds, and meadows, filtering water, trapping sediment, and mediating flashy streams into more consistent flows. All they need is water, trees, and time to be busy, as the saying goes.
Well, well, well, so we talked to folk in New Mexico about living with beavers. A fine idea, how did it go? We all know places that need water are places that need beaver.
Fewer beavers on the landscape means a lot of things, but mostly it means fewer wetlands and habitats for other species, more boom and bust water flows, and lower water quality. There are countless studies showing us how beaver alter their world and benefit other species, including humans. For example, in the arid intermountain west, 80% of species depend on wetlands during their lives, even though wetlands cover only 2% of the landscape. With their numbers at a small fraction of historic abundance, the many benefits that beavers provide are dramatically reduced.
Ain’t that the truth.
Landowners in the Taos, NM area are realizing the potential benefit of beaver, but also know that there are possible downsides. Beaver are busy, and part of that busyness includes felling trees to use in their construction projects and as a winter food source. This also includes flooding areas which humans may or may not want to be flooded. This conflict is sometimes problematic and often results in beaver being killed and removed. Defenders’ goal is to work with interested groups, such as the Rio Fernando de Taos Revitalization Collaborative in Taos, to promote more beaver on the landscape through mitigating their impacts. Trees can be fenced, flow devices can be installed to minimize flooding, and education and outreach can help promote positive attitudes about beaver, water quality, water quantity, and habitat for other species such as fish and amphibians.
Sure, there are times that beaver come into conflict with the human-built world of tidiness and organization. They do not abide by our rules and regulations, they do not read our stormwater plans, review our landscaping designs, or give a second though about flooding a low-lying bike path. They are acting like beaver should act, modifying the environment to suit their needs, and in the process the needs of many other species. Our beaver work is a win-win, promoting the huge benefits of beaver and encouraging humans to learn to live with them!
If you, like me, wish you were a fly on the wall for Aaron’s talk for this presentation, we’re in luck because at least part of it is available on video.
This seems to stop early after talking about flooding but he does a nice job of describing how to protect trees and I’m glad Aaron’s on the case. I wonder what kind of officials were in attend
And a final hearty good luck to Mr. Jon Ridler who gets sworn in this morning as an AMERICAN citizen! Just in time to regret the grand democratic experiment and what we’ve become. Congratulations. Jon, we’re all lucky to have you. (I made this for him yesterday just before our power went out all evening.)
