This has been a banner fall for beavers. States like California and Colorado and Oregon have been flooding the zone with good news, I’ve grown to expect it from them. But Ohio and North Dakota? We might just not be in Kansas anymore,
There is an old saying that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over. And particularly in the western states in a seemingly warmer and drier climate, some scientists are beginning to see beaver activity as important to our ability to adapt to a changing climate. Beaver ponds can store a lot of water on the land, at no cost. And those ponds can mitigate the effects of heavy rains and flooding, and recharge ground water, as well as serve as an important source of water (and forage) for livestock and wildlife.
Beaver activity may also result in important benefits related to changes in hydrology. The pond helps sediments settle out of the water, which increases water quality. As the pond fills in with nutrient rich sediments, it may form a “beaver meadow” which spreads the slowly moving water through a much larger area “sub-irrigating” the plants growing there. One study estimated the economic return of beaver ponds may be $1,000 or more per acre per year in benefits relating to ecosystem services such as sediment retention, flood control, water quality, and wetland habitat enhancement, and recreation.
Beaver activity, mainly associated with the ponds behind dams, has also been credited with a variety of desirable changes in the local ecosystem including increased aquatic habitat, increased plant, fish, and bird diversity and abundance, and habitat for big game such as deer and elk. Beaver ponds also generally support greater numbers of ducks, geese, reptiles, and amphibians compared to the free-flowing streams. Plus, the felling of adjacent trees may help rejuvenate stands of aspen and willow which provide important food and cover for a wide variety of animals.\
So, when we see signs of beaver activity, perhaps we should give greater consideration to how we can put them to work for us. If all goes well, we could gain some important benefits… at no cost!
Color me surprised! The whole segment is on audio and a great listen. I can’t embed it here but feel free to go head for yourself and lets just tap our feet and wait for the late bloomers like Texas and Iowa.
The beaver told the rabbit as they stared at the Hoover Dam: ‘No, I didn’t build it myself, but it’s based on an idea of mine.’” — Charles Hard Townes
As it turns out, these natural engineers may well be humans’ natural allies in efforts to confront climate change.
Beaver dams completely alter the landscape, flooding the surrounding area, and creating wetlands. It’s one reason beavers have often been considered pests that can cause serious damage when they build dams too close to homes or roads.
Scientists have understood beavers’ importance for decades. Studies are finding that beavers play a vital role in dampening the effects of the worsening climate crisis, especially in areas prone to fire, drought, and heat waves.
These web-footed, fat-tailed, amphibious rodents help countless other critters survive a heat wave. They not only drench certain landscapes in cold water but also help cool the air. They help make forests and grasslands less likely to burn.
It’s increasingly clear that these animals help safeguard ecosystems against the worst of climate change. Beavers are very much wildlife heroes in a warming world. We know that beavers build dams. But these structures are so much more than just a pile of sticks laid across a stream. They’re hydrological wonders.
Aw shucks! Stop! Beavers are blushing! The way you folks do go on!
Dams form ponds, widen rivers, and create wetlands, building all kinds of aquatic habitats that many other animals like birds and frogs rely on. Beavers are the ecosystem engineers of the animal world.
Because every ecosystem is unique, beavers can have different effects on the environment depending on where they are located.
More than just spreading water around, beavers’ dams also help cool it down. Dams can deepen streams, and deeper layers of water tend to be cooler. As streams run into these structures, they can start to carve into the river bed. So, there can be, for example, a six-foot-deep pool behind a three-foot-high beaver dam.
Dams also help force cold groundwater to the surface. Made of sticks, leaves, and mud, dams block water as it rushes downstream, forcing some of it to travel underground, where it mixes with chillier groundwater before resurfacing. Scientists tell us that is really important for a lot of temperature-sensitive species like salmon and trout.
The presence of beaver dams can also help chill the air. As all that water in a beaver habitat starts to evaporate, the adjacent air cools down. Turning water into vapor requires energy, and some of that energy comes from the heat in the air. It essentially functions like an AC system sitting out there in the landscape, keeping the air temperature, 10 or 15 degrees cooler, which, scientists point out, is a sizable difference.
Beaver damming also plays a significant role in protecting surrounding vegetation during wildfires. By helping replenish the groundwater that humans rely on, beavers’ dams also provide insurance against droughts.
We need smart, out-of-the-box ways to defend against the worst effects of climate change. Instead of just relying on human-made technologies and infrastructure, we can also restore species like beavers to the landscape, working with nature, instead of against it. We need to make our cities and towns much more resilient, not unlike a habitat filled with beaver dams.
Enlisting beavers in the effort could be one such way forward. They are, after all, the only other species anywhere nearly as capable as humans at transforming a landscape.
Wow what a mouthful, Suddenly beavers are Sally Fields at the oscars. YOU LIKE ME! YOU REALLY LIKE ME!
It couldn’t happen to a. nicer rodent.
Heat waves in U.S. rivers are on the rise. Here’s why that’s a problem
Like marine heat waves, riverine heat waves occur when water temperatures creep above their typical range for five or more days (SN: 2/1/22). Using 26 years of United States Geological Survey data, researchers compiled daily temperatures for 70 sites in rivers and streams across the United States, and then calculated how many days each site experienced a heat wave per year. From 1996 to 2021, the annual average number of heat wave days per river climbed from 11 to 25, the team reports October 3 in Limnology and Oceanography Letters.
