Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar Signs Up Nature’s Engineers to Restore River
Ulaanbaatar is importing foreign experts to combat falling water levels in Mongolia’s third longest river. Qualifications include sharp incisors, flat tails and webbed toes. Meet the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). If all goes according to plan, the task of restoring the headwaters of the Tuul River will be left to these rotund rodents, with extra thanks to Germany and Russia. At home, due to poaching, their numbers have declined sharply in the past 20 years. But in May, Germany gifted 14, and Russia another 30—just for this special task.
You might remember something about this story from back in May when 14 beavers were delivered from Germany under the catchy headline “German Engineers arrive to save the Tuul river“. I guess the program’s continued apace because now they’re getting ready for releases. Apparently they are taking the long view.
Citing a beaver reintroduction project in Bavaria, he cautions this is a long-term project with little hope for immediate success. “They hunted their last beaver in Bavaria in the 1960s. After they re-introduced beavers from Russia in 1966, it still took nearly 10 years for the beavers to successfully adapt and build their dams,” he says. “Beavers are diplomats of the environment,” says Delgermaa Yunger, director of the Nature Protection Agency’s office at Ulaanbaatar’s City Hall.
Diplomats? Really? I’m a big fan of beavers, but I’m scratching my head on that one. I’ve seen their dams called ‘the earth’s kidneys’. I’ve seen them called ‘ecosystem engineers’. and of course ‘keystone species’. I’ve called them the ‘job creators of the natural world’ but diplomats? Do they help warring species get along better or are they just really polite?
As welcome as the animals are, there are still some worrying signs.
In Yunger’s office at the City Council, a furry artificial flower sits among her pens on her desk. “It’s beaver fur,” she admits sheepishly—a gift from a beaver farm in Russia she visited while scouting for donors. But this, she insists, will never happen in Mongolia, because local community support for the project will deter illegal hunting. “These beavers are strictly here to help restore our rivers,” she said.
You’re kidding, right?
