One of the continually interesting perks about maintaining a beaver website is that fascinating people from around the world seem to filter like manna onto your doorstep. Not too long ago I was contacted by Emily Fairfax, a graduate student in geological sciences at University of Colorado at Boulder who happens have a special interest in beaver dams and the water they hold. She has been following this website and even sent her mother-in-law to check out our beaver festival last year. (!) When she made contact she said
“The vast majority of my work has been on how beaver dams change arid/semi-arid landscapes from a hydrologic perspective.’
Her research website says:
My current research focuses on the ecohydrology of riparian areas, particularly those that have been impacted by beaver damming. I use a combination of remote sensing, modeling, and field to work understand how beaver damming changes these landscapes and on what timescales those changes operate.
She especially was looking for stories or anecdotes about how beaver ponds help in fire situations, so I introduced her to some folks and showed her what I had come up with over the years. Which lead me to pay special attention when a recent discussion came up with Lisa Robertson on the Wyoming Untrapped FB page, which brought me to this amazing photo and story by Jeff Hogan.
Jeff is an extraordinary wildlife cinematographer. If you’ve ever watched a wildlife film by National Geographic or the BBC, you have probably seen his work.
This is the kind of thing he captures every day.
jeffhoganfilmsI’ve been filming beavers for 20 years now illustrating the benefits of an active beaver colony and pond. Live beavers are very important to our wild forest lands and watersheds. Far more important than whatever benefit humans may enjoy from trapping these beavers. I believe that a wildlife management plan that allows trapping of beavers is highly irresponsible and reckless! This image illustrates the benefit of a beaver pond in fighting forest fires. Filmed in 2001. Beaver pond is located in Granite Creek.
Now Jeff just happened to be at the wednesday night reading in Teton Wyoming of Eager with Ben Goldfarb and Wyoming Untrapped’s director Lisa Robertson. So Jeff made sure Ben had this photo and I made sure Emily had it too. You can see that the helicopter is scooping water to fight the fire out of the only place it’s available: a lovely beaver pond. You can even see the lodge in the middle.
Beavers make a difference in firefighting, as they do in so many other ways. I’m excited to see Emily’s finished work so we can document just how much. In case all this feels too much like school, take a moment to enjoy some of Emily’s delightful offerings on her website.
You don’t want to miss this. Follow the link to her amazing 360 view of a beaver pond. Go look, I’m serious. It’s so frickin’ cool.
“Visit” a Beaver Pond!
Think beaver dams are cool? Visit one of my favorite ponds via a 360 degree photo I took. It’s the main beaver pond up at Schwabacher’s Landing in Grand Teton National Park! The link can be viewed on your computer in the web browser, in the Google Street View app on your phone, or in a Google Cardboard virtual reality headset!
