That’s how beavers are seen as in the Tundra.
Just waddling giardia distribution systems that ruin the ice for snow mobiles and kill all the fish.
Beavers are booming in some parts of the Arctic — and speeding up changes to the tundra
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As the Arctic warms and woody shrubs take root in what was once open tundra, animals more common to the boreal forest are taking advantage of the transformation. Some of those newcomers, it turns out, are themselves exacerbating the transformation caused by warming.
In less than two decades, beavers swarming one area of Arctic Alaska have increased the number of dams by about 5,000 percent, according to a newly published study that uses satellite imagery to track the changes. Over the same period, the study found an increase in surface water in the areas, especially in water bodies where beavers built their dams.
The study isn’t the first in Alaska to document such changes. In 2018, scientists working in the same area found that the spread of beavers into the tundra was
You know how beavers are. Just exactly like hammers. Hammers that bring more fish and frogs and birds. Banging away at wood and constructing things. What on earth does that particular metaphor even mean in this case? I could see how taking a hammer to glass would be bad, or even a Renoir or a Porsche. But a Landscape? How do you hurt a landscape with a hammer? And more importantly, if you’re goal was to destroy a landscape would a hammer be your weapon of choice?
I can only assume he means a frozen landscape? And beavers shatter that wall of ice with their waterworks? But may be thinking too reasonably. He may just be saying something insane.
In the area covered by the new study, a 100-square-kilometer section around the hub community of Kotzebue on the Chukchi Sea coast in Northwest Alaska, the number of dams jumped from two in 2002 to 98 in 2019 — and the amount of surface water increased by 8.3 percent in the same period, according to the study. About two-thirds of that increase in the surface area came from water bodies influenced by beavers and their woody structures, the study found.
The result, in the words of lead author Ben Jones of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, is “beaver-driven engineering.”
“Once beavers come onto the scene, they have the ability to really influence the surfacewater systems,” he said.
You know. Just like Hammers. I’ve always said that a colony of beavers is just about a smart as a bag of hammers.
The beavers’ presence has spurred complaints from people in the region — chiefly about impacts to boat travel and, when terrain gets flooded, impacts to travel by snowmobile.
There are also worries about beavers’ effects on fish. But those can be mixed, Tape said. Research on Lower 48 beavers shows more positives than negatives for fish habitat, he noted. It is still too early to judge the effects in Arctic Alaska, but there may be an enhancement of fish diversity, with better conditions for fish like salmon, though a reduction in quality of habitat for Arctic-specialist species.
Water quality is also a concern. The intestinal malady Giardiasis, caused by parasite infection, even bears the nickname “beaver fever,” Giardiasis risks are increasing as beavers and muskrats expand northward, Alaska health experts have warned.
My God people complain about beavers. And they complain a LOT. You can almost imagine some old crochety prospector in a patched cabin on the tundra with just two of his own teeth saying “I moved North in ’23 dagnabbit to get AWAY from those varmints!!!”
And now they’ve moved in. Too bad. Get ready for a whole lot of improvements to come your way. First plants, then animals, the fish. Something like this but slower.
