What will it take to change minds about beavers? I mean the saving water and fire prevention don’t see to be doing it. The biodiversity and red-legged frogs aren’t getting the message out. The trumpeter swans and trout unlimited studies aren’t turning the tide, The nitrogen removal isn’t winning votes. So what’s gonna be THE thing?

I’m still thinking maybe this.

Salmon lose diversity in managed rivers, reducing resilience to environmental change

The manipulation of rivers in California is jeopardizing the resilience of native Chinook salmon. It compresses their migration timing to the point that they crowd their habitats. They may miss the best window for entering the ocean and growing into adults, new research shows.

Fish that begin their migration in mid-spring are the ones that survive best and dominate adult salmon returns to rivers such as the Stanislaus. These results were cited in a study published this week in Global Change Biology. Flow alteration and habitat loss have in effect homogenized the survival opportunities of salmon in this highly managed river system, researchers wrote.

The good news is that even small steps to improve their access to habitat and restore natural flows could boost their survival.

Gosh I wonder what those small changes could entail. I mean if it was something easy to implement and cheap maybe those poor salmon would stand a fighting chance. But surely its a complex problem and there’s not some simple solution. That would be too good to be true. Right?

The trouble is, less than 3 percent of wetland habitat remains in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This leaves the small, early migrating fry without the much needed feeding and rearing refuge they need to grow and thrive on their seaward journey.

The authors say that even minor steps to restore some of the natural fluctuations in river flow could benefit salmon by helping maintain some of their valuable diversity. Fry migrate early in such great numbers that even small improvements in their survival rates through the Delta could yield many more fish to help boost adult returns.

Gosh. Small safe ponds, Where fry can feed and get fat before they make the dangerous journey. Someplace where deep water is a sure thing. Where wetland habitat is expected and maintained. Plenty of little fish mean plenty of big fish. Who knew? Not a silver bullet, but a beaver bullet!