{ really enjoyed this article although I’m not sure why saying Beavers matter to amphibians is groundbreaking research anywhere. Certainly it’s old news in the west, but I guess everyone needs convincing in their home town.
Spending time alone in the wilderness for doctoral research project suits Talon Stammen just fine
A 2012 graduate of Red River High School, Stammen spent parts of four summers from 2019 through 2022 researching the impact of beaver activity on the forest community – mainly amphibians and invertebrates – within 218,200-acre Voyageurs National Park.
As part of his research, Stammen monitored 55 beaver ponds, ranging from tabletop size to a few acres, within the park, collecting invertebrate and water quality samples and documenting amphibian species both visually and through acoustic recorders programmed to record 5 minutes out of every hour throughout the nighttime hours.
Stammen now is poring through the reams of data he collected, which will be the subject of his doctoral dissertation.
“There’s very little pollution in this area,” Stammen said. “It’s a wilderness area, for the most part, and that’s a wonderful aspect to this project – it’s looking at what a really healthy ecosystem looks like, so we can make a comparison to more human-impacted ecosystems like something adjacent to an agricultural area.”
How on earth is that possible? I am nobody and have already met at least two scienctists writing about this. One was from the bay area who said that redlegged frogs were more common around beaver lodges and the other was from the forest service who said that beaver habitat was a game changer for amphibians.
How can this be ‘news’ in Minnesota?
“He designed a project that just relied on the work he could do by himself with just his canoe and his legs to get around,” said Windels, a Crookston native. “And so, he would come for a couple of weeks at a time and disappear into the backcountry and then reappear a couple of weeks later just as cheerful as when he went in.
“He did a great job.”
Maybe I’m just jealous. Gathering my dissertation data involved me walking back and forth across a psych hospital. I never even got to use a canoe of any kind, let alone one of my own making.
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The best part of this whole project is just being out there in the woods and enjoying nature,” Stammen said. “Sometimes, it’s challenging, and sometimes, it’s just amazing.
“Not everyone gets to appreciate just the silence of it, the stars at night with no ambient light to obscure it, beautiful birdsong in the morning.”
And, of course, the sounds of wood frogs, spring peepers and other amphibian life that could be just deafening, at times.
I really really believe that. I’m imagining the memories you will take with you at your final orals and beyond. Chirp Chirp Chirp and a few bouts of lyme disease. Not your usual academic haunts.
While it’s too soon to draw any conclusions from his fieldwork, Stammen says he feels very fortunate to have worked on a project he could do by himself. If all goes according to plan, he’ll present his dissertation and receive his doctoral degree next spring.
“It was really lucky that I could find a project that was doable with just one person, but it was still a major undertaking for one person because there are a lot of parts to this,” Stammen said. “I was able to negotiate doing a really traditional field-based observational study where it’s just me out in the woods with a notebook in my canoe and boots.
“For me, it was really important – one, to be in northern Minnesota – but also to go at a slower pace because I feel like when I’m out in that system, I’m able to get to know it really well and observe closely and understand something more about it.”
His fieldwork, Stammen says, has been more about the process than the product – “getting my diploma or publishing a paper or something like that.”
Well I am glad you learned process because I generally think there needs be no ghost from the grave to tell us about this finding. But I am jealous. Mostly that you got to spend so much time with beavers.
