Do you ever get the feeling that even though things are better than they were, the WRONG people are still surprised to find out how much beavers matter? I mean scientists and officials you thought should really KNOW by now how really helpful these animals are, are acting shocked to find out they’re actually helpful!
It makes me think they haven’t been paying attention.
Take this article out of Pugeuot Sound University about an interdisciplinary team of students working with the Methow projectin Washington with the subtitle:
Students and professors use summer to rethink the value of beavers
Long regarded as nuisances by many farmers and landowners, beavers are being seen in a new light: as possible allies in efforts to restore rivers and the fight against climate change. The new perception is, in part, thanks to research being conducted by Puget Sound professors and students in partnership with the Methow Beaver Project.
Kena Fox-Dobbs, associate professor of geology and environmental policy and decision making, and Peter Wimberger, professor of biology, have spent years working with the central Washington organization that aims to relocate beavers from agricultural areas and farmland to wilderness streams. They’ve been studying how these remote areas—not recently exposed to beaver activity—change with the introduction of the large rodents. This summer, their research has expanded to examine whether beavers speed the recovery of areas burned by wildfires.
“Their importance is really being pushed,” Kena says. “The idea has been that beavers are good for salmon recovery, but now scientists are saying they could help with the effects of climate change.”
Get the hell out! You’re kidding!!! You mean beavers aren’t just good for fish they’re good for HUMANS too? That’s incredible! No one could have predicted such a thing! Bring on the researchers!
This summer, three science students joined Kena and Peter. For nearly a month, they lived on the banks of a watershed that had been impacted by numerous wildfires as part of their effort to further study the impact beavers have on bird diversity, stream invertebrate populations, and stream sediments in burned and unburned areas. The experience served as the basis for summer research projects for Hayley Rettig ’21, Amanda Foster ’20, and Erin Stewart ’20, who all received summer research grants through a rigorous and comprehensive application process earlier this spring. With their fieldwork complete and data gathered, the students’ next step is to curate and package the data so it can be used by Methow Beaver Project researchers and the U.S. Forest Service.
I for one am SHOCKED to find out that beavers boost restoration after fire and increase invertebrate and fish numbers. I’m also shocked at the shocking news that they decrease the likelihood of fire in the first place. It’s all news to me.
Rethinking beavers? Really? Are you sure they were thinking the first time?
And from Wyoming there’s shocking news that Game and Fish is shocked to find that people are not happy with their “Climb-every-mountain Trap-every-river” Policy. They’re thinking HMM, Maybe we should rethink this who kill beaver thing?
Beavers need protections to keep fish, waterways thriving
As nature’s engineers these amazing animals build dams that keep waterways healthy and create ponds and wetlands that provide important habitat for young fish and other animals, protecting them and allowing them to grow.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has drafted new regulations that would allow any and all fur trappers to kill beavers in unlimited numbers in several creeks around Jackson Hole. Currently, just a single trapper is allowed to operate in those waterways.
That shortsighted proposal would be bad for beavers and bad for the wild lands Wyoming residents treasure. In response to the draft regulations, public comments submitted on the proposal showed strong opposition to increased trapping in these areas.
Now the Wyoming Game and Fish Department has reconsidered the proposal. The Game and Fish Commission will review and vote upon beaver proposals during it July 18 and 19 meeting in Rock Springs.
Shocked I tell you! Shocked to discover since beavers are good for fish it might be bad for the fishermen if we trap all the beavers. SHOCKING!!!
