I am certain now, that somewhere there in a highrise in Stockholm or Chicago is a beaver war-room where authorities with clipboards are watching a multitude of screens – dismayed as news promotes beavers as good for water storage and nitrogen removal – so that whenever the news gets too alarmingly positive this secret cabal of beaver-blockers activate their many lobbyists and researchers and make sure headlines like these dominate the news cycle until the coast is clear.
What, you think I’m being paranoid?
A potential downside to the beaver’s comeback
While the structures are marvels of natural construction, they also change the chemistry of the water they’re in. They affect the sediments, water flow, oxygen content and temperature, creating conditions that help convert mercury into methylmercury. A few studies have suggested dams can boost levels of this form of mercury, which can cause developmental and neurological problems in animals and people. Oded Lavnoni, Frauke Ecke and colleagues wanted to take a closer look.
Beavers are wreaking havoc across Europe, scientists warn
Methylmercury, converted from regular mercury, forms as beaver dams alter the sediments, water flow, dissolved oxygen concentration and temperature of the water.
Over a two-year study period, researchers sampled water downstream from 12 new beaver dams and found that methylmercury levels were 3.5 times higher than the water upstream.
Oh my goodness, how terrifying!
Hey public, you know all those toxins we poured into the streams years ago? When we told you they were harmless and good for you, while they helped us get filthy rich – but actually turned out to be pretty dire? Well, after all those years of birth defects and cancer, they got covered up with mud in the streams, thank heavens.
And now those rotten beavers are digging some of them UP! Isn’t that terrifying?
The truly funny part of this ‘discovery’ is that it is being reported by “The Chemical Society”, who kindly brought beavers the mercury in the first place, so they should really know.
Duncan Haley, the esteemed beaver researcher in Norway, had this to say about the headlines:
So far as I know the paper on this isn’t out yet. I’d guess that on a few dams levels will have been raised from very, very trivial from a health viewpoint, to very trivial. Journalists love scary headlines.
So for the meantime we’re not going to be alarmed by this ‘chemical society’ news. Yes, people are and have been worried that beavers dig up mercury. They have worried about this for 50 years. No one bothers to report that if they hadn’t poured mercury into the streams to squeeze every last ounce of gold from the rocks in the forst place there wouldn’t be anything for them to dig up. (At least that’s why we have it in California. I’m not sure about all of Europe.) I’m sure its greed-based.
Those headlines are all thunder and no rain, so I think we should focus our energy on a much better one.
Can Beavers Help Save Los Angeles From Drought and Floods??
Years of drought have plagued California, and though rains are supposedly on the way, they might pose their own problems, like mudslides and flooding. Offering a possible solution to issues of both too much and not enough water is Britt Sheflin, a private chef who has applied for a $100,000 grant from LA2050 and the Goldhirsch Foundation to “Strategically reintroduce native beaver populations back into the dwindling watersheds around LA County,” using techniques that would have the beavers “trained” to build their trademark dams where they’re needed, while keeping them from being destructive.
The return of the beaver, Sheflin argues, could help mitigate drought (like the one California is in now) and erosion, plus help cut back on flash floods (which Los Angeles might be having more of if the predicted El Niño shows up). Sound too good to be true? Sheflin says it’s been tried and it’s worked in Canada, Nevada, and elsewhere in California, though she notes that Los Angeles would be “the first major metropolitan area to embrace this cost-effective solution.” There’s more here on how beavers can help out in a drought—researchers in Canada have found that “Even during drought, where beaver were present, there was 60 per cent more open water than those same areas during previous drought periods when beaver were absent.”
Don’t you love that cool beaver in shades? There are five days left to vote, and the LAist contacted Britt yesterday, so this is getting some great attention. Let’s just cross our fingers and hope that this will, even if it doesn’t win, raise enough awareness to start a murmur across the land that sounds something like,
“why the hell aren’t we doing this?”
