It was nice to see Cheryl’s great photo properly credited with this story yesterday. Apparently it ran on the radio several times thought I never heard it.
State Using Beavers To Help Restore California Wetlands
(KCBS) – While they are small and furry, beavers could be key to restoring some of California’s most at-risk watersheds. State officials are already experimenting with artificial beaver dams in an effort to wetlands and recharge aquifers after four years of drought.
Michael Pollock of the National Marine Fisheries Service Northwest Science Center, said beaver dams help ecosystems by increasing habitat areas for endangered fish, birds and other animals. Pollock told KCBS putting actual beavers where they’re placing these fake dams would be even better.
Michael Pollock is a friend of salmon, which makes him a friend of beavers and a friend of this website. Once, years ago, I picked him up at the Oakland airport and we drove to Yosemite for the state parks conference with Wikipedia Rick and our own Cheryl Reynolds. I fondly remember the moment when he launched into his slide show promptly revealing a nutria photo. Ahh memories. Regular readers of this website will recall that not too long ago, Pollock was quoted as saying that manmade beaver dams were so good for fish folks:
I thought this kind of shocking behavior had to be dealt with as soon as possible, so I released this educational video to help Dr. Pollock learn the error of his ways. He wrote back that night and observed that I was having way too much fun with my new toy, but never mind that. The KCBS story confirms that my unconventional methods appear successful.
Reading beaver books is so important. Like this book “My Beaver Colony,” by L. Wilsson. Published by Doubleday & Co. Garden City, NY. 1968. Lars is one of those researchers who thought, wow it’s really hard to watch beaver behaviors outside, so I’ll just kidnap some and make some notes on their behavior from home. If I hadn’t have read his seminal work, I would have never learned about his important discovery that “Beavers never stretch“.
And I would never have properly appreciated Rusty of Napa’s video from last night.
