The Walton foundation is committed to funding tools that monitor and create beaver dam analogues, although how they feel about the beavers themselves is anybodies guess.
How Mapping Beaver Wetlands Can Chart a Path to a Better Water Future
First-of-its kind project will use machine learning and remote sensing to track beaver wetland changes in the Colorado River Basin
At a time when climate change increasingly threatens water resources across the American West, what can we do to secure a future of sustainability rather than scarcity?
One promising way forward: Look to nature-based solutions from the past.
In the 16th century, long before Europeans settled the continent, the North American beaver was the continent’s most diligent and effective water manager.
Beaver dams – millions of small-scale barriers of twigs, branches and mud – created ponds that acted like giant sponges on the landscape. They stored moisture and created complex wetlands that sustained diverse flora and fauna. They captured sediment and snowmelt that slowed floodwaters and – because they were imperfect and leaky – released water downstream in more even amounts throughout the year. (more…)
