Nope I didn’t make this beaver-sounding technique up. It’s an EPA-recognized watershed intervention involving the use of dams to create ponds in steep channelized areas that can slow down the flow of water, recharge the water table, create meadows and prevent drought and rapid runoff.
(See when humans do it, its science and good for the watershed! When beavers do it, its dangerous.)
The technique is the brain child of Larry Wilcox of Plumas county, who is a better friend of beavers than one might suspect. He was a topic in yesterday’s conference call for the beaver historical prevalence paper because he has seen other ‘paleo’ dams in his digging to construct stopper dams. The project uses what it jokingly refers to as ‘diesel beavers‘ (bulldozers and backhoes) to pick up dirt and rock. Often they find sign of earlier dams by beavers, sometimes buried under layers of silt. Stage two of the our history paper is to find some more early sites to carbon test so we can demonstrate the historic presence of beavers all over the state.
There was also discussion of the benefits of ‘enforced meandering’, a technique whose oxymoronic name conveys images of Nazi day-spas where you are required against your will to relax. Apparently people are very interested in what beavers do, if it can be done, you know, without the actual beavers.
