Did you ever play “Kerplunk” as a child? You and your friends pull out stick after stick hoping no marble will fall or maybe just one or two. But at certain point there are so few stickings holding the marbles in place that any one you choose is going to have significant results.
This is the sound of many marbles dropping at once.
‘Letting beavers be beavers’ | Here is how beavers are helping in California’s firefight
CALIFORNIA, USA — California’s drought is a multi-billion dollar issue that we’ve dumped a lot of resources into, but climate scientists are finding that working with what nature provides could be more effective than our synthetic solutions.
They say sometimes, you just gotta leave it to the beavers.
This is a passion project for Emily inspired by events like the 2000 Manter Fire in the Southern Sierra.
“That fire was really intense, and it caused a lot of damage around the Pacific Crest Trail, and the bunch of beavers up there were absolutely completely fine,” Fairfax said.
Photos from that fire show green patches directly near the beaver dam surrounded by charred out land.
Something tells me it’s all going to be down hill from here. Set your motors to ‘coast’ and enjoy the ride.
“When beavers move into a landscape especially dry places like the American West by building dams and slowing water down they end up creating patches that are very resistant to both droughts and wildfires,” She added.
Their dams do this by holding water on the land longer, recharging the groundwater, and improving plant health.
These green stretches of land then act like speed bumps to fire spread. And after a fire, the runoff of hazardous debris slows at the beaver dam. Then settles to the ground, making the water healthier downstream for fish and other aquatic species.
“Beaver provide all these services these environmental benefits for we the people that we’re currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars to address they provide all those benefits for free and they do it better and cheaper,” said Brock Dolman, co-director of Water Institute Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.
Dolman is part of the “Bring Back the Beaver” campaign. Along with other advocates, they are working to reverse the state’s position that beavers are a nuisance.
I believe were in the front of the bobsled now ladies and gentlemen. Tuck your feet in and try to hang on. Let gravity do the work.
Another big part of this plan, education
“Understanding the beneficial effects that beavers have, understanding how you can live with beavers,” said Gardner.
Adding another important tool in the tool chest addressing drought and wildfire impacts.
“If you think about all the rivers and streams that we have and should have in this state, a lot of them aren’t super healthy right now. If we can get just a fraction back in resilient and functioning state then every single one of them is like a speed bump to fire or drought effects,” said Fairfax.
I am not clever enough yet to frame this video the right way, But click on the link to go see it properly. This is going to get a lot easier from here,
