There’s a whole host of beaver appreciation on this mornings docket, but we have to start with the most impressive. Even though its certainly not the most surprising. This from our friends at Phys.org.

Beavers may help amphibians threatened by climate change

The recovery of beavers may have beneficial consequences for amphibians because beaver dams can create the unique habitats that amphibians need.

That finding was reported by four WSU Vancouver scientists in a paper published in the journal Freshwater Biology. The research took place in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest of the Cascade Range, where the researchers identified 49 study sites either with or without beaver dams. The researchers found the beaver-dammed sites were 2.7 times higher in amphibian species richness than the undammed sites.

Certain types of amphibians, particularly those that develop more slowly, such as red-legged frogs and northwestern salamanders, were detected almost exclusively in dammed sites.

Get the hell out. You mean to tell me that beaver dams are great places for amphibians to grow up? I mean with all that slow water, all those invertebrates and a tangle of plant cover? It’s almost like all those herons and kingfishers come there on purpose. Consider my mind complete not blown.

Red-legged frogs and northwestern salamanders are also the species most threatened by climate change, which is projected to bring drier summer conditions to streams and wetlands in the Cascade Range. By expanding existing ponds and increasing the time before they dry up, beaver dams are allowing such species more time to reproduce and develop.

“Beavers may be a key component of ecological resilience to climate change in these ecosystems,” Piovia-Scott said.

I uploaded the paper to our library a couple days ago. Go here to read it for yourself. Then make sure you tell all your froggy friends who’s the man.

Then it’s time for some Canadian style beaver appreciation from the CBC.

Busy beavers dam Bow River side channel near Calgary Zoo

The Bow River is known for being pretty wide, but that hasn’t stopped a family of beavers from constructing a dam right across the river in the heart of Calgary. 

Naturalist Brian Keating spotted the unlikely dam while out walking along the river. Keating told The Homestrech this is only possible because of the low water.

“At this time of the year, there’s only a small flow of water that goes down that side of the island, but the dam has been successful in creating an area of flat water, which is now frozen as a pond on the upside of the stream,”  Keating said, adding that the construction is solid.

The dam is constructed of large and small logs and branches, held together with stones and mud.

“It appears to even have some good-sized, cantaloupe sized stones sitting on top of some of it,” Keating said.

“You can just imagine the beaver walking by repeatedly holding that rock, and bringing up the rock and mud and all kinds of debris, lots of branches, even some big logs.”

Here at beaver central we don’t need to imagine what that looks like. Because Rusty Cohn of Napa took the very best photo of it happening in person.

Keating said beavers are one of the only animals that will build themselves a home and alter the landscape.

“They can change water courses, they can flood forests, they create new wetlands. And it makes for a wonderfully diverse bunch of habitats,” Keating said.

“A beaver will go into a forest environment, for instance, that’s essentially a monoculture. And they’ll create edge habitat, which is biologically very rich. Of course, for us, they sometimes cause issues. It’s that age-old problem of us versus beasts.”

One of the animals that build a home and dramatically change the ecosystem? What are the others?  I think he’s kind of mixing up the Keystone species concept with the “Ecosystem Engineer” catagory. They’re pretty different. Beavers are amazing, you know.

Keating said this dam shouldn’t cause a problem during the winter, and will not hold up in the rising waters of the spring runoff.

“It’s going to fail next spring when the snow runoff begins,” he said. “There’s no way that a beaver dam will work, that dam will become history virtually overnight when the water starts to rise. But … amazingly, it appears to be working now to a degree.”

Oh ye of little faith. Let’s just wait and see if beavers are up to the task, shall we? Oh since we all know beavers are special. let’s toast them, shall we?

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