8 ms·
Beavers are helping restore wetlands and create buffers against wildfires
- ChrisArchitect 3y agoLots more related discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36936008 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36936008
- ilamont 3y agoBeavers also raise the water table. I heard or read somewhere that it's partially because the sheer weight of the water behind the dams. This study found an increase of about one foot in the water table following relocation of 69 beaver in Washington State: We evaluated changes in temperature and water storage following the relocation of 69 beaver into 13 headwater stream reaches of the Skykomish River watershed within the Snohomish River basin, Washington, USA. We evaluated how beaver dams affected surface and groundwater storage and stream temperature. Successful relocations created 243 m3 of surface water storage per 100 m of stream in the first year following relocation. Dams raised water table elevations by up to 0.33 m and stored approximately 2.4 times as much groundwater as surface water per relocation reach. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.4168 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2...
- dmbche 3y agoThat's incredible! 69 individuals having such an impact on the ecosystem around them is astonighing
- redandblack 3y agoSo can same number of loggers at a location. The point with beavers is with time the impact is more of complex and emergent system that we find utterly fascinating. Locals hate beavers
- ck2 3y agoBeavers are terraforming Alaska, actually I guess technically whatever the opposite of terraforming is? https://www.businessinsider.com/beavers-invade-alaska-arctic-tundra-photos-satellite-images-damage-2023-1 https://www.businessinsider.com/beavers-invade-alaska-arctic...
- camel-cdr 3y agoRestoration?
- rolph 3y agoCastorgenically induced terrestrial succession
- hinkley 3y agoShrill article. The tundra is going away. We can’t refrigerate a million square miles. Do beavers replace the dying tundra with something that is more resilient to climate change? Oh hell yes. Let them.
- explaininjs 3y agoHumans: cause global climate change Animals: react to changing climate Humans: look at how these animals have wrecked my planet, we must intervene to stop them — also Earth can’t undergo terraforming or antiterraforming. It will always be fully earth-like (terra-formed).
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> Earth can’t undergo terraforming or antiterraforming. It will always be fully earth-like Terraforming tends a world towards Earth’s “pristine” state. We wouldn’t start dumping PFAS on Venus solely because they’re on Earth.
- based2 3y agobioforming
- hinkley 3y agoEveryone in the Colorado needs to pitch in and get beaver restoration going in the upper Colorado, if they want drinking water in fifteen years.
- zmj 3y agoThere's a lot of that happening in the Front Range (east side, not the Colorado). In addition to the mentioned benefits, beaver dams are also great at filtering debris from recent wildfires from continuing downstream.
- sparrish 3y agoI find it humorous that when man makes a dam (even small ones, like on one's own property [1]) it's destroying the ecosystem and stealing water from downstream and bad but when an oversized rodent does, it's 'restoring wetlands' and 'buffers against wildfires'. [1] https://gazette.com/news/a-pond-farewell-state-cracks-down-on-water-rights-violations/article_f0de84e8-beca-531a-820e-c6dd1c08a831.html https://gazette.com/news/a-pond-farewell-state-cracks-down-o...
- omgwtfbyobbq 3y agoIt seems to be ok as long as the dam is constructed in a way that mimics what beavers would do, and better yet, is something beavers can take over. https://www.science.org/content/article/beaver-dams-without-beavers-artificial-logjams-are-popular-controversial-restoration https://www.science.org/content/article/beaver-dams-without-...
- CuriouslyC 3y agoDams being bad is entirely scale-dependent. Small dams that retain water in basins without cutting off flow are definitely net positive. The retained moisture promotes growth of plants that shade and shelter the water, reducing evaporation and increasing water supply.
- colechristensen 3y agoHuman geoengineering can be a positive as well, we just have to actually... do it. The before and after of beavers tends to show them creating and enhancing ecosystems by all of the metrics you can reasonably think of.
- ajuc 3y agoBeaver dams are different. They leak, let fish through, and disappear every few years. Details matter.
- redandblack 3y agoThis is the key and overlooked part of it all. Plus they can move upstream or downstream as situations dictate.
- ortuna 3y agoAnother cool article on beavers’ measured impact in Idaho after they were reintroduced from NASA: https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/our-impact/story/researchers-become-beaver-believers-after-measuring-impacts-rewilding https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/our-impact/story/researcher...
- b112 3y agoHa ha ha, NASA. Relocating Beavers, eh? Proof that the American Imperialist State wants to force relocate Canadians to Mars, so they can take over our maple farms, and use their output as feed stuff! Feed stuff for their genetically grown, bacterialogocal vats producing mind control agents! Everyone, the news has been withheld! Filtered! The massive fires in Quebec forests, are us denying the US our precious maple sugar! We set those fires, thus preventing an invasion! Don't let them do this to Canada! Your country will be next! Resist, and mak<no carrier>
- ortuna 3y agoSo… you didn’t read it? This comment is wild and entertaining!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]