4 ms·

Beavers do absolutely everything humans could possibly want. Drought resistance, flood prevention, water filtration, wildfire refuge and firebreaks, riparian h

Beavers do absolutely everything humans could possibly want. Drought resistance, flood prevention, water filtration, wildfire refuge and firebreaks, riparian habitat for fish and songbirds. I'm always happy to see a story about them coming back.

fabrice_d 3y ago
And they're smart! https://www.nrk.no/video/her-stjeler-beveren-ved_6b647f22-9094-4862-92d0-87df5addb074 https://www.nrk.no/video/her-stjeler-beveren-ved_6b647f22-90...
rocqua 3y ago
People used to actively demolish beaver dams right? What was considered the downside back then?
- _teyd 3y ago
  They still do, they can cause flooding and rerouting streams into/through built up areas.
- grecy 3y ago
  They still do. Flooding so much land is a nuisance for farming and for road access.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Land that they were already using turning into lakes. Beavers can make lakes that are absolutely enormous because they aim their dams so carefully, and can construct them to very impressive heights. I've had a 20 meter wide two meter high beaver dam on my Canadian property. It seemed incredible that such tiny animals can make such enormous constructs.
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    > It seemed incredible that such tiny animals can make such enormous constructs. Humans have done a lot by this measure. Some of it is less than desirable though.
- Loughla 3y ago
  Flooding. We had beavers at the south edge of our property for years. They would dam the large creek there, and flood an 80 acre field pretty effectively. We managed to convince the little bastards to move down the creek to a section where the flooding would hit some woods and CRP ground that we could never really farm due to terrain. But that took like 10 years. Shooting them and destroying the dam would've taken a day. So that's the motivation.
Roark66 3y ago
Have you ever lived next to a place with beavers? I don't recommended it. First, if you have a pond beavers will come over at night and dig holes the width of a basketball about a meter from the edge of the pond into the water (vertically down, then sideways). They camouflage these holes or they simply overgrow, good luck to an unsuspecting human that had his/her leg fall into such a deep hole. Then, they dig such holes and passages into earthworks designed as flood defenses. Huge amount of money goes into fixing such earthworks. Finally, if you(or anyone nearby) happen to have drainage channels or small rivers, these will be blocked by beavers to the point of flooding the surrounding area. Various compensation schemes exist, but not everyone has documentation to use them. Fibally,a braver can be a very dangerous animal when startled/provoked/cornered. Around here every person is told in their youth, "don't approach beavers" or if they bite you in the leg (usually groin area) you'll bled out in 20s. No, beavers are not nice... If course they shouldn't be eradicated, but they should be managed properly, not enjoy 100% protection as they do here in Poland, for example.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- batushka3 3y ago
  You also you need to wrap trees with metal net to save them from beavers. At least they have great fur(looks superb trimmed a bit) and taste good.
- tetris11 3y ago
  That's nothing. I once lived next to a colony of industrious critters, who practically carpeted over a millennia old habitat to lay down refined rocks that they periodically dug up and relaid just so that they could haul more refined rocks through the habitat without stopping, usually on these large wheeled containers that sporadically would kill everything in sight. Was a nightmare to live there.
  - mykowebhn 3y ago
    Yeah, there are animals much worse than beavers--some of them even walk on two legs!
hulitu 3y ago
> Beavers do absolutely everything humans could possibly want. Drought resistance, flood prevention, water filtration, wildfire refuge and firebreaks, riparian habitat for fish and songbirds. I don't know where you live, but, around here, humans want growth and profit. Due to this, they are not able to build a dam, but complain about floods. /s

fabrice_d 3y ago

And they're smart! https://www.nrk.no/video/her-stjeler-beveren-ved_6b647f22-9094-4862-92d0-87df5addb074 https://www.nrk.no/video/her-stjeler-beveren-ved_6b647f22-90...

rocqua 3y ago

People used to actively demolish beaver dams right? What was considered the downside back then?

_teyd 3y ago
They still do, they can cause flooding and rerouting streams into/through built up areas.
grecy 3y ago
They still do. Flooding so much land is a nuisance for farming and for road access.
jacquesm 3y ago
Land that they were already using turning into lakes. Beavers can make lakes that are absolutely enormous because they aim their dams so carefully, and can construct them to very impressive heights. I've had a 20 meter wide two meter high beaver dam on my Canadian property. It seemed incredible that such tiny animals can make such enormous constructs.
- lostlogin 3y ago
  > It seemed incredible that such tiny animals can make such enormous constructs. Humans have done a lot by this measure. Some of it is less than desirable though.
Loughla 3y ago
Flooding. We had beavers at the south edge of our property for years. They would dam the large creek there, and flood an 80 acre field pretty effectively. We managed to convince the little bastards to move down the creek to a section where the flooding would hit some woods and CRP ground that we could never really farm due to terrain. But that took like 10 years. Shooting them and destroying the dam would've taken a day. So that's the motivation.

Roark66 3y ago

Have you ever lived next to a place with beavers? I don't recommended it. First, if you have a pond beavers will come over at night and dig holes the width of a basketball about a meter from the edge of the pond into the water (vertically down, then sideways). They camouflage these holes or they simply overgrow, good luck to an unsuspecting human that had his/her leg fall into such a deep hole. Then, they dig such holes and passages into earthworks designed as flood defenses. Huge amount of money goes into fixing such earthworks. Finally, if you(or anyone nearby) happen to have drainage channels or small rivers, these will be blocked by beavers to the point of flooding the surrounding area. Various compensation schemes exist, but not everyone has documentation to use them. Fibally,a braver can be a very dangerous animal when startled/provoked/cornered. Around here every person is told in their youth, "don't approach beavers" or if they bite you in the leg (usually groin area) you'll bled out in 20s. No, beavers are not nice... If course they shouldn't be eradicated, but they should be managed properly, not enjoy 100% protection as they do here in Poland, for example.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
batushka3 3y ago
You also you need to wrap trees with metal net to save them from beavers. At least they have great fur(looks superb trimmed a bit) and taste good.
tetris11 3y ago
That's nothing. I once lived next to a colony of industrious critters, who practically carpeted over a millennia old habitat to lay down refined rocks that they periodically dug up and relaid just so that they could haul more refined rocks through the habitat without stopping, usually on these large wheeled containers that sporadically would kill everything in sight. Was a nightmare to live there.
- mykowebhn 3y ago
  Yeah, there are animals much worse than beavers--some of them even walk on two legs!

hulitu 3y ago

> Beavers do absolutely everything humans could possibly want. Drought resistance, flood prevention, water filtration, wildfire refuge and firebreaks, riparian habitat for fish and songbirds. I don't know where you live, but, around here, humans want growth and profit. Due to this, they are not able to build a dam, but complain about floods. /s