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Beavers finish seven-year dam project in two days saving – $1M
- aptsurdist 2y agoPhoto or it didn’t happen. In serious, I was sad there wasn’t a photo or at least discussion of the scale and details of the project.
- jt2190 2y agohttps://english.radio.cz/beavers-build-planned-dams-protected-landscape-area-while-local-officials-still-8841536 https://english.radio.cz/beavers-build-planned-dams-protecte...
- victorbjorklund 2y agoSo a very tiny dam that probably will fail at some point (which might not be bad).
- TeMPOraL 2y agoBut it might be enough to reclassify the project from a new construction to something else that doesn't require negotiating so many permits.
- b112 2y agoEnvironmentalists who inspected the work say that the wetland and pools that the beavers created, will offer good conditions for the rare stone crayfish, frogs and other species that thrive on wetlands. But... dams are bad, I was told.
- vijaybritto 2y agoBeaver dams are like step dams. The bad ones people talk about are the huge dams which alter the environment drastically often creating artificial lakes. Beaver dams on the other hand slow down water flow to some extent and alter the direction of water flow slightly. These smaller natural dams are so good for little species to thrive.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- fastasucan 2y agoHuman made dams are not always comparable with bever dams, to say the least. The wildlife have learned to coexist with beavers. Human dams on the other hand can be a lot larger, not allow for emigration, drain large areas and van themselves be drained.
- b112 2y agoSo, lakes are bad? Nothing lives in, around, or on lakes, right? I am responding simplistically, because truthfully, it is simple. Dams replace one healthy, vibrant ecosystem with another.
- technol0gic 2y agothat is an excellent metric for their beaver resumes
- Waterluvian 2y agoTheir BVs.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- HelloUsername 2y agoPrevious discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42938802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42938802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42965551 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42965551 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42977457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42977457
- hagbard_c 2y ago[flagged]
- nickdothutton 2y agoOne of these days I'm going to write up a blog post about releasing millions of ants into a scale model of London and allowing them to figure out the most efficient traffic routes for us.
- short_sells_poo 2y agoI posit they'll find out that living inside London is terrible and they'll all move to the location that'd be Surrey. Turning that area terrible in turn.
- theoreticalmal 2y agoWhat are you implying about the current residents of Surrey?
- pjc50 2y agoThey'd take the tube.
- SideburnsOfDoom 2y agoSo just like the pigeons then. https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/london-underground-how-intelligent-pigeons-22098914 https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/london-underground-...
- aqme28 2y agoThey've used slime molds for that. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/feb/18/slime-mould-rail-road-transport-routes https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/feb/18/slime-mould-r...
- snakeyjake 2y agoThat and the Tokyo train network slime mold experiments have always irrationally angered me. They haven't found the most efficient paths, for humans in the real world, at all. They've found short-ISH paths that are efficient for a slime mold attempting to conserve energy. Just look at the god damned photo! What the hell is wrong with people? Do they honestly believe that building an interstate highway along the actual, literal, spine of the Rocky Mountains, practically from peak-to-peak along the most mountainous and difficult terrain in North America, is "efficient"? Slime molds are not intelligent. Slime molds cannot make decisions. Slime molds do not hold any insight into the human condition, especially when it comes to engineering. Slime molds are simple biological machines who have been selected over billions, yes billions, of years to grow in the most sustainable way possible. And don't get me started on the Tokyo railway one. Only the highest of the most stoned biology students could look at that picture and say, "this resembles what humans built". It's like looking at a cartoon rendering of a stereotypical Saguaro cactus and saying, "this looks like a man holding his arms up just put a cowboy hat on him and call him Tex".
- lolinder 2y ago> The largest beaver dam on record is in Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada, stretching the length of seven football fields. The dam is so big, it can be seen from space. And from the linked article: > The world’s largest beaver dam is visible from space in satellite images. I would have thought that by now "visible from space" would have lost its charm as a point of comparison. My mailbox is visible from space in satellite images. I have no doubt this dam is too, but that doesn't really mean much at this point.
- SteveNuts 2y agoI've always taken it to mean "visible to the naked eye from space", not through a satellite telescope.
- userbinator 2y agoHow far from the earth is "space"?
- lolinder 2y agoYeah, I've always wished for it to be used that way only, but most often when I see it now it's like in TFA: visible in a satellite image.
- HPsquared 2y agoMy favourite "visible from space" object (more a manmade geographical feature) is the Hambach surface mine in Germany, home of the Bagger 288. If you zoom out and look at all of Europe in Google Earth with labels disabled, it's clearly visible as a large bright spot in the Rhineland.
- nmeofthestate 2y ago"you* can just do things" *a beaver
- booleandilemma 2y agoWithout project managers? Jira tickets? Groomings? How is this possible? Did they have a retro?
- cpursley 2y agoDOGE needs to hire these Benevolent Beavers.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- squigz 2y agoAre people actually unironically sharing this, as if to make some kind of point? Do we really believe a dam built by a beaver (sorry; multiple beavers) is comparable to a man-made dam?
- nsxwolf 2y agoIs there nothing to learn about dam construction from beavers? Is there not a 3.5 year beaver-inspired project that could be done cheaper?
- squigz 2y ago> Is there nothing to learn about dam construction from beavers? I have to imagine whatever we might learn about dam construction from beavers, we've done so. > Is there not a 3.5 year beaver-inspired project that could be done cheaper? Maybe, but it's still not really relevant that beavers made a dam themselves.
- jrochkind1 2y agoIn this case the planned dam was not for power generation but for wetlands restoration. I can believe that a beaver-made dam can accomplish that purpose apprxoimately as a man-made one would, and obviate the need for the man-made one, sure. It's obviously dissimilar in many ways too, of course.
- squigz 2y agoI cannot. Beavers are following biological instincts, not logic. Their dam may not be in the best place, or may fall apart in a short while. What happens when those beavers leave/die?
- jrochkind1 2y agoDo you know much about beaver dams?
- quesera 2y ago