when we start thinking about beaver restoration as an important climate adaptation practice, it makes sense to start at the top of watersheds, where water originates as snow and precipitation in mountainsWe have 4 state agencies, 3 federal agencies, 2 native american tribes, and electric utility companies all working together. And what they're saying is beaver habitat restoration is a legitimate activity that needs to be pursued, especially in the face of climate change. Over time we've gathered enough information to know that the project is successful. We've been able to store millions of gallons of water.
"glennis hood reminds us that by the time our early hominid ancestors appeared on this earth a short five million years ago beavers had already learned to cut wood and build homes""beavers are aquatic rodents but somehow by some magnificent evolutionary development they came to inhabit arid environments like the rocky mountains not by adapting to dry conditions but by making dry places wet"
lena pulvey and ellen wahl studied rocky mountain alluvial streams and determined that complex anabranching streams like the one on the left likely dominated for most of the holocenesimple incised single thread channels like the one on the right didn't show up until about 200 years agouncoincidentally that's right when people turn from coexisting to commodifying and competing with beavers
Beavers will become a bigger boon to river water quality as US West warmsAs climate change worsens water quality and threatens ecosystems, the famous dams of beavers may help lessen the damage.That is the conclusion of a new study by Stanford University scientists and colleagues, publishing Nov. 8 in Nature Communications. The research reveals that when it comes to water quality in mountain watersheds, beaver dams can have a far greater influence than climate-driven, seasonal extremes in precipitation. The wooden barriers raise water levels upstream, diverting water into surrounding soils and secondary waterways, collectively called a riparian zone. These zones act like filters, straining out excess nutrients and contaminants before water re-enters the main channel downstream.