Czech government plans dam for 7 years, beavers build it in two days
Czech government plans dam for 7 years, beavers build it in two days
www.voxnews.al
The government had been planning it for 7 years, beavers built the dam in two days and saved them $1 million
I watched some documentary about an attempt to restore wetlands from a previously drained agricultural area that had been put into conservation.
the restoration project process was being frustrated by beavers, who kept building dams in old weirs and channels that would potentially cause catastrophic flooding if some old berms gave way when too much water was held back. there wasn't enough money to make the huge changes to the earthworks necessary to diffuse the danger of catastrophe, nor was there enough labor to clear the beaver dams faster than the beavers could rebuild them.
so basically they had to figure out a behavioral way to get the beavers to want to build their dams where it would help the larger project, which ended up being through the use of speakers playing the sound of running water near where they wanted the beavers to build.
once they realized that, the conservation efforts rapidly converted the area back to wetlands at almost no cost by working with the beaver instincts and finding a common ground.
We need more of this awesome inter-species collab
There's the famous reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone I suppose.
They manipulated the beavers into building in places that lacked an adequate flow of water. That's not collaboration, instead manipulation.
Yes haha yes! One of my personal interests is “engineering WITHIN nature” (ie mostly what can we “unfuck” to an improved state of balance) and that can involve lots of beavers! 🦫 anyway enjoy some of my favorite beav-sites! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_drop https://yewtu.be/watch?v=rrOE-m7sX9E
https://qcnr.usu.edu/beaver-restoration/partnering-with-beaver https://yewtu.be/watch?v=2_cml_cXPmE
https://www.wlfw.org/natures-engineers-how-beavers-boost-streamflows-and-restore-habitat/
https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/features/firefighting-beavers
https://emilyfairfaxscience.com/research/firebeavers/ https://www.nasw.org/article/let-beavers-do-work-fighting-wildfire-one-dam-time
https://www.fws.gov/media/beaver-restoration-guidebook
https://www.beaverinstitute.org/get-beaver-help/damaged-streams/
There's a ton of hoopla in my town about some old busted dams that need to be removed for safety reasons and the way that might affect the small lakes they created when built 100 years ago. I have been saying all along they just need to pop a couple beavers in there (who are having a slow comeback in my region already) and let them do it.