I really want this to mean dams constructed by robot beavers. Move over, A.I.! Time for A.B.
Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
51–60 of 126 posts
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Beavers can be incredibly difficult to live alongside of. My parents have 100+ acres of bush in central Alberta. When they bought the property it was logged out and mostly in a bad abused state and mostly dry. Over a few years, beavers moved in and transformed a formerly semi-marshy spot into a full pond. And then another. And another. Eventually though, without a lot of predators around (there's some skittish bears,…
what's wrong with it not reverting to nature when they pass? people put flowers on loved ones graves.
floods roads, buildings, neighbour's properties.
they are very persistent buggers and breed like... rodents
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#53I’m rather partial to beavers myself and was sad to learn about their demise in North America. At one point their pelts were referred to as “the coin of the realm” https://youtu.be/8XToPq9lsOM?si=DJKedkQXuzJhSmf7
Here's your link without the surveillance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XToPq9lsOM
I'd recommend Leila Philip's Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America. It's a great work of narrative science writing.
I think we deeply underestimate the profound impact beavers had on the landscape in North America. We truly live in a post-beaver geography. The beaver hat fad in Europe was the primary driver of their population going from hundreds of millions to less than 100,000.
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#54I’m rather partial to beavers myself and was sad to learn about their demise in North America. At one point their pelts were referred to as “the coin of the realm” https://youtu.be/8XToPq9lsOM?si=DJKedkQXuzJhSmf7
Here's your link without the surveillance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XToPq9lsOM I'd recommend Leila Philip's Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America . It's a great work of narrative science writing. I think we deeply underestimate the profound impact beavers had on the landscape in North America. We truly live in a post-beaver geography. The beaver hat fad in Europe was the primary driver of their popula…
off-topic: I've made a habit of removing all those `si` or `igshid` or `unique_share_id` (thanks airbnb for making it obvious, I guess) and I wish I'd have a "middleware" that removes them when I copy something, but I'm too lazy and it would not be cross-platform.
some apps have gotten sneaky though and made every shared URL an apparently unique one :/
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's your link without the surveillance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XToPq9lsOM I'd recommend Leila Philip's Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America . It's a great work of narrative science writing. I think we deeply underestimate the profound impact beavers had on the landscape in North America. We truly live in a post-beaver geography. The beaver hat fad in Europe was the primary driver of their popula…
off-topic: I've made a habit of removing all those `si` or `igshid` or `unique_share_id` (thanks airbnb for making it obvious, I guess) and I wish I'd have a "middleware" that removes them when I copy something, but I'm too lazy and it would not be cross-platform. some apps have gotten sneaky though and made every shared URL an apparently unique one :/
Yeah the best policy is to avoid using a "Share" button as much as possible and always just copy the URL bar. I have a browser extension that strips them automatically too but I don't think it always works. I wish my extension, instead of just stripping it, would mangle it randomly just to add some data poisoning to websites that do this
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#56I am sick of underachieving beavers. Go us! Seriously, that would require statutory change here in Washington state. I live in a rural area with salmon waterways all over. Farmers just quietly clear the way for them, because it's illegal to make any changes to the waterway even if it's trash thrown out of cars.
> I am sick of underachieving beavers. Go us! This really made laugh for some reason, just imagining a beaver typing away at HN specifically.
And probably playing Timberborn on a second monitor at the same time.
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#57Whatever they eat, did that go down to an all time low. Im m curious about the chain reaction vs an isolated result.
That was my thought too. Nothing in an ecosystem exists in isolation. Change a single variable, especially a dramatic change like going from 8% to 60% on a single variable, and there will be ripple effects throughout the local ecosystem. The Law of Unintended Consequences is one of those unchangeable, eternal laws that when you forget them, the Gods of the Copybook Headings limp up to explain it once more*.
* https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_copybook.htm for anyone who doesn't recognize the reference in that last sentence. Most people will, I hope, but there's always the lucky 10,000. (https://xkcd.com/1053/)
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#58There's a really good book about a homesteader that did something similar to this in the 1930's in British Columbia, "Three Against The Wilderness". Basically he restored the dams that had been dynamited by the ranchers, and that restored all of the wetlands in the area. Later on, the government brought him some beavers from elsewhere, and they flourished.
I love this. Especially the part where you can ask the Government of Canada for beavers. But it feels like there’s a bit of surprise to the idea that the environment takes on the form it takes on. And if you take away a part of it, it’ll take on a different form. And if you put that part back, it can take on the earlier form. There is no correct or canonical form.
There are lots of people looking to relocate beavers as their dams flood out roads etc. I can get you about 6 a year
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are the problems actually? That they have improved water retention and soil hydration?
They will continue to breed, expanding territory unless there are predators. When they come across a culvert (or bridge), they will block it, eventually overtopping roads and washing them out.
> They will continue to breed, expanding territory unless there are predators
Maybe part of the problem is that humans in North America are largely not hunting beavers anymore?
We're very capable of being the predators that keep animal populations in check, and plenty of people do still hunt, but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone hunting beavers in my life
Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love this. Especially the part where you can ask the Government of Canada for beavers. But it feels like there’s a bit of surprise to the idea that the environment takes on the form it takes on. And if you take away a part of it, it’ll take on a different form. And if you put that part back, it can take on the earlier form. There is no correct or canonical form.
There are lots of people looking to relocate beavers as their dams flood out roads etc. I can get you about 6 a year
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.