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Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

discoverwildlife.com

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Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#61

Post by Waterluvian »

usedtobegood wrote: post #58
Waterluvian wrote: post #48

Earlier 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

Send them all my way. I could start a company. A company down by The Bay.

Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#62

Post by adrianN »

Waterluvian wrote: post #48
_whiteCaps_ wrote: post #20

There'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.

While its true that there are no correct or canonical forms for the environment, there are states with large biodiversity and states with comparatively small biodiversity. Generally we regard the former more valuable than the latter.

Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#63

Post by fyver »

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #60
usedtobegood wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

With nail polish?

Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#64

Post by lukan »

usedtobegood wrote: post #58
Waterluvian wrote: post #48

Earlier 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

Yeah, what is the right form of nature here - wetlands, or a road for humans. There is likely no cosmic right answer - but personally I believe we have lot's of roads and too little wetlands left.

Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#65

Post by steve_adams_86 »

I wrote a while back about some coho fry populations I found which would have benefitted tremendously from dams. Each day I returned I would find more and more empty pools along the river, picked clean of fish where I’d previously seen dozens or hundreds of fry. Beavers used to live here in great numbers, but these days it’s fairly uncommon to see them. I bet they saved a lot of coho back in their day.

https://steve-adams.me/coho.html

Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#66

Post by alex_suzuki »

jpollock wrote: post #35
arthurbrown wrote: post #29

Earlier 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.

Just like our fellow humans. Godzilla to the rescue!

Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#67

Post by jillesvangurp »

josefresco wrote: post #2

Maybe I missed it, why didn't they just reintroduce beavers?

They are doing that in a few places in the UK. It's working really well and they can rapidly transform the landscapes they are in. The flip side of course is that a lot of residential areas and farmland is in what used to be wetlands that are now drained on purpose. If you introduce beavers there, it tends to be a bit disruptive as they would cause issues with flooding areas that people would prefer to keep dry.

But done right, they help restore wetlands that absorb and retain water rather than causing lots of issues with flooding downstream when it rains. Wetlands have a lot of bio diversity, insects, birds, plants, predators, and all the rest. They also capture a lot of carbon All good stuff. Mostly the beavers take care of all of the heavy lifting of building dams and maintaining them. It's a lot cheaper than trying to emulate what they do with a lot of human labor. But of course keeping beavers confined to where you want them is maybe a bit hard. So, artificial dams are a good alternative.

Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#68

Post by imp0cat »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #67
josefresco wrote: post #2

Maybe I missed it, why didn't they just reintroduce beavers?

They are doing that in a few places in the UK. It's working really well and they can rapidly transform the landscapes they are in. The flip side of course is that a lot of residential areas and farmland is in what used to be wetlands that are now drained on purpose. If you introduce beavers there, it tends to be a bit disruptive as they would cause issues with flooding areas that people would prefer to keep dry. But…

Give it a few more dry years and Europeans will learn to love their beavers, again.

Re: Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

#69

Post by PetitPrince »

My youtube feed gets a decent amount of recommendation from channels such as Mossy Earth, Plant Wild, etc. that showcase some nature restauration project. While I cannot help myself to be a bit skeptical of those efforts (how really sustainable is all of this; isn't that just a tiny drop in the ocean, etc.), I really like to have positive and hopeful news like the one of this article amidst all the ambient negativity and pessimism.
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