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

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121–126 of 126 posts

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

#121
post #53

Earlier 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…

Current North American beaver population is estimated to be in the range of 10 to 15 million.

Yes it's heartening to see the rebound but the population reaching as low as 100k will forever place a genetic hurdle on restoration efforts. Not to mention beavers have been found to be highly cultural animals with local nuances in social interactions and even how they build their dams. There are tons of skills that beavers pass down through culture rather than genetics that have already been lost

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

#122
post #12

With freshwater increasingly being a problem, being able to slow down tributaries and allow the water to percolate and help rebuild aquifers is something that should be happening everywhere possible. Lost cost, high reward. Not sexy enough to get the attention it deserves.

You will be amazed at how much local governments don't care about this. They actively try to remove water was fast as possible from an area.

Sadly, not amazed. Flooding is a natural concern (but not natural enough to not build in a freaking flood plain), and most communities are not forward-looking enough to look upstream for solutions likely because it may be out of their township and "not my worry".

Los Angeles seems to be waking up to the issue: https://www.ladwp.com/who-we-are/water-system/sources-supply...

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

#123
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need a professional approach there, able to see the whole picture. Amateurism can be really expensive. Sometimes beavers are a big mistake. Hazelnuts and willows can be chopped to the ground and just will return stronger and more dense. Poplars will regrow from the roots at some distance. Argentinian trees they will vanish instead. This happens because temperate South American forests never evolved with beavers. O…

I would've thought it was obvious we shouldn't introduce beavers to South America if they aren't native there.

So obvious, but Argentinian government didn't see it coming. Thousands millions of dollars in damages caused by amateurs with power in Argentinian government.

Another example: Beavers are native from Sweden, but beavers on Sweden should be removed.

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

#124
post #18

Whatever they eat, did that go down to an all time low. Im m curious about the chain reaction vs an isolated result.

Cattail tubers and bark from smallish hardwood trees that they embed underwater for winter food. Hidden affect of that is the cattail is not particularly good habitat or food source for waterfowl so then you have one more item pushing down on waterfowl populations.

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

#125
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current North American beaver population is estimated to be in the range of 10 to 15 million.

Yes it's heartening to see the rebound but the population reaching as low as 100k will forever place a genetic hurdle on restoration efforts. Not to mention beavers have been found to be highly cultural animals with local nuances in social interactions and even how they build their dams. There are tons of skills that beavers pass down through culture rather than genetics that have already been lost

I don't know about that; 100K is still a pretty big population.

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

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I understand the regulation of beavers and predators, I was just lightly commenting about nature returning in a picturesque balance. such a picture is just a snapshot of a violent state machine however.
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