BeaverCorps Spotlight: Art Garcia & Garrett Krug, Ecotone, Inc.
Garrett Krug and Art Garcia work for Ecotone, Inc., an ecological restoration company in Maryland. Hear from Garrett as he describes their experience completing their first flow device installation!
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BeaverCON 2020 Wrap Up
We were extremely fortunate that the inaugural BeaverCON 2020 east coast beaver conference was scheduled just in time to beat the Coronavirus shutdown! How wonderful the gathering of 160 international beaver experts and beaver curious seemed at the time, and how much more precious those 3 days seem during these ensuing days of pandemic social distancing!
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Kids and Beavers: A Natural Match – a guest blog by Frances Backhouse
Beavers have been a huge part of my life as a freelance writer for the past decade, providing me with subject matter for a book, several magazine articles, a radio documentary and various speaking gigs. But all of those were aimed at adults. It wasn’t until a publisher invited me to write a beaver book for middle-graders that I considered reaching out to a younger audience. If I had known how fun—and rewarding—it would be, I would have done it sooner.
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BeaverCorps Spotlight: Dan Aitchison, Hudson Valley Beaver Strategies, LLC
Much of my childhood was spent learning about the natural world through my parents, shadowing local naturalists, studying the forested landscape and observing the wildlife that inhabits our local forests. I started working for Westchester County Parks Department of Parks, Recreation and Conservation in 2005 and in 2009 was promoted to the position of Senior Curator of Wildlife.
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iBeaver: A Community Science App for Beaver!
Our friends at Defenders of Wildlife have debuted an awesome new community app called iBeaver! The app collects data on beaver distribution, habitats, beaver coexistence efforts, and more. Below, we hear more about the app from Aaron Hall and Mae Lacey.
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Climate Change Beaver Coalition
Last month, our President Mike Callahan and many other respected beaver experts spoke (virtually) at the California Beaver Summit, a two-day panel of talks highlighting the many ecosystem benefits of beaver. Over 1,ooo Summit attendees learned of the many climate change benefits of beaver-created wetlands, and how we can help to restore them. The lessons in California are applicable to us all. There are several grassroots organizations that are building climate resilience by restoring and protecting beavers, while resolving human-beaver conflicts. These efforts need to be scaled significantly in the face of the climate crisis.
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Why Give a DAMn? – Water Quality
Clean Water is Precious, Essential for Life – Viewed from space, Earth is a water planet. Yet 97.5% of our planet’s water is undrinkable saline. Only 2.5% of all water is freshwater, and the majority of that is locked up, frozen in glaciers and polar ice. Surface freshwater makes up only 0.03% of all our planet’s water. We need to protect this essential resource. Beavers can help! How cool is that? Please read more.
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Why Give a DAMn? – Spiritual Growth
Our recent blogs have cited multiple reasons to “Give a DAMn” about coexisting with beavers including biodiversity, water storage, stream restoration, salmon recovery, and because cost-effective solutions exist when beaver activity poses problems for people. All these reasons are intellectually and/or emotionally compelling, and anyone of them is reason enough to jump on the beaver bandwagon. However, there is another strong reason to promote beaver co-existence, fostering our spiritual growth. Intrigued? Please read more.
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Why Give A DAMn? – Biodiversity
Back in 1998 when I first learned that beavers are critical for biodiversity I was amazed. I was immediately hooked by the realization that if we learned to coexist with beavers we would be supporting a myriad of other species at the same time. How cool is that?! Rather than just helping one species, there was a multiplier effect. Coexisting with one species, saved many!
So exactly how do beavers create biodiversity? To understand the answer to that important question let’s take a trip back in time.
Why Give A DAMn? – Salmon Restoration
Many fisherman believe beavers are bad for native cold-water fishes such as trout and salmon. They will claim the dams create obstacles to fish movement, sediment buries fish eggs that need oxygen, and the ponded water is warmed by the sun to the detriment of cold water fishes. These are all reasonable assumptions, so beavers must be bad for trout and salmon, right? WRONG! Research has shown that in most cases streams with beaver dams actually produce larger and more numerous native trout and salmon.
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Why Give a DAMn? – Water Storage
Water is essential to life. Where water is scarce, beavers can help. Beaver dams store water when it is plentiful and slowly release it during dry periods when it is needed most. Beavers perform this important life supporting service naturally and for free.
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Why Give a DAMn? – Stream Restoration
Why Give a DAMn? There are many reasons beavers we need beavers. Reason #1: Stream Restoration. In the absence of beaver dams, erosion degrades streams and watersheds resulting in poorer water quality, quantity, and loss of biodiversity. Streams with beaver dams actually recover from the destructive effects of erosion and healthy watersheds can be restored.
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