When European colonists arrived in North America, they discovered a land with as many as 400 million beavers. It’s reported that an estimated 250 million beaver ponds existed in North America’s waterways, turning free-flowing creeks into fertile wetlands.
In the early 1600s, fur trappers pillaged the continent’s streams and shipped millions of pelts to Europe to be turned into fashionable felt hats. It wasn’t until the 20th century that conservationists began to help beavers recover. As the beavers have now rebounded, it’s been discovered that beaver-constructed water features address multiple environmental problems from drought, pollution, biodiversity, and climate change. Here are some of the ways beavers help support the ecosystem. Filtering Pollution Beaver dams and pools reduce soil erosion and retain sediment, which absorbs and filters out pollutants like heavy metals, pesticides, and fertilizers. This improves the quality of water downstream that could be used by humans and other animal species. Preventing Floods While it is true that some beaver dams can sometimes contribute to flooding, they can also store water during periods of drought as well as slow down the movement of water from land to river systems, preventing more serious floods and potential financial damage to lands down streams. Adapting to Climate Change Beavers may help, to some extent, in terms of the climate mitigation side. This is because organic sediment settling in beaver ponds takes carbon with it and contains it. Also, beaver ponds promote increased vegetation, creating richer ecosystems that can store more carbon. Sustaining Salmon Salmon are vital to the Northwest’s ecosystems, including Native American cultures, and beavers are important to salmon. Beavers create deep, cool pools and slow water side channels where salmon can rest, feed, and find shelter from predators. Benefiting birds Beaver ponds provide habitats for multiple species, from boreal toads to otters, and even trout. However, some of the most important beneficiaries are birds. Wood ducks breed in beaver wetlands, swans’ nest on top beaver lodges, and flycatchers and other birds perch in willows irrigated by rising groundwater. To many people, beavers are seen as a nuisance due to their quote-on-quote, “destructive” nature. However, did you know that biologists classify beavers as a keystone species?
Beaver ponds create wetlands, which are among the most biologically productive ecosystems in the world. They increase the plant, bird, and wildlife variety. They also improve the water quality and have the potential to raise salmon and trout populations. That means that beavers support thousands of other species. How is this possible? Beavers open up the tree canopy as they fell trees, allowing sunlight to reach the water. This sunlight triggers a lot of biological activity. Algae and aquatic plants grow in this sun-drenched and nutrient-rich water. The organic material supports tiny, microscopic organisms, which are consumed by multiple different invertebrates. These species become food for fish, birds, and other mammals. With the help of beaver ponds, an entire food chain is able to exist. In the short term, it may seem that beavers could cause potential harm to forests, but the truth is that in the long term, this is untrue. Many tree species can regrow after being cut down by beavers, and others rely on the rise and flow of water from dams to spread and germinate their seeds. Beavers also increase the amount of surface water in the forest, which reduces the likelihood of detrimental forest fires. Indeed, beavers have gained infamy for killing trees, but beaver dams also create very diverse habitats. Grasses, bushes, sedges, and saplings are able to grow around the perimeter of the pond, providing food and shelter for foraging animals. Beaver ponds are also attractive to multiple varieties of wildlife. Important game species such as duck, muskrat, mink, otter, and vulnerable fish such as rainbow smelt, steelhead, and salmon. Biodiversity is able to thrive due to beaver ponds. Not to mention beaver dams also provide protection for downstream spawning areas from sedimentation, creating cool, deep pools that help support salmon and trout populations. Beaver dams also improve water quality by functioning as natural sponges that store runoff water, slowly releasing it and reducing downstream flooding and erosion. Algae and plants that thrive in the pond help improve water quality by absorbing dissolved nutrients, processing wastes, and removing runoff toxins such as pesticides and fertilizers. While beavers are often regarded as pests, the truth is that there isn’t a species out there that better benefits watersheds. While they sometimes present challenges to humans, there are ways to live with beavers without disrupting the many benefits they provide to their habitats. Flow devices, for example, can control problematic flooding without removing the environmental rewards provided by beavers. Let’s take another look at the benefits of beavers:
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August 2022
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