John Carlos BaezNov 16

Beavers are really important.

After the huge wildfires in Oregon in 2022, a biologist went out to survey the damage. Not only were the forests blackened, thriving trout populations in the streams were gone, choked to death by ash. “I was in total shock. It just looked like devastation.”

Then he stumbled upon something even more surprising: roughly five acres of pristine greenery in an otherwise burned-out area! At the center were eight active beaver dams.

But this was more than a refuge from the fire. While fish had disappeared upstream of these dams, the downstream water was crystal clear — and trout were thriving as though the fire had never happened! The beaver dams were acting as a water treatment plant.

[Paraphrased from this article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/beaver-dams-help-wildfire-ravaged-ecosystems-recover-long-after-flames-subside/]

Show threadAlsoPaisleyCat 🇨🇦

@johncarlosbaez

A gentle word of caution here is very needed.

Beavers are amazing, and shape the environment, but as a Canadian, I often feel that people outside North America can be naive about how powerful is their impact — for good or ill.

Our native beaver Castor Canadensis have moved north, onto the tundra and permafrost, as climate change warms northern latitudes faster. They now range all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic ocean coast at the Beaufort Sea.

Beaver are radically reshaping the environment, accelerating the retreat of the permafrost and the release of the carbon held in the permafrost into the atmosphere. No one can predict the impact on balance.

Here’s an excellent new episode S65E2 of The Nature of Things titled “Beavers From Above” that tells the story and presents the evidence with the voices of scientists and Indigenous knowledge keepers.

The Nature of Things is in its 65th season with Canada’s public broadcaster CBC. It continues to provide consistently excellent and accessible science knowledge for a general audience. Worth tracking down in your region.

https://youtu.be/i4CvYrYSxF8

@nickrauchen
@grosser_mensch
@drdirtbag
@mkandle

#Ecology #Beavers #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency #TheNatureOfThings #PublicBroadcasting #CBC

Invasion of the beavers: The Arctic will never be the same

YouTube
Nov 16 at 3:10pmWeb
Show threadAlsoPaisleyCat 🇨🇦Nov 16

Here’s a fairly balanced recent perspective on the beaver in Canada from Canadian Geographic Magazine.

https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/the-dam-the-myth-the-legend-50-years-of-the-beaver/

#Beavers #Ecology #Canada

@johncarlosbaez @nickrauchen @grosser_mensch @drdirtbag @mkandle

The dam, the myth, the legend: 50 years of the beaver

An exploration of the buck-toothed, flat-tailed, landscape-shifting icon celebrating 50 years as Canada’s national symbol

Canadian Geographic
Show threadAlsoPaisleyCat 🇨🇦Nov 16

And for those who prefer to read over video, here’s a 2024 article from Audubon Magazine that focuses of the Alaskan part of the beavers’ expansion into the Arctic.

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/arctic-beavers-are-climate-winners-should-we-let-them-take-over

#Beavers #Ecology #ClimateChange

@johncarlosbaez @nickrauchen @grosser_mensch @drdirtbag @mkandle

In the Arctic, Beavers Are Climate Winners. Should We Let Them Take Over?

The voracious builders are reshaping the tundra, and generating controversy about whether their presence is cause for concern—or hope—in a warming world.

Audubon
Show threadDoomsdaysCWNov 16
Tagging for #SolarPunkSunday, @AlsoPaisleyCat!
Show threadAbieNov 17
@AlsoPaisleyCat thank you very much for the nuance and the receipts!
Show threadkurtusNov 17
@AlsoPaisleyCat @johncarlosbaez @nickrauchen @grosser_mensch @drdirtbag @mkandle Nicht die Biber verändern die Umwelt, sondern wir zerstören die Umwelt. Auch für Biber. Und die passen sich den Veränderungen an, was sollten sie sonst tun?
Show threadAlsoPaisleyCat 🇨🇦Nov 17

@kurtus51

Regrettably, beavers truly do change the environment.

Indigenous knowledge-keepers in the Arctic know this and are reporting this.

This is why humans, whether in North America with our *Castor Canadensis* or in Europe with your smaller *Castor Fiber* need to be thoughtful and judicious in reintroducing them into their historic terrain.

We can’t romanticize the restoration of habitats to the point that we do not consider how this process can put other habitats at risk.

As their populations expand, beaver will extend their range and may become invasive, crowd out other species as they change the food web.

Beavers are inserting themselves into environments that they have not lived in since before the last ice age, if at all.

They not only reshape the terrain by deepening ponds and digging canals, they accelerate the thawing of the permafrost. In Alaska, this is already leading to a rapid northward push of the larch, the first tree in as the boreal forest shifts north.

@johncarlosbaez @nickrauchen @grosser_mensch @drdirtbag @mkandle

Show threadkurtusNov 17
@AlsoPaisleyCat @johncarlosbaez @nickrauchen @grosser_mensch @drdirtbag @mkandle @AlsoPaisleyCat @johncarlosbaez @nickrauchen @grosser_mensch @drdirtbag @mkandle Ich denke, Biber und auch wir, sind kleine Rädchen im grossen planetaren Spiel. Wobei wir die Grundlagen jeden Lebens auf dem Planeten gefährden.
Nicht die Biber. Wir sollten uns als Teil der Natur begreifen und unseren Einfluss vermindern. Gerade weil wir die ganze Ökosphäre zerstören.
Show threadkurtusNov 17
@AlsoPaisleyCat @johncarlosbaez @nickrauchen @grosser_mensch @drdirtbag @mkandle Biber haben eine egoistische Weltsicht. Wie sonst nur noch ... wir Menschen.
Aber nur wir sind in der Lage den kompletten Planeten zu zerstören.