Leave it to beavers, says a team of researchers in a recent issue of the journal BioScience.
The natural behavior of beavers restores degraded rivers, streams and creeks more cost-effectively and with less disturbance than human intervention, according to the scientists. Instead of trying to completely re-engineer landscapes altered by humans, restorers could use the natural ability of beavers to recuperate areas.
Decades of misuse by people have left many waterways in bad shape. Many were dammed in the 19th century to provide power for watermills. Others were straightened to ease navigation or harnessed to provide irrigation. Some are used for "mudding" in ATVs and 4-wheelers.
"A lot of rivers are in trouble and need work and restoration, but it's amazing how little we know about the systems we're trying to fix," said lead author Melinda Daniels of Kansas State University in a press release. "We know they're broken, but we don't exactly know what they should look like because we know so little about how many of our river systems function."
That's when the beavers ask, “Can we fix it?”
Beavers are like nature's Bob the Builder. They instinctively build dams which stop up single channel waterways. The dams create ponds and meandering streams that provide homes for many plants and animals.
“You can use these natural analogs to produce an ecosystem that looks a lot more like the one that was there before the colonists arrived,” Daniels said.
Beavers work cheap too.
"We can restore rivers in a way that mimics the naturally diverse beaver streams, and we can save a lot of money in the process," Daniels said.
By working to encourage beaver populations, land managers could have a ready work force of nature's ecosystem engineers.
