As drought dries up B.C. rivers, conservationists turn to beavers for help

[Spazito]

The ongoing drought in many parts of B.C. is causing some rivers in the province's northern Interior to reach their driest mid-October levels in years.

In Prince George, the unusually low waters have locals worried.

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Now, Salewski's non-profit is looking for help to slow water loss in tributaries, from Canada's best-known builders: beavers.

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Salewski asked engineers at the University of Northern B.C. to help plan beaver dam analogues (BDAs), a promising fix that's common in Washington, Idaho and other U.S. states.

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By driving vertical wood poles into the stream bed, and weaving them with debris such as logs, evergreen boughs and mud, their hope is beavers will take over their maintenance.

more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/drought-b-c-rivers-beavers-1.6996190

Fascinating read, imo

[Wonder Why]

1. Great idea! And put those child beavers to work for no pay also!

By driving vertical wood poles into the stream bed, and weaving them with debris such as logs, evergreen boughs and mud, their hope is beavers will take over their maintenance.

We humans create the problem then stick it to the animals to do our dirty work for no pay. Moreover, driving sticks into their sleeping quarters means they have to work day and night. Wait until the American capitalists read that story!

They will fire all their human dam maintenance people and hire cheap beaver labor. If there aren't enough, they'll demand the government open the border so they can bring in them "foreign" ones who will work for even less food taking away the jobs of real American beavers. Lastly, they'll outsource most of the dam building to cheap Chinese beaver companies who will pay even less and ship the completed dams to our shores driving other American Dam Maintenance companies into bankruptcy. Finally, the whole damn dam business will be in china and we'll be forever dependent on them so if they cut off our damn supply of dams, we'll be "up the creek".

[Spazito]

2. LOL!

[Yonnie3]

3. I am very curious to see if this works

A small, but violent thunder storm cell, downed trees into a small river near me. Within a few months there was an impressive beaver dam in place.

[Spazito]

4. Me too!

It seems to have worked in some States that have tried this, hopefully it will work here as well. It's a win/win for us and the beavers, nature is always the best way to go, imo.