Beaver Dams Could Help Alleviate Drought

Montanans are working to alleviate the impact of the region’s climate-fueled drought by building faux beaver dams, and they’re hoping to attract beavers back to the region in the process, Yale Climate Connections reports. European colonizers wiped out local beaver populations. Now, the Big Hole Watershed Committee is building replica beaver dams to slow runoff-fed streams and hold moisture in the soil. The group is hoping the dams attract beavers [which this writer’s child would insist on pointing out are the largest member of the rodent family in North America — Ed.] back to the area. “Eventually the beaver will find that place and take over what we’ve started,” says Pedro Marques of BHWC. “That’s really the end goal.”

The structures @BigHoleWC is building in SW Montana streams "mimic beaver dams. They slow the water down, so it seeps into the soil and helps provide moisture over time."

Via @CC_Yale https://t.co/KM43WNDepY

— Nicole Lampe (@nicole_amber) January 24, 2023

Beavers can help combat global warming » Yale Climate Connections https://t.co/DFzQQbmE7y #climatechange #ecosystems #wildlife pic.twitter.com/ZQgQfaLGDQ

— Hundredgivers (@100givers) December 7, 2018

Source: Yale Climate Connections; Climate Signals background: Western megadrought

Courtesy of Nexus Media.

Related story: Hydropower — Retrofitting Untapped Dams To Do More

Featured photo by Tim Umphreys on Unsplash