<
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2024-03-26/beavers-can-help-mitigate-megafires-california>
"A vast burn scar unfolds in drone footage of a landscape seared by massive
wildfires north of Lake Tahoe. But amid the expanses of torched trees and gray
soil, an unburnt island of lush green emerges.
The patch of greenery was painstakingly engineered. A creek had been dammed,
creating ponds that slowed the flow of water so the surrounding earth had more
time to sop it up. A weblike system of canals helped spread that moisture
through the floodplain. Trees that had been encroaching on the wetlands were
felled.
But it wasn’t a team of firefighters or conservationists who performed this
work. It was a crew of semiaquatic rodents whose wetland-building skills have
seen them gain popularity as a natural way to mitigate wildfires.
A movement is afoot to restore beavers to the state’s waterways, many of which
have suffered from their absence.
“Beavers belong in California, and they should be part of our fire management
plan,” said Emily Fairfax, assistant professor of geography at the University
of Minnesota, who shot the drone footage of a series of beaver ponds along
Little Last Chance Creek that remained green in the wake of the 2021 Beckwourth
Complex fire."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-sustainable-soccer-curbing-deforestation/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
