Artificial beaver dams saw juvenile coho salmon survival rates go from 8% to 60%

There's a really good book about a homesteader that did something similar to this in the 1930's in British Columbia, "Three Against The Wilderness". Basically he restored the dams that had been dynamited by the ranchers, and that restored all of the wetlands in the area.

Later on, the government brought him some beavers from elsewhere, and they flourished.

It was an interesting, but counterintuitive result that water temperatures went down after artificial beaver damming. Their theory is that the water is able to permeate more into the ground and exchange heat with the ambient underground temperature [1]

1. https://www.science.org/content/article/beaver-dams-without-...

I’m rather partial to beavers myself and was sad to learn about their demise in North America. At one point their pelts were referred to as “the coin of the realm” https://youtu.be/8XToPq9lsOM?si=DJKedkQXuzJhSmf7

Maybe I missed it, why didn't they just reintroduce beavers?

Whatever they eat, did that go down to an all time low. Im m curious about the chain reaction vs an isolated result.

I really want this to mean dams constructed by robot beavers. Move over, A.I.! Time for A.B.

With freshwater increasingly being a problem, being able to slow down tributaries and allow the water to percolate and help rebuild aquifers is something that should be happening everywhere possible.

Lost cost, high reward. Not sexy enough to get the attention it deserves.

The temperature is cooler? That can't possibly be the only reason to explain such a dramatic change in survival rates. We definitely need more research on this topic.

I am sick of underachieving beavers. Go us! Seriously, that would require statutory change here in Washington state. I live in a rural area with salmon waterways all over. Farmers just quietly clear the way for them, because it's illegal to make any changes to the waterway even if it's trash thrown out of cars.

we clearly need to design better salmon.