ecosystem engineers Archives - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
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Lisa S. French

2-minute read

Just when we thought sea otters couldn’t possibly be more lovable, researchers at Sonoma State University have discovered that the bewhiskered marine mammals, aka kelp keepers, are also helping to save Monterey Bay’s coastal salt marsh, the Elkhorn Slough—one tasty crab dinner at a time.

The Elkhorn Slough, a seven-mile stretch between Santa Cruz and Monterey, is home to an amazing variety of wildlife, including 340 bird species, 550 invertebrates, and 60 mammals. Salt marshes like the Slough are among the most threatened ecosystems on Earth. And why is saving salt marshes important? Well, they are invaluable ecosystems that help protect shorelines, store carbon, and promote healthy fisheries, in addition to supporting thousands of species of plant and animal life.

According to the Sonoma State researchers, striped shore crabs, left unchecked by natural predators, have been disrupting the soil and eating the roots of marsh plants that hold the shoreline of the Slough together, contributing to almost a foot of erosion every year.

Enter the hungry, hungry sea otters, enthusiastic consumers of the burrowing crustaceans. In areas of the salt marsh where the once plentiful native otters were reintroduced, erosion was reduced by 2/3, helping to maintain this critical habitat for all wildlife.

By protecting the sea otters that keep runaway grazers like striped crabs from disrupting coastlines, we can reduce erosion, protect marine habitat that supports native wildlife and help cool the planet—that’s a conservation triple win—otterly amazing!

ICYMI Nature News

It’s Beautiful Out There
If you need to rest your eyes on something restorative amid bleak mid-winter, the Nature Photo Contest winners have been announced, and you can see their work right here.

When Whales Walked the Earth
Did you know that seal-like whales used to walk the shores of North America? Find out how they moved from land to sea from the Smithsonian Magazine.

Flaco’s Year of Freedom
It’s been a year since Flaco the owl escaped from the confines of the Central Park Zoo and took up residence on NYC’s Upper West Side. How is the feathery fellow, and what’s he been doing? NPR has thoughts on his free-bird-a-versary here.

The World’s Oldest Forest Two Hours From NYC
Would you like to visit a forest that existed when dinosaurs roamed the Earth? You don’t have to travel to the heart of the Amazon because the world’s oldest forest was recently discovered just two hours north of NYC.

Silk Spinning Crustaceans
If you thought that spiders were the only creatures capable of spinning silk, scientists at the University of California would like you to meet these crafty crustaceans.

Big Bear Valley Eagle Nest Cam
Looking for some animal cam comfort? Magnificent bald eagles Jackie and Shadow are back on the roost, protecting their eggs from the elements. You can keep tabs on the dedicated parents and future hatchling happenings here.

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Lisa S. French February 10, 2024

Planet-Protecting Pachyderms

2-minute read

Could protecting Earth’s largest mammals help tackle the two most critical items on our planetary to-do list: reducing the impacts of both climate change and biodiversity loss? According to new research from Oxford University, by virtue of their size, the most mega of megafauna may have a role to play in maintaining the healthy functioning of ecosystems negatively impacted by global heating.

One of the greatest hazards we face in a warming world is more frequent and intense wildfires. Between 2002 and 2016, 10.45 million acres a year were destroyed by fire globally—67% of the loss was in Africa. As the planet becomes hotter, drier, and more fire-prone, scientists are examining how protecting and increasing populations of endangered species of megafauna like elephants might help lower the temperature and limit the damage.

Beloved for their oversized ears, twisty trunks, keen intelligence, and exceptional empathy, elephants are also prolific stompers, chompers, and seed dispersers; those daily activities can reduce both CO2 in the atmosphere and the threat of wildfires. How so? It’s complicated, but the short story is that by consuming potentially flammable vegetation (and lots of it, up to 375 pounds a day), creating natural fire breaks by trampling soil, and dispersing seeds of trees with high capacity to store CO2, elephants, and other large herbivores, could limit the spread of fires and reduce the conditions that create them.

Elephants aren’t alone in their ability to influence the health of wild places. Conservation projects aimed at protecting ecosystem-engineering wildlife like whales, bison, sea otters, and wolves can help increase the resilience of natural environments under intense pressure from global heating. By continuing to examine the interdependence of wildlife and Earth systems and by creating conditions that allow nature to heal and flourish, amazing things can happen—like this.

ICYMI Nature News

Mighty Forest Mice
Even mini mammals can have a mega impact on the health of ecosystems. According to The New York Times, mice scurrying around forest floors are also important seed dispersers that help ensure the survival of trees exposed to environmental stressors.

Remember the Manatees
Pollution and habitat loss continue to take their toll on the Florida megafauna–over 2,000 manatees have perished in the last two years. It’s well past time to re-classify the charismatic creatures as endangered before they disappear.

NYC’s New Old Tree
In the spring of 2023, visitors to NYC’s High Line Park will be seeing red. A new rosy-hued sculpture installation, Old Tree, by Swiss artist Pamela Rosenkranz, will explore the indivisible connection between human and plant life. Have a look at the preview and swing by in the spring!

Christmas Bird Count
Okay, citizen scientists, if you need a good reason to tear yourself away from the fireplace and holiday cookie pile, Audubon’s 123rd annual Christmas Bird Count runs from December 14th through January 5th. Grab your binoculars and get those cookies to go. You can sign up here.

FWP Carbon Capture Report
We believe trees make a big difference in the health and well-being of people, wildlife, and the planet, and that’s why we keep planting them with the help of our partners at Tree-Nation. The trees that we’ve planted from April through November bring our carbon capture to 2,200 tons of CO2. That is equivalent to 2,235,456 pounds of coal burned, 247,604 gallons of gasoline consumed, and 267,669,777 smartphones charged. Oh, yeah, treeing is believing!

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Lisa S. French December 2, 2022

The Planet Cooling Power of Whale Poop

1.5-minute read

In nature we never see anything isolated,
but everything in connection with something else
which is before it, beside it, under it and over it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Sometimes, solutions to our most complex problems come from unexpected places. Could the restoration of great whale populations help us to combat climate change?

If left to its own devices, nature has a tremendous capacity to heal itself and protect us from the harmful impacts of a rapidly warming world. When we maintain greenhouse gas emissions at people- and planet-friendly levels, Earth systems can absorb enough GHG’s to keep global heating in check. Currently, about 25% of the CO₂ emissions that contribute to global heating are absorbed by oceans. Most of the carbon dioxide in oceans is consumed by microscopic algae called phytoplankton. Like trees, the tiny green plants utilize CO₂ for growth. Globally, phytoplankton absorb as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as tropical rainforests. Similar to the effects of deforestation, a reduction in phytoplankton can lead to more GHG emissions in the atmosphere and more heating. That’s where whales come in, or more specifically, the poop of whales.

According to scientists at the University of Tasmania, great whales have a big role to play in helping to cool the planet by dispensing the iron that carbon-absorbing phytoplankton need to grow. Adult whales in the Southern Ocean can eat two tons of iron-rich krill a day—that’s about 40 million mini-crustaceans. Because what goes in must come out, the krill consumed by whales converts to a whole lot of iron-infused phytoplankton fertilizer. By recycling an essential nutrient at a concentration ten million times higher than occurs in seawater, whales contribute to the continued functioning of one of Earth’s most important carbon sinks. The Tasmanian researchers estimate that a 12,000-strong population of iron-excreting sperm whales could stimulate the growth of enough phytoplankton to remove 200,000 tons of carbon annually—the CO₂ equivalent of 17,000 cars traveling 9,320 miles a year.

Marine biologists believe that tens of millions of whales were removed from oceans in the thousand years of active whaling prior to the international moratorium in 1982; this estimated 90% decline in the planet’s largest inhabitants has likely altered the functioning of marine ecosystems. As if we need another good reason to keep on saving the whales other than their all-around awesomeness, protecting and restoring populations of the colossal animals will help maintain healthy oceans that continue to absorb GHG emissions and reduce global heating. A win for the super-poopers is a win for people and the planet.

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Lisa S. French November 20, 2021

Traveling Wildebeest Alert

1.5-minute read

One of the most spectacular events in the natural world is taking place now in the African Serengeti—the awe-inspiring, seasonal wildebeest migration. In late spring through fall, up to 1.5 million wildebeest and thousands of zebra and Thomson’s gazelles embark on the long trek from the treeless plains of the southern Serengeti in Tanzania, north to the savannas and woodlands of Kenya.

Navigating Mara River rapids and dodging the hungry lions, cheetahs, and hyenas that trail the herd is no small feat, so what motivates these high plains drifters to travel so far in such massive numbers? Survival.

Like many migrating species, wildebeests are on a mission to find food. These bearded relatives of antelopes can weigh up to 600 muscle-packed pounds. Maintaining almost a billion pounds of wildebeest-i-ness across the herd requires a tremendous amount of grass and water. When the dry season begins in May and food and water are in short supply, wildebeests head west and north, following a route determined by rainfall, grass growth, and access to prime grazing real estate. In early winter, they complete the 300-mile migration loop, tracking the rain and grass back down to the southern plains. Every February, approximately 8,000 calves a day are born in transit and are up on their hooves toddling along with the herd in just three hours—the great migration and life cycle of the wildebeest continues uninterrupted.

The remarkable journey of these African ungulates has now inspired scientists to create algorithms that mimic the highly efficient swarm-like movement of the herd, which instinctually finds the shortest route to the greenest pastures. Intelligent algorithms based on these natural patterns of wildebeest herd migration could be used in cutting-edge applications ranging from unmanned vehicles and planetary mapping to nanobots that can target and destroy cancer cells—because nature is the most intelligent system of all.

Wherever you are in the world, you can keep tabs on the amazing traveling wildebeests courtesy of HerdTracker. Compared to the congestion of mega-migration, this summer’s bumper-to-bumper beach-bound traffic doesn’t seem so bad after all…

If you’d like to learn more about the megafauna of the Serengeti, we highly recommend Animals of the Masai Mara (Wildlife Explorer Guides), by Adam Scott Kennedy and Vicki Kennedy.

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Lisa S. French July 30, 2021

The Prophecy of the Manatee

2.5-minute read

What does the manatee, Florida’s beloved native marine mammal, have to teach us about the importance of maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems? As recent environmental events indicate, quite a lot. A keystone species, the gentle, slow-moving occupants of the Sunshine State’s rivers, marshes, and lagoons are sensitive to environmental stressors that impact the normal functioning of their underwater world. Although manatees have few natural enemies, harmful changes in water quality have become a matter of life and death for the iconic animals—alerting us to the fragility of marine ecosystems.

Manatees, a.k.a sea cows, need two things to stay comfortably in the swim: access to warm water (at least 68°F) and a whole lot of vegetation to eat. The 1,000-pound animals can consume up to 10% of their body weight a day in plant matter, primarily seagrass. Because manatees don’t have blubber to keep them warm like whales and dolphins, the colder the water, the more calories they need to survive. The seagrass that manatees depend on for the bulk of their diet, in turn, depends on sunlight for photosynthesis.

As reported in Science, 761 manatees wintering in one Florida lagoon died of starvation in 2021 due to a shortage of seagrass. Because massive algal blooms resulting from excess nitrogen and phosphorous in the water prevented sunlight from reaching carbon-storing seagrass beds, the plants that support manatees, as well as sea turtles, fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, failed to reproduce. Although Florida manatee numbers have doubled from 3300 in 2001 to close to 7000 in 2021 thanks to protective legislation, last winter’s die-off represents a gut-wrenching 10% loss of the marine mammal’s population.

In addition to struggling to survive the algal blooms that diminish life-supporting seagrass, manatees, and other marine life, are facing the environmental effects of toxic red tides that are increasing in size and duration due to rising ocean temperatures. Between 2017 and 2018, an estimated 200 manatees died from ingesting and inhaling the neurotoxic algae from a year-long red tide event.

Despite the manatee’s status as a protected species, as with many living creatures, its capacity to adapt to adverse environmental and climate impacts is limited. The fate of the manatee and other marine animals rests on protecting and restoring life-supporting habitat. Changes to the population and well-being of the silent marine sentinels speak volumes about the health of coastal ecosystems and marine biologists and conservationists are paying close attention. They’re developing strategies to provide manatees with adequate food supplies and warm-water sanctuaries when temperatures drop and promoting policies that will help to improve water quality year-round in a rapidly warming world.

To find out how you can become a citizen scientist and help make coastal ecosystems user-friendly for the magnificent manatee and other aquatic creatures, check out this fact-sheet from the University of Florida, which includes tips on how to reduce nutrient runoff and the next right thing to do if you come across a manatee in distress.

Wherever you are in the world, if you’re looking for another great reason to head to the beach, the Ocean Conservancy has more bright ideas on how to participate in the global mission to combat water pollution by starting a local trash cleanup. And for ten simple ways to help power the pristine by reducing your plastic footprint stop by the World Wildlife Fund. Planet tidying—good for water, good for people, good for wildlife.

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Lisa S. French June 17, 2021

Welcome Little Big Whales

1.5-minute read

In the how-about-some-hopeful-news category, two baby bright spots have appeared in the Atlantic Ocean, helping to dispel a bit of the 2020 gloom. As recently reported by CNN, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced dual special deliveries. North Atlantic right whales, 13-year-old Chiminea, and 16-year-old Millipede have successfully given birth and been observed swimming alongside their newborn calves off of the coasts of Georgia and Florida.

At a time when the small remaining population of fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales is struggling to survive, these two youngsters are very welcome additions to their pod. According to an April 2020 study from universities in Denmark and Australia, the critically endangered species has been declining at a rate of about 1% a year. The two biggest threats to the rare animals are ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. In one year alone, between November 2016 and November 2017, 17 juvenile and adult whales died from strikes and entanglements. More than 83% of North Atlantic right whales carry scars from getting caught in fishing gear.

Scientists aiming to come up with strategies to keep northern right whales safely in the swim have been analyzing how their health and environmental conditions compare to those of the growing populations of tens of thousands of Southern right whales (pictured above) in Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand.

Although right whales can grow up to 50 feet long and weigh up to 140,000 pounds, North Atlantic right whales are significantly smaller, have less blubber, and are in poorer overall condition compared to southern whales. Researchers believe that the reduced body size is negatively impacting resilience and female whales’ ability to support their calves. Northern right whales only give birth every seven years, while southern whales reproduce about every three years. Not a single northern whale was born between 2017 and 2018.

The primary difference between the two populations is the location. Southern right whales live in remote environments while their northern relatives occupy heavily developed coastal areas with some of the world’s busiest and noisiest shipping lanes. As oceans warm due to climate change, North Atlantic right whales follow their food supplies into cooler waters and higher traffic areas leading to strikes. In light of the daily challenges to the animals’ existence, the birth of two healthy calves is all the more remarkable. Well done, ladies!

It’s clear that North Atlantic right whales are going to need additional support to increase their chances for survival. You can learn more about the ongoing efforts to keep one of the planet’s largest mammals out of harm’s way from the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.

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Lisa S. French December 15, 2020

And The Answer Is Beavers

1.5-minute read

Conservation quiz: Which plant-eating members of the animal kingdom have been directing their big, buck-toothed energy towards the task of healing the planet? According to a study in south-central Sweden, beavers going about their day-to-day dam building business are helping to increase biodiversity that is essential to the functioning of freshwater ecosystems.

By constructing mud and stick barriers that increase water levels, the paddle-tailed environmental change agents are engineering pond habitats that support a 50% greater variety of plants and animals than similar beaver-free wetlands. While you might think a pond is a pond is a pond, according to environmental researchers, there are subtle differences in beaver ponds that make them hospitable to more species of fish, birds, insects, amphibians, and plant life. What’s good for beavers is good for biodiversity. And what’s good for biodiversity is good for people and the planet.

Beavers can be found throughout North America, and small populations exist in Scandinavia, Germany, France, Poland, and central Russia. Following their extinction in Sweden in the 1890s, beavers were reintroduced from neighboring Norway between 1922 and 1939. Dams built by the imported animals helped to expand wildlife habitats and increase resilience to both droughts and floods. Over the past half century, more countries have jumped on the bring-back-the-beavers bandwagon, including England, which recently reintroduced the industrious creatures to the wild after 400 years.

While beavers can’t stop freshwater biodiversity loss on their own, at a time when flora and fauna are decreasing at an alarming rate, wider implementation of beaver-based wetland-engineering is a holistic way to protect and restore ecosystems for a healthier biosphere.

By the way, if you’ve ever wondered why beavers have tangerine-colored teeth, it’s not because they’re tree stained. The keystone species’ incisors are handily reinforced with iron to help them gnaw through even the toughest tree trunks with ease. Beaver on, aquatic architects!

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Lisa S. French September 9, 2020

Rescuing Coral Reefs: Cloud Brightening, Bionics, and Super Corals

3.5-minute read

If you’ve not had much mental bandwidth left to ferret out non-COVID-19 news, we totally empathize. In case you missed the story of the third mass bleaching event in five years of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, here’s a quick what’s what—along with a roundup of some inventive strategies aimed at keeping all of the world’s precious corals out of hot water.

Although some of the creature components of the natural world are currently experiencing a welcome period of rest and recovery, as a result of rising ocean temperatures, the large colonies of thousands of tiny animals that make up coral reefs are facing unprecedented heat stress that is exceeding their ability to adapt and survive. These architecturally complex living structures support beautifully biodiverse undersea communities that encompass up to 25 percent of all marine species, including 4000 types of fish and an estimated 8 million yet-to-be-discovered organisms. As critical parts of our planetary infrastructure, coral reef ecosystems contribute to the livelihoods of 500 million people in 100 countries, adding approximately 30 billion dollars to annual GDP.

Under normal environmental conditions, corals can live forever. Sadly, recurring and prolonged bleaching events caused by changes in water temperature and acidity as a result of oceans absorbing increasing levels of greenhouse gases (GHG’s) from the atmosphere have pushed corals beyond their comfort zone. During a bleaching event, stressed corals expel the symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) embedded in their tissues, which they rely on for nutrition and which give them their often vibrant color. Without a consistent source of nourishment from their algal occupants, bleached corals slowly become weakened and may die, causing a chain reaction of equally adverse impacts for reef inhabitants. Depending on the amount of damage that occurs during a bleaching event, it can take decades for a coral reef to recover. To date, up to half of the world’s reefs have been severely damaged.

Okay, what’s the good news, you ask? Is there good news? Because we could use more of that. It’s undeniable that earth systems wait for no one, and our oceans have already been committed to a certain degree of warming. Now, one of the most important things we can do to create good news for corals and other marine wildlife is to help prevent bleaching events by reducing the GHG emissions that absorb radiation from the sun and raise ocean temperatures. As we sprint to ramp up mitigation efforts, scientists around the world from biologists to chemists to geophysicists are tackling the coral crisis from a few different angles in hope of changing the current trajectory from despair to repair. Here are some highlights from projects focused on saving our reef ecosystems from extinction:

Brightening Marine Clouds:
Earth scientists are geoengineering cloud parasols for the planet to cool waters around reefs and buy more time for corals. Through a process called marine cloud brightening, clouds are seeded with salt crystals to increase their reflectivity. These artificially enhanced bright clouds reflect solar radiation away from the earth lowering ocean temperatures in targeted reef areas. In late March, researchers at Southern Cross University in Australia conducted the first successful, small-scale cloud brightening experiment over a portion of the Great Barrier Reef. You can watch how they did it here.

Printing 3-D Bionic Corals:
Figuring out the symbiotic relationship between corals and algae will be critical for reef conservation in a warming world. To gain a better understanding of why corals expel algae under stress, bioengineers at the University of Cambridge have created bionic corals that can mimic the behavior of different coral species using biological materials and specialized 3-D printers. The Cambridge researchers also plan to construct large-scale colonies of man-made corals to grow algae for carbon capture and storage.

Breeding Climate Resilient Super Corals:
To create more resilient reef systems in anticipation of future warming, scientists at the Gates Coral Lab Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology are giving nature a helping hand through the breeding of corals that have successfully adapted to environmental stressors. By selecting the hardiest corals for reproduction and replicating various conditions of acidification, pollution, and temperature over time, marine biologists hope to grow more highly stress-tolerant super corals for use in reef restoration. You can learn more about these forward-thinking cultivators of corals in Coral Whisperers: Scientists on the Brink by Irus Braverman.

If you’re concerned about coral reefs and would like to keep tabs on how they’re holding up in near real-time, there are NOAA satellites for that at Coral Reef Watch.

You can also dive in and participate in some armchair ocean conservation by playing NeMO-Net, a new video game that helps train a NASA supercomputer to map the world’s corals.

If you’d like to follow a collaborative community of earth scientists working to maintain the healthy functioning of our planet, check out EarthCube.

And because gazing at marine life is good for you, to help tide you over until you’re free to roam, the Ocean Conservancy has coral reef wallpaper for your phone and desktop. Download away!

As always, hang in, stay safe, and be well!

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Lisa S. French April 29, 2020

Kelp Keepers

Widely admired for its conspicuous cuteness, the sea otter is proving to be far more than just another appealingly furry face. Research into this keystone species’ role in maintaining carbon-storing macroalgae, commonly known as kelp, indicates that the bewhiskered marine mammals may be important allies in the battle against climate change. One of 13 otter species, and the largest member of the weasel family, sea otters can be found floating about in coastal waters in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the Russian Federation. As their name suggests, sea otters spend the majority of their lives in the ocean, preferring to feed, sleep, and raise their pups in close proximity to kelp, which they use as cover from predators and to anchor themselves and their young when resting.

Equivalent to an underwater rainforest, densely layered kelps are an integral component of healthy marine ecosystems, providing food and shelter for myriad species including fish, shellfish, seabirds, harbor seals, and sea lions. In addition to functioning as critical habitat, recent analysis suggests that kelp forests also have immense potential for permanently storing large amounts of carbon dioxide—up to a whopping 634 million tons per year, an amount greater than the annual emissions of Australia.

One of the reasons that kelp is an especially effective sequester of carbon is because it grows quite rapidly, as much as two feet per day, attaching to undersea rocks with root-like structures called holdfasts. Unfortunately, kelp’s natural nemesis, the sea urchin, is particularly fond of feasting on holdfasts, causing the macroalgae to detach from rock surfaces, drift, and die. Left unchecked, the spiny invertebrates can form hungry herds large enough to decimate undersea forests. And that’s where the sea otter comes in—alongside crabs, mussels, and clams, sea urchins happen to be a favorite food of the voracious shellfishionados. By keeping sea urchin populations under control, otters help to ensure kelp’s survival. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have estimated that the presence of otters in a coastal habitat increased the sequestration capacity of kelp forests by 4.4 to 8.7 megatons—and they support this valuable ecosystem service every day, absolutely free of charge—give or take a sea urchin or two.

When sea otters were hunted for their fur to near extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries, coastal kelp forests and many of the creatures that relied upon them for survival all but vanished. Effectively eliminating the sea otter from its ecological niche had profoundly detrimental cascade effects on other species in its marine community. Although still currently classified as endangered, over the past century, as a result of dedicated conservation efforts, Pacific otter populations have rebounded from a low of several thousand to approximately 148,000 across Canada, Alaska, Washington, and California. And, as the kelp keepers have returned to their historic range, so have the undersea forests and their inhabitants.

As our knowledge of the interdependence of living things continues to evolve, and we learn more about how mutually beneficial relationships between species like sea otters and kelp can help to maintain biodiversity and contribute to ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, history serves to remind us that in nature, as in life, sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

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Lisa S. French October 16, 2019

Leave it to Beavers

When it comes to naturally efficient ecosystem engineering, leave it to beavers. The largest rodents in North America, growing up to four feet long and weighing up to sixty pounds, these primarily nocturnal, web-footed, paddle-tailed dam builders help create the critical wetland habitats that 85% of all North American wildlife depend on for survival. When a beaver gets down to buck-toothed business, it can cut down as many as 200 softwood trees a year for food and dam building. It takes about five minutes for a beaver to chomp through the trunk of an 8-foot tree and about a week to build a 35-foot dam. These water barriers form ponds that protect the beaver colony from predators and provide underwater access to the family lodge, a dry, cozy den where males and females rest, nest and raise baby beavers, known as kits. Beaver-built ponds help to increase biodiversity by providing pooled water, plant life and shelter that attracts and supports creatures great and small including frogs, salmon, trout, ducks, heron, deer, and elk.

Beaver ponds also protect against a parched planet by trapping carbon, capturing rainfall and storing groundwater. Ranging in size from small woody clumps to 2,800-foot long mega-barriers, beaver dams contribute to water purification by filtering silt and pollution and capturing run-off from fertilizers. By transforming the landscape with their stick, stone and mud constructions these remarkable, semiaquatic ecosystem engineers create environmental benefits for wildlife, people and planet. Busy beavers indeed!

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Lisa S. French February 15, 2019