Bio-mimicry? Try 'beaver-mimicry' dams to offset climate chaos

The descendants of black-bear-sized giants who could haul massive rocks with their mouths, modern Castor canadensis once numbered as many as 400 million in North America. Felling mighty trees with their orange, iron-infused, nearly invincible incisors, they created their terraforming, hydro-engineering, half-submerged eco-homes based on blueprints stored in their DNA. Now, thanks to merciless fur-hunting by humans, their population has plummeted by 97.5%.

Long dismissed as pestilent rodents, beavers are now coming to be understood as autonomous biosphere managers that may be indispensable in the fight against the effects of climate chaos. But numbering a mere 10 million, they can’t build enough dams quickly enough to save the environment that industry imperils. So, could the answer be … that humans start copying the architecture that beavers create?

Dam straight.

In their Restoration Ecology paper “Beaver-related restoration and freshwater climate resilience across western North America,” lead author Jesse A.S. Burgher and colleagues at Washington State University describe their research into “beaver-mimicry.” After evaluating 161 studies on the potential effects of beaver-related restoration, they declared beaver dams can do far more than store water in deep ponds.

They can also help waterways recover from climate alteration, lower water temperatures during hot months, enhance connections among flood plains, and help prevent the spread of wildfires. The result is a massive blessing for the environment: increased biodiversity.

According to senior author Jonah Piovia-Scott, Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences at WSU Vancouver, there’s plenty of active research into building beaver-dam analogues (BDAs) woven from willow and other plant matter. “This practice,” he says, “has become more and more widespread in our region,” namely, the Pacific Northwest of the United States. By erecting numerous BDAs along Oregon’s Bridge Creek, a tributary to the John Day River, ecologists have helped increase the population of numerous fishes, including the threatened steelhead trout.

“The extent to which this practice is being implemented,” says Piovia-Scott, “is far outpacing the research on the subject,” adding that researchers need “to bridge the gap between the potential benefits and what’s actually happening on the ground.” That includes learning whether local results are applicable to dissimilar ecosystems, a matter about which Piovia-Scott remains cautious: “It’s not at all clear whether those benefits will accrue in other systems.”

One of Piovia-Scott’s goals is building critical partnerships with Indigenous nations and non-profit organizations seeking to restore beaver populations, especially when such groups cannot currently afford to conduct their own scientific research. It’s a goal he shares with author Burgher, who is also the wildlife program manager for the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.

Because of his work with numerous people attempting to restore beaver populations and habitats, Piovia-Scott says he knows that “they have way more on-the-ground expertise in so many things than I do as a researcher.” But he acknowledges that no matter how high their skill level is, they can’t undertake major large-scale research projects because “it’s usually not what their organizations are funded to do. So, there’s a tremendous amount of knowledge around restoration practices that can be generated through these partnerships.”

Source: Washington State University