Our Rivers are Broken - here's how we fix them

[@LeaveCurious]

Learn more and take steps toward a career in Rewilding & Nature Restoration - ecologytraining.co.uk/course/rewilding/

[@MarkPhilpott]

Off to go and sign up and start learning, it’s time for an exciting new path I think … 😊 Thanks for sharing the info on this 👍

[@skyislandabovethesea]

We’ve got 15 acres in the Pacific Northwest USA that’s got serious drainage issues. We’re getting ready to start building swales and beaver dam analogs and once we’ve dealt with some damage done by trespass diversion of water, we’re contacting Fish and Wildlife to invite beavers who need homes. The neighbors hate them in the wetland (which is a mess from agricultural infill) but we’ve got water for them to use higher on the mountain.

[@ryn2844]

Weird. All Dutch teens learn in high school that you HAVE to give rivers flood plains (which can be used for grazing when they're not flooded), because the river is *going* to flood regardless of whether you give it appropriate space to do so. I thought that was common knowledge but I guess it would make sense that the Dutch would be among the first to learn that lesson the hard way.

[@LeaveCurious]

Yep, the Dutch certainly know a thing or two about working with water! Space is key!

[@ExSheriffFattyBoySkinnyArms]

This is not surprising to me. Might explain why I consider the Dutch a very open minded people. Depending on where they live I will add

[@ingeleonora-denouden6222]

Nowadays it's known, but also here in the Netherlands we learned that the hard way. Rivers flooded and houses close to the river banks were destroyed, because they turned their back to that old knowledge of the flood plains ('uiterwaarden') after WW2. In my youth (I'm 67 y.o. now) still many small rivers were 'canalised', but now they are back to their old meandering shapes again. It's mostly because of the influence of nature lovers and their organisations, they are strong here!

[@04williamsl]

Unfortunately here in the UK a lot of infrastructure around rivers was put in centuries ago. In a lot of cases, these canals or when the rivers were altered were designed to handle the water levels at the time. These older buildings along the river are protected/listed, which means you can't do anything to them, such as destroying them for nature to reclaim (heck, just trying to change the door to your building can sometimes require council approval if you're in a listed building!). On the river Ouse flowing through York is a great example of this. If you go to Google maps and type in 'Ouse Bridge York' you'll see how much flooding these buildings actually deal with each year. But there's nothing that can be done about it, as the buildings are listed. You'd have to move pretty much all of York if you want to turn is back into flood plains. If the rivers are flowing in less populated areas, then usually they do have flood plains, but even these sometimes aren't big enough for the amount of water we're now getting. As a country we're now facing more rainfall in autumn/winter (not every year, but several years), alongside the amount of sediment built up in them that means they also aren't holding as much water, which is leading to an increase in floods.

[@Ifyouarehurtnointentwasapplied]

Some other's know just not enough

[@HomeSlice97]

Honestly glad to say that outside of a couple urban areas, New England’s rivers are largely untouched and naturally flowing. They’re always a treat to see.

[@LeaveCurious]

I’d loved to visit the north east of US. Looks beautiful.

[@HomeSlice97]

@@LeaveCurious if you do, I’d highly recommend New Hampshire’s White Mountains!

[@patsfreak]

Maine has gotten rid of a couple dams and it’s already paid dividends. It’s seeing ocean going fish return to the rivers in levels not seen since statehood.

[@tss9886]

As a Canadian, I can definitely say we have beavers 😂. Every year, we visit my parents in the Laurention mountains and hike up the mountain behind their house. As to travel, you see streams coming down the mountain even in the driest summer. Then you reach the plateau and find .... ponds! Big beaver ponds with huge lodges inside them. The beavers created dams that hold melt water from winter and slowly release it, keeping the forest wet even during drought. While forest fires burn in other areas, land with a beaver population is fire resistant and provides refuge for wildlife of all kinds.

[@EpicJediPotato]

My gf's dad is a First Nation member, a biologist and a trapper. He loves beavers and hate anyone that want them harm just because they're "destroying" their roads to their cabins. But he's well known so usually people come and ask him to remove them. And for the animal's sake he does usually relocate them :) .I do have have a short video of an angry beaver I helped him release :) They are wonderful creatures

[@LeaveCurious]

yeah as we have them more and more in our landscapes we need skilled and knowledgeable people to translocate them to safer places! I'll check that video out!

[@ForageGardener]

They have these things called "beaver decievers" which act as an Overflow valve for beaver dams that prevent them from filling above a determined level

[@nathalie9905]

Like another comment said, in the Netherlands they are also giving more space to the rivers. The project is literally called 'ruimte voor de rivieren', or space to the rivers. My commute by train goes over a river with a floodplain and it's my favourite part of the journey. There are also quite a few bird species in the pools that have formed in the flood plains

[@LeaveCurious]

Cool! Yeah I’d heard about this. Something to visit!

[@koholohan3478]

Woody debris is so underrated. Some people think they need to "clean" the logs and wood from a stream, but it's actually very valuable for so many reason. Let's allow streams the curve and wind. If all streams are straight and channelized, all of the water rushes down stream and floods the village. Straight streams are steeper and faster, carving deep, and disconnecting theirselves from the surrounding floodplain.

[@LeaveCurious]

THIS!

[@Jradr34]

Love your energy and with you 100%. My work - in the South UK - is restoring, repairing and creating rivers, lakes, wetlands and ponds for various wildlife trusts and I love it!

[@LeaveCurious]

Cool! Shoot me an email, interested to learn more about what you do

[@marybradley7791]

I live in Doncaster which has just been given city status, Doncaster is below sea level and we have both natural and re-created wetland areas. Yorkshire Wildlife Park has natural wetlands as part of the park, it is next to the river Torne, the area used to be a riding school and was protected from development by the local council. We also have Potteric Carr Nature Reserve in the centre of Doncaster, which is owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, that area was previously railway sidings and an old collery line and is now a thriving wetlands. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust also manage Denaby Ings which is a wetland area on the outskirts of Doncaster and Sprotbrough Flash which is a wier on the river Don. Some work has been done to mitigate flooding along the river Don in both Sheffield and Doncaster. A lot of local farmland on the outskirts of Doncaster is used as a floodplain.

[@LeaveCurious]

All sound like cool places, if I'm ever that way, ill check them out

[@Piwonia67]

I'm so grateful that Vistula is mostly wild. Or at least the human pressure is not so overwhelming.

[@LeaveCurious]

Phwoar yeah look epic would love to visit

[@Piwonia67]

@@LeaveCurious well, there's a dam in Wlocławek, which shouldn't have been built at all, and our river management office is not competent and follows very old patterns of management. But at least the banks look natural in most places.

[@Piwonia67]

About the beavers, yes, we've got them 😁 and you can see fallen trees and chopped branches as you walk along the riverbank when where I live

[@Humusbeings]

I adore your excitement and passion. I’m so glad this work is being done. I’m in Australia. It’s such a different beastie here trying to fix landscape. Keep being amazing.

[@LeaveCurious]

Ah cheers! I know little about Australias issues, but I'm sure theres solutions!

[@carolefearon8849]

I was gobsmacked and so very happy after watching your video. I have lived in Australia for the past almost 30 years and my first 33 years was born and brought up in UK. To see people beginning to see the value of rewilding including our river systems is so heart warming. Beavers lived in the UK 400 years ago and were hunted to extinction in that country so to see them come back/be re-introduced is fabulous. Well done on a very informative video.

[@louislamonte334]

Great video!! I LOVE the work you do!! Thank you for your wonderful, tireless efforts! Rivers are literally the "rivers of life"! How tragic so many of them have been strangled by dams, natural flows interrupted and straightened. You're the best, my friend!

[@LeaveCurious]

heyyy! thank you so much - you're right, if we can rewild our rivers and the space around them, just imagine how much healthy the landscape would be!

[@JonathanArcher100]

In Vienna you can see quite easily deers in some green spaces in the city. You can find rabbits next to the Danube if you look for them. They hide because people walk by all the times, but you checking under some bushes does the trick. I saw once a fox in the city center in the night and in some forest parks I saw once a boar :)

[@keestoft250]

If you're a parent it's so important to get kids to enjoy and love wild places. They're going to be the generation for whom the world will be a challenging place to live. I get quite emotional with the realisation that our kids will have all the heavy lifting to do in rescuing the planet. Quite a legacy we've left them, but I'm reassured that they're going to be up for it.

[@charlottescott7150]

I got brought here after a great Mossy Earth video on Chernobyl. Glad to see you have more avenues Rob- this was interesting,

[@Spacey7]

Most the rivers are full of sewage everywhere at the moment due to the water companies being horrific, uncaring dicks!! I come from North Devon & I'm going back soon & cannot wait to see the lovely area again. Want to go home for good eventually. Great video. Thank you

[@LeaveCurious]

Yeah theres alot more than needs to be done. Enjoy your return!

[@Spacey7]

@@LeaveCurious so much more. Mainly stopping the government allowing water companies to committing such barbaric & harmful acts! Thank you very much 😊

[@barristophilliesiii5863]

Awesome video buddy! Love seeing you spot light Devon. Tis a great county that has a lot of potential for ecological revival

[@LeaveCurious]

Its really beautiful, so much to see and as you say, theres potential for it to be better too :)

[@barristophilliesiii5863]

@@LeaveCurious absolutely. it would be great to see a deep dive into land management and how its decided/acted upon, particularly of the national parks like dartmoor and exmoor in Devon. I think people would be shocked at how things are done in the UK.

[@lightdancer4146]

I was literally looking at that Beaver dam this morning up at Otterhead! Quite a coincidence. My husband was born and bred in Exeter back in the 40’s so has naturally seen many changes, it’s good to see them trying to rewind parts of this beautiful river. We lived up on Exmoor, just above the Exe and saw her in all her natural glory. Great video, thank you.

[@PhoenixIsTrash]

I have been working in Natural Resource Management in Australia, and one of the biggest surprises to me was the damage we have done to our rivers. The two rivers in my area are both damned, with about 5% of their natural water flow available to them in the current day due to massive hydroelectric works back in the 1950's. Combine that with the pressures of hooves stock on the banks, and the river is struggling to clear out the sediment that is building up in it. So many native fish species in decline, as their natural habitat disappeared with the decreased flow, and the invasion of invasive willows, emergent weeds, trout, and carp. Do what you can to help your rivers, wherever you are. They are such an awesome ecosystem, and too easily ignored when people talk about biodiversity loss.

[@LeaveCurious]

So true, I think they're neglected natural systems. We don't frequently interact with them and its been going on for a very long time. Our views of what rivers looks like is heavily distorted!

[@jeroldblunk8861]

Good video. Thanks for crawling through the brambles to get the film shots.

[@Red_crane]

While straightening rivers and removing the associated wetlands was an ecological disaster, it was a part of how we managed to eradicate malaria in huge swathes of the globe and therefor saved lots of lives. That's an aspect to keep in mind when reversing that work. Not an excuse to not do it, but something to keep an eye on and react accordingly.

[@LeaveCurious]

Woah I didn't know this - maybe I'm missing something obvious, but how did this work?

[@Red_crane]

@@LeaveCurious Animals transmitting malaria (like mosquitoes) live in wetlands and the destruction of their habitat played a major part in getting rid of malaria.

[@SeverusFelix]

Yeah, there's good reasons behind draining wetlands above and beyond just "hey look at this fertile land we can exploit!" The good news is that, as medical science progresses, marshes and swamps become less and less of a threat to mankind. Plasmodium falciparum can go on the extinction list so far as I am concerned, but maybe we can one day make peace with mosquitos.

[@Soilfood365]

Sometimes the drainage is just... part of it. Here in Lusaka, the council sprays annually for mosquitoes, which does wipe out a lot of slower breeding aquatic insects (including the culicophagous mosquito, Toxorhynchites) but does very little to the faster-breeding Aedes, Anopheles and Culex. The wetlands were also drained - poorly - and became low-income neighbourhoods, and every year, the drains block, these areas flood, and we have an absolute explosion of Culex, which thrives in disturbed and polluted waterways, especially in the absence of larger predators. Unlike Anopheles - which are basically filter feeders as larvae - Culex are active predators. They eat each other, to a degree, they eat Aedes rather more, and they particularly eat the more-or-less defenceless Anopheles. The result: despite terrible water management, and utterly ineffective direct management of mosquitoes, it's very difficult to find an Anopheles mosquito, muc less catch Malaria within Lusaka.

[@SeverusFelix]

In general, a lot of bad decisions are well-meaning. I run a grazing operation in West Texas. A lot of people in this business have the same atittude I started with more than a decade ago-- "let's get rid of all these weeds and plant only the BEST grass." I have long since come around to seeing great value, not only intangible aesthetic value but economic value, in a thriving biodiverse ecosystem on my land. A wide range of native plants and animals makes this a place where my livestock can also thrive. A lot of landowners feel like that's not doing anything. I don't use fertilizer or spray herbicide except to control noxious invasives, and that frustrates the natural bias towards action. Anyway lobg winded point being, people often make bad decisions while meaning well. I love this channel and rewilding in general. Nature can often do things better than we can, if we learn how to adapt to it rather than adapt nature to us.

[@marybradley7791]

We also have Thorne, Hatfield and Crowle Moors near me which are being restored by Natural England, they are restoring the peatland areas that have been mined in the past and it has scientific special status because of the rare species that are found there. The area is known as the Humberhead Peatlands.

[@LeaveCurious]

Awesome, ill take a look into it

[@eliasniewerth]

I would love an extensive video on how to deal with low groundwater levels with natural ponds. I am trying to restore a pond on the farm of my parents but I am pretty hopeless as even though it is marked as a natural spring it keeps drying up every summer. It would be big enough to hold fish and all kinds of reptiles and insects and be a water source for the foxes and deers and everything else that we have but instead it goes completely dry. Just a few years ago it even contained enough water to feed a small river that would feed a couple fields and some cattle downstream. Now even in the winter its mostly dry. A video on how to do ir yourself for little projects like this would be amazing and so much more efficient than any membership could be. You guys should start community projects and give leads. I dont even know who my local authprities are that could help me with this

[@DuncanPepper]

Really good video Rob. Excellent info and demonstrations. Great work

[@LeaveCurious]

Hey Duncan! Nice to see you here, thanks!!

[@zacharygates3898]

Love you thank you so much for sharing your beautiful heart with us 🙏✌️💚✨

[@lieutenanttequila3058]

I live in Russia, in the Republic of Bashkortostan, in the Ufa district, we have a very beautiful nature, when I was little, in the area where my second cousins live, there were a lot of beavers, they hunted them for fat, we used it as medicine or something like that, now it seems that no one He doesn't do it. I can't say anything about the number of beavers, but when they appear, in the village where relatives live, beavers are considered pests because they flood the village, because a stream flows through the whole village. I translated it with the help of an interpreter, I'm sorry for the mistakes, but I decided to share it because this British guy is funny, it's interesting to watch how a person enjoys such familiar things for my homeland.

[@ingeleonora-denouden6222]

In my region it seems there are beavers (officially released in nature parc Weerribben-Wieden). There are some beautiful natural small rivers (Reest, Vecht, Drentse Aa) and a large river (IJssel) with some beautifully rewilded parts along it. I am happy to live in this part of the Netherlands.

[@LeaveCurious]

Sounds lovely - I will look it up! Cheers!

[@TheYuxiaodi]

your enthusiasm is awesome

[@invisiblejaguar1]

I go to Exeter all the time and I had no idea beaver activity was so close, this is amazing to know! Thanks for the video Rob 🙂

[@LeaveCurious]

River otter is about a 30 minute drive! Thanks :)

[@tadblackington1676]

Its around water that rewilding and green infrastructure really overlap and reinforce each other. In New England there has been quite a lot of dam removal, most spectacularly on the Penobscot and Kennebec. As far as urban settings go the Wild Mile in Chicago is a really interesting project for the intensely urban/industrial setting that it occupies.

[@aye3678]

Love the content brother :D Thanks for sharing!

[@LeaveCurious]

You're welcoming, thanks for taking the time to comment!!

[@practicalplantlife]

we love your videos, great work ,the beaver story is so heart warming.

[@LeaveCurious]

ah thank you :) yeah its a really nice beginning to hopefully an even bigger success story in the UK!

[@robertgraham1088]

I love this video. I am off to see the Ealing Beavers later this month as a result of a video that you made on that project. I can't wait. You give a little hope for the depleted and messed up British environment. Read British Isles so I include Ireland as well. I meet many folk on my travels and they all love the British/Irish countryside but little do they realize how sanitised it is. Such a shame that successive governments have paid lip service to restoring watersheds and flood plains and then have to spend millions when there is flooding and/or drought. Nor do they realize that Scotland used to be forested. Thank you.

[@carlbushnell509]

I love all of your videos. Your enthusiasm is so inspiring

[@LeaveCurious]

Appreciate it - i do really love it haha

[@erikolsen6269]

Thank you for this video. Very educational!!

[@hans-martinadorf3834]

Excellent and inspiring. As usual. Keep on going. Hans-Martin

[@LeaveCurious]

Cheers Hans, appreciate your support.

[@peterfrost5475]

Nice video, I would love to see more beavers introduced to our poor river systems. I say that as old chap that has fished most of my life, and noticed the reduction in our wildlife over the last 55 years. keep up the good work.

[@5joost]

Hey loved your video. Always difficult to give rivers within cities enough room. I lived in wageningen near the Rhine for 8 years where the floodplains where huge. And they flooded almost every single year.

[@ackel113]

I live in Minneapolis US and is particularly relevant right now with lots of discussion on whether or not to remove our many urban dams

[@WildlifeWithCookie]

Quality man, loved this one

[@LeaveCurious]

Nice one mate, yeah, you’d of loved that beaver habitat

[@sukotu23]

Great vid Rob! You and Mossy Earth should do something in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland where I'm from - plenty rewilding needed there 😁

[@LeaveCurious]

Cheers - yeah Mossy is very active in Scotland, so lets see what happens!

[@N000-reply]

Live near the tees which the course of the river has been diverted it also has a barrage stopping the tide coming further upstream and to maintain upstream water levels. Upstream around yarm the tees often burst its banks not much is in place such as wetlands but would make for an interesting project

[@livingportside]

I live in Northern Canada, the beavers out populate the people up here and we are at their mercy with how they manipulate the rivers.

[@pauldurkee4764]

It was great to see the creation of the small rivulet off the river exe, but in the background on one of your shots it looks like Himalayan Balsalm has been allowed to grow . In my home city of Cardiff we have three rivers, Taff, Rhumney and Ely. The taff is the main river through the city and its course has been heavily affected by human activity, its course has been changed and is canalised in places,albeit with sloping sides and with the use of large boulders, better than concrete I suppose.

[@LeaveCurious]

Oh i didn't notice the balsam, but will look out for it. Yeah if i visit Cardiff, ill look out for it

[@geo.m1639]

Cheshire Wildlife Trust released beavers in my country for a trial a couple of years ago, hopefully the trial goes well and they can release them into my local river

[@LeaveCurious]

Awesome yeah once theres been one reintro, they usually get followed up with more if all goes well!

[@geo.m1639]

@@LeaveCurious I hope so, but my dog loves to swim in the river will that be bad for the beavers?

[@Solstice261]

​@@geo.m1639no, don't worry, for starters you won't see them during the day much and they are very good swimmers so both them and your dog will be fine

[@williamthomas330]

Great stuff, love the channel, keep it coming 👍

[@LeaveCurious]

Thank you, i certainly will!

[@RichardB_Uk]

Big problem in England at the moment is the water companies dumping sewage into the rivers

[@LeaveCurious]

Yeah, i might make a video on this, but not sure. Certainly an issue.

[@hummingbird3771]

Awesome work!

[@johannajosephine8874]

Awesome channel. Engaging, informative and enticing 🌳✨ I saw the beavers in Otterton earlier this year, it was fascinating. I’m very curious to see how the biodiversity of the surrounding landscape will benefit in the coming years.

[@LeaveCurious]

Yeah good things are happening along the river otter :) thanks!!

[@feiryfella]

There are otters on the Exe and have been for years! I lived in SE Devon when the beavers turned up-we'd never had allowed their removal!

[@LeaveCurious]

No it just wouldn't have made any sense to take them out!

[@feiryfella]

@@LeaveCurious Well they wanted to!

[@someblokecalleddave1]

Another great video Rob.

[@marybradley7791]

We also have Thorpe Marsh Nature Reserve owned by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust in Doncaster this is next to the Stainforth and Keadby Canal part of the South Yorkshire Navigation, this site was previously used for a Coal Power Station which closed in the 90's.

[@LeaveCurious]

Cool! Sounds like an interesting place, will have to check it out

[@jubadiju]

I live by a gorgeous creek in southeastern Australia, and so curious about how these same sort of functions happened here, without beavers. Was it all just naturally made weirs, how much did indigenous Australians manage the water ways (like fish traps), etc.

[@LeaveCurious]

Pretty certain swampy, pond habitats can form off rivers naturally without beavers as the water course changes and finds new land to pool into.

[@chyfields]

Mother Nature is like a state of the art water filtration and purification system (producing all filtration and purification mediums, such as sand, charcoal, limestone, and pumice, on planet, using a process of detritus). Her friend, the Sun, delivers light and warmth.

[@solarpunkalana]

Really interesting video Rob. Hopefully we can see beavers in the wild soon across England - just wish the gov would let organisations like ours at Kernow Conservation get licenses for wild beavers more easily! It's a shame the River Otter are the only 'wild' beavers in England.

[@anniehill9909]

It's insane, the difficulties put in the way of people trying to REintroduce beavers. I mean, I know they have big teeth, but they're hardly sabre-toothed tigers. You shouldn't require a license at all. Sheer madness.

[@LeaveCurious]

I’d be surprised if this hasn’t changed in the next few years!! Let’s hope it’s sooner!

[@someblokecalleddave1]

@@anniehill9909 Surely it needs the adjacent land and goodwill of the famers and landowners along the rivers for this to happen? They're not afraid of the Beavers per se, it's the impact on the land. How much land does a breeding pair of Beavers need? Their off-spring needless to say would migrate away from the initial designated conservation area onto adjacent land owned by famers/landowners not enthralled by the prospect of their water meadows being flooded all year with loss of crop yield or grazing land? The thing that I ponder is how many trees do the beavers require and what's their impact on the tree coverage. I understand the loss of the trees creates new opportunities for increased bio-diversity, but needless to say there has to be a balance between Beaver numbers and tree recovery times surely and given that we're such a densely populated country with so little tree coverage - perhaps this is part of the reason the licences are required?

[@Miamcoline]

Amazing once again!

[@krose6451]

13:07 "Its kind of a curse for someone who loves nature so much to be allergic to it" yes! It is a curse. I have seasonal allergies, am alergic to "outdoor molds", get horrible reactions to bug bites, am supper sensitive to poison ivy, and there are a ton of plants that simply touching leaves me ichy and a little red. I want to be outside. I want to go for hikes and walks and sit in the garden with my grandmother, and so many other things but when I do I pay for it. Im also prone to sunburn regardless of the sun block and hats I wear so thats an extra thing. Im so envious of those people who can not only exist but out in nature without their bodies having a fit about it.

[@LeaveCurious]

Yeah it’s kind of crushing. Seems to grass pollen for me, although I’ve tested exactly which one is bad. I try to not let it stop me, but sometimes it can ruin a day out!

[@krose6451]

As if to punish me (or maybe just proving my point), I had a poison ivy rash appear the day after posting this. I've got patches of it literally from my head to my toes. Then last night I got a few dozen bug bites to fill out some of the spaces the ivy missed. So, so, itchy!

[@PaulCoxC]

Love it Rob, great video

[@LeaveCurious]

Cheers Paul

[@deepbluetree]

Gotta love beavers! ❤ Great video!

[@kewlcatsarekewl6822]

You should consider reading the book “Nature” by Noel Castree. It discusses the implications of different concepts about nature. The idea of something being natural or unnatural, aka human versus nature, carries with it the implication that humans are not a part of ecology. I believe we must come to the realization that humans are part of the natural cycle of ecology in order to make progress in fixing many problems caused by humans. Love the video and definitely think restoration projects are incredibly necessary and so fascinating!

[@EalingWildlifeGroup]

Fantastic video as always pal! ❤🙌

[@LeaveCurious]

Ah thank you! Excited to see what beavers can do in London!

[@jasonjay6130]

Great video Rob

[@LeaveCurious]

Ahh cheers Jason and thanks for the support on members mate!

[@robertwhite9621]

Leaving a comment to try and help promote your work - intereresting as always!

[@LeaveCurious]

All comments help :) cheers

[@simonwhite5535]

Love it!! ❤️😍❤️

[@huldu]

Something crazy happened the other day, a lost beaver travelled through the city. I didn't even know we had beavers where I live. We have two small rivers somewhat nearby but it really must have got lost or I have no idea. Long story short the beaver was caught and released in one of the rivers and apparently it was happy to be back in water and started chewing on something and then swam away.

[@Greentrees60]

In north Ontario there are LOADS of beavers and LOADS of wetlands and small water ways (not a coincidence). I think most of the small ones aren't even named, especially because (courtesy of the beavers) they are always changing

[@raphlvlogs271]

besides beavers growths of willows and other semi aquatic plants can also create organic dams

[@LeaveCurious]

Yeah this is a cool idea. I can see this being really effective across small streams!

[@shellyryan8506]

Regarding your work and these videos--it is all wonderful and your enthusiasm is contageous plus augments the learning experience. As to your "hayfever", I tend to also suffer from seasonal allergy, but have found that two natural remedies help tremendously--a plant based diet (which is great for climate change also 👍) and the nutrient Lysine, which I would think you can buy in your country (I'm in the US). Hope that helps.

[@LeaveCurious]

Thanks Shelly appreciate your kind words and advice. I’ll look into the Lysine!

[@Soilfood365]

My mother's country: Let's reintroduce beavers, the rivers are failing without them! My father's country: Let's cull the hippos, despite being a fraction of their natural abundance they are too abundant, inconvenient and I can't see anything going wrong without them. The Kafue river: slowly dies.

[@LeaveCurious]

Animals are integral to the south of our ecosystems. Would love to know more about hippos!

[@octaviatheappalled912]

I live in Oregon, in the Pacific North Western part of the U.S. Oregon is known as The Beaver State. Yep! We have beavers.

[@Venslor]

I heard a rumor that beavers had appeared where I live, Sacramento, California, but I wasn't able to find out where exactly they were because I'd very much like to see them!

[@philiptaylor7902]

Really enjoyed this video Rob. To think that beavers will reduce the risk of flooding, improve water quality and boost biodiversity - all for free! It should be a no-brainier to re-introduce them nationwide. Here in the Chilterns the chalk streams are in a bad way, over abstraction and drier winters means they are drying up for years at a time. Not good beaver habitat I’m afraid.

[@LeaveCurious]

I totally agree, since they're already wild it only makes to have more. Its a shift which I think we will see!

[@Mifaroicazzimieidaadessoinpoi]

Hope to see this in Italy soon!

[@LeaveCurious]

That be awesome!

[@c0niferal]

Awesome video as ever :)

[@lorenzo7026]

Beautiful

[@rridderbusch518]

Subbed! Beaver ecosystems are great for birds like Kingfishers, too. Birding is a relaxing hobby :-)

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

I study freshwater fishes, more their evolution but I did study a bit of how anthropogenic influences effect them. A lot of restoration is biased towards certain taxa. Bypasses aren't great for most fishes, a lot of fishes have a really low pass rate and if there is one they can pass they might never find it as most fishes locate where to go partially by the strength of flow which isn't at bypasses. The good thing about fallen wood and beavers is they so offer fish habitats. I have to wonder though how beavers effect lamprey and eel populations.

[@christinecollins6389]

Looks lovely Why can’t this be done in more places

[@LeaveCurious]

I’m hopeful it will soon enough :)

[@DraconiInfernalus]

because of ignorant people who doesn´t care about nature and think humans are capable of controlling it. it´s the same with dryness everywhere in europe because of monocultures for woodworking industry and lack of trees and bushes in general. trees could cool down big cities in summer 3 to 4 degrees...but who cares, right? yes, there is climate change but you can do something to get better alonog with it. in africa they are capable of regrowing native trees and bushes which are accustomed to the weather. they re-create a healthy ecosystem with lesser droughts and more rain. moisture stays in the ground instead of vaporising immediately. thats also healthy for rivers. they cultivate their own crops again and so on. they dont have to leave their enviroment/home anymore. it creates jobs too. but here...only concrete and industry is important. the progress is far too slow. if you like to help regrow trees and plants all over the world on a daily basis. it´s a good thing using "ecosia" instead of google as a search engine. every time you search for something they plant a tree ☺and on youtube you can also watch all their projects and progress. you can donate money to help them, but it´s absolutely not necessary. it´far enough to use their seach engine.

[@Rombitekti]

For a couple of years a decade or maybe fifteen years ago we had beavers next to our summer cottage and it was amazing. They were swimming around the lake in the dusk, and it was a beautiful thing. Then they suddenly disappeared despite seeming to do well for those couple of years. I'm afraid some idiot killed them, but don't know for sure. I hope they just moved away instead. So sad not to see them around anymore.

[@LeaveCurious]

Amazing, hopefully they’ll be back soon!

[@Hamishtarah]

People should konw more about Schauenberg's work about water, rivers, streams ..

[@K1S7Z3]

We have beavers where I live! They're beautiful.

[@LeaveCurious]

Where do you live?

[@K1S7Z3]

@@LeaveCurious Alberta Canada :)

[@grantmccoy6739]

3:00 thats Austin, Texas. Kind of surprising to see.

[@JoshuaRahbek]

Cool video - as always, though as a person that lives in Copenhagen I'd like to remark that the shot of Copenhagen at 2:23 is a natural sea harbour and not a river. Yeah it's been straigtened all right, but it's really kinda different. I know it's just stock footage, so I don't actually care, just stuck out to me due to familiarity :D

[@LeaveCurious]

I thought the shot looked cool, but it was more for to illustrate man’s impact. But yeah didn’t realise the context!

[@JoshuaRahbek]

@@LeaveCurious Absolutely no worries, it certainly is a good example of a natural harbor being completely "sanitized" for the lack of better word

[@simonmcglary]

And how much is the saving between beaver flood prevention and man made flood prevention systems? Instead of looking at the cost of conservation, personally, I think we should turn that around and look at the saving over the human replacement. I’m convinced that just the initial setup will show substantial savings, with long term benefits so wide and diverse that it makes targeted rewilding projects the best long term investment we could ever make. For long term, think Cairngorms Connect!

[@LeaveCurious]

This is a very good point and I agree!!

[@TheseAreMyHooves]

well unfortunately Iceland is a bit too cold for beavers (I think?)... so I would like to try and serve the purpose of the beaver on our island.... goin around building dams ;)

[@lucy7b]

Have you any knowledge about the sewage system in Kolkata, India. It’s well worth investigating. Raw sewage is brought in and fresh vegetables leave. Ponds upon ponds allow the sewage to be treated. It’s very interesting.

[@LeaveCurious]

Nope, but that does sound very interesting!

[@thomasross4921]

Great video! You got my sub.

[@LeaveCurious]

Welcome! :)

[@sofiakatelyn]

You rock man

[@davidsivills3599]

Beavers are the best engineers on the planet better than any human,

[@simonmatthews7512]

And that my friend is why we invented LONG trousers!

[@LeaveCurious]

I’m working on this.

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

10:20 Bracken plants are such weird little guys. I know they're invasive weeds, but... I find them cute. >_

[@HaloWolf102]

Does anyone have the song name in the beginning intro?

[@ayelean9397]

I have a beaver pond in my backyard. What can I do, or not do, to help them?

[@LeaveCurious]

Probably best just to do nothing and leave them to it!

[@ericritchie6783]

Liked subscribed, commented! Cheers

[@LeaveCurious]

thank you appreciate this :)

[@raphlvlogs271]

will those islands in the middle of the river be connected to the land?

[@LeaveCurious]

No I don't think so!

[@Sksk27547]

This will be a very interesting topic when I talk with the boyz at the pub in the Tottenham firm. Hilarious 😂 I am joking. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah. We barely have done anything to our rivers. They do sometimes cause problems, but that's very rare.

[@simongee8928]

Nature is always in the lead. Man messes around with her, but she will always win. 😊

[@FallenRobot]

Oh, you're part of the Mossy Earth team too

[@LeaveCurious]

I am indeed :)