Smokey the Beaver: How Beavers Build Fire-Resistant Landscapes

This Sips 'n' Science virtual pub talk aired on November 28, 2023, as a part of the Luckiamute Watershed Council's Love Your Watershed program. Learn more about the Luckiamute Watershed Council and subscribe to receive LWC event updates at www.luckiamutelwc.org/
Presentation Synopsis: Beaver dams and beaver mimicry (e.g. Beaver Dam Analogs) are gaining popularity as a low‐cost, nature-based strategy to build climate resiliency at the landscape scale. Beavers slow and store water in their ponds, canals, and the surrounding soil during wet periods which can then be accessed by riparian vegetation during droughts. As a result, the well-watered vegetation in beaver-dammed riparian corridors is less flammable. Emily's research has shown that these beaver-influenced patches of the landscape stay green and can serve as fire refugia, preserving intact, mature riparian habitat, even during megafires. Perhaps instead of relying solely on human engineering and management to create and maintain fire‐resistant waterways and riparian zones, we could benefit from partnering with beaver’s ecosystem engineering to achieve the same goals at a lower cost.
About the Speaker: Emily Fairfax is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota and an affiliate faculty member at the Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory. Dr. Fairfax double majored in Chemistry and Physics as an undergraduate at Carleton College, then went on to earn a PhD in Geological Sciences with an emphasis in Hydrologic Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. She uses a combination of remote sensing, modeling, and field work to understand how beaver ecosystem engineering can create drought and fire-resistant patches in the landscape under a changing climate. Her research has been featured internationally in National Geographic, the New York Times, the LA Times, BBC, Vox, and others. When Dr. Fairfax says she can talk about beavers all day, she’s not kidding.
Thank you to Pacific Power Foundation, which provided funding that helped support this Sips 'n' Science webinar! Learn more at www.pacificpower.net/foundation.

[@ravenwolf7128]

this was great research. I hope more places bring back beavers to manage or create wetlands across North America. In future mega droughts and warming trends, I fear the Northeastern US were I live will see these horrific fires. The residents here have no clue about fire threat, thinking the overgrown forests here are "natural" but they're not.

[@luckiamutewatershedcouncil]

Thanks for your comment, @ravenwolf7128. Here in the Pacific NW, it took several very devastating wildfires to put wildfire resilience on everyone's priority list. I hope residents and policymakers in the Northeastern US will learn from this experience and start thinking about how to protect forests, homes and communities now instead of after a tragedy has already occurred!

[@snigwithasword1284]

I would genuinely love to see smokey the bear rebrand as smokey the beaver. It would make the goals much more obvious and achievable. I was briefly involved in a minnesota lake association (think HOA with a preponderance of fishermen) and it was very depressing how much obsession was spent on ~anything~ that might negatively affect the amount of ~artificially stocked~ fish in the lake. Beavers were pretty high on that list, against all logic and reason. Oh and all this is right near a town that famously survived at least one >200K acre fire around the 1900s -- because it was and still is surrounded by beaver marshes. Stay awesome!

[@luckiamutewatershedcouncil]

Thanks so much for your comment. I am confident that with the growing number of beaver advocates and beaver benefits researchers, there will be an increasing number of communities across the US that will start seeing beavers as allies in both wildfire resilience and habitat recovery efforts!

[@jaymenjanssens720]

😵 60+ wildfires continue in Alberta