Okay I must admit that when I first read about this plan by a group of ecologists I thought that they had finally eaten too many greens and lost the plot completely, but actually…
It turns out that the solution to the water problems in the west of California may lay in not getting too much rain, but in smarter ways to collect and store the water that they do get when it does rain. Apart from that, something is needed to keep things moist, and this group of ecologists reckon that repopulating the Central Coast of California with Castor Canadensis, large beavers which once roamed the state in great numbers, is the solution.
According to Michael Pollock, an ecosystems analyst and beaver specialist at the National Marine Fisheries Service Northwest Science Centre, beavers are nature’s hydrologists, and although they cannot create more water, they engineer the way water travels through the landscape, altering how it flows and ultimately benefitting the landscape.
Once again, humans interfered with the natural way of things being done by removing and virtually eradicating these beavers because they were interfering with human fishing and logging industries. The natural flow of rivers and streams was altered to accommodate these industries and to be able to remove water quickly from the watershed, which in turn created problems in the ecosystem that we are only now realising and understanding.
By destroying local habitats for animals we have made it really difficult for an ecosystem to recover from drought. This group believes that bringing the beavers back will once again allow them to build infrastructure which helps slow the flow of water; this allows it to recharge local aquifers, and also prevents erosion, which helps keep plants alive.
Not everyone is in favour of this idea though as they are scared that they will introduce invasive species, but the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program is not waiting around for consensus to be reached; it is taking matters into its own hands by employing humans to build their own beaver-like structures to mimic the beneficial environmental impact of the beavers.
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