The Beaver Solution

Water quantity debates are rarely fun, and almost never come with chipper animated videos. Because it breaks the dour mold of the normal debate, I wanted to share this link to The Land Council's new The Beaver Solution project.

The Lands Council site says The Beaver Solution:

"...is allowing beavers to do what they do naturally; build dams and store water, which slowly releases to increase flows in the late summer. After hearing that the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) was investigating several locations to build large new dams on canyon tributaries to the Columbia River to store early spring runoff and release it late in the summer, The Lands Council proposed a unique alternative – The Beaver Solution – reintroducing beavers to build dams to store spring runoff. Beaver dams also create wetland areas that retain rain and snowmelt, trap sediment making streams cleaner, increase ground water levels, and create habitat for fish and wildlife."

Don't miss the great video, which pitches beaver as a "fuzzy, paddle-tailed solution" and only makes one mildly corny "dam" joke. Also of interest is a good FAQ page on beaver and a great Document Lodge with good resources on the connections between beaver, wetlands, water storage, and more.