Needed: An Ecosystems Engineer for Habitat Restoration and Other Services
Needed: An Ecosystems Engineer for Habitat Restoration and Other Services
This chapter examines the potential role of the beaver in habitat restoration and other ecosystems services. As a tireless dam builder, the beaver can and should be an important ally in wetland restoration. For thousands of years, beavers have created and maintained wetlands that stored water and kept the water table high. Their leaky dams evened out the flow of streams. Leaky dams provide an ideal compromise of “ecosystems services.” First, they control flooding better than solid concrete dams because of their gradual release of water. Second, they slow down the flow suffiently to allow time for cleansing the water. This chapter first considers the impact of beaver dams on stream restoration before discussing how the beaver can contribute to wetland conservation and restoration.
Keywords: beaver, habitat restoration, ecosystems services, wetland restoration, wetlands, dam, flooding, stream restoration, wetland conservation
Cornell Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
