Positive Impacts of Beavers

Beavers mitigate the impacts of flood and droughts, which they do by storing and delivering water. Beaver dams act as speed bumps, slowing moving water, allowing it to seep into ground water during times of high and normal water levels, later releasing cool water during the hot, dry times in later summer as well as through the frozen months of the year.

During wildfires, beaver ponds can act as fire breaks and a refuge for wildlife and livestock, also aid in the post-fire recovery and restoration and experience less burning¹. Beaver dams also increase the width of floodplains, reducing erosive forces, increasing the sediment deposition, improving both water quality and stream habitat complexity. The combination of beaver dams slowing water and increasing stream complexity results in dampening flood effects on downstream communities. Beavers act as natural flood and drought mitigation tools² which have been lost due to landscape change and beaver removal resulting from conflict with people over the past 100 years in Alberta. Even when beaver dams failed during the extreme 2013 Alberta floods, they still held back water as the storm progressed³. Beavers are a nature-based solution to climate change, increasing watershed restoration and resiliency while providing additional ecosystem services such as habitat creation and aesthetic appeal.