Fish and Dams

People and Fish

Terry Lee, who’s been a water resource specialist for 25 years, has
an innovative solution for today’s problem of more frequent and severe
floods: let nature’s engineers restore natural water storage. Like other
planners nationwide, Lee must cope with a landscape that’s lost much
floodplain storage, just as extreme weather events are becoming more
common. Heavy rains in August of 2007 caused one stream in Olmstead
County to crest 90 inches above normal, over six Minnesota counties,
led to seven deaths, plus $26 million in damage. According to a public radio
report, witnesses in Stockton, MN saw their neighbors’ house float by with
the owners on the roof.

Read the full article: Beaver Hypothesis II: People and Fish

Atlantic Salmon/Beaver Dam Controversy

A controversial new report that blames beaver dams for the decline
of Atlantic salmon in the eastern Canadian province of Prince Edward
Island (P.E.I) is making ripples across the Atlantic. In Scotland, the Salmon
and Trout Association has used “A Conservation Strategy for Atlantic
Salmon in Prince Edward Island” by Daryl Guignion to lobby against the
re-introduction of wild beavers.

Yet fisheries biologists say Guignion’s drastic recommendations — that trappers remove beavers entirely from ten river systems on Prince Edward Island (P.E.I) and maintain “beaver-free” zones in many others — lack scientific credibility.

Read the full article: Atlantic Salmon/Beaver Dam Controversy