Beavers: holding ecosystems in the balance

The Danube has been shaped by humans quite a lot. Most riparian zones have been drained for land to build upon. Beavers repopulated some of the area around the Danube in Linz and built many little dams, as well as a well-structured shoreline and other species followed. Insects, fish, kingfishers or dice snakes. They use the little wetlands and diverse habitats that beavers built. The dams slow down water and ensure that wetland ecosystems can thrive. Beaver dams can hold back quite a lot of water, which is regenerating the groundwater table and saving water for the summer. But it’s still steadily flowing, watering the surroundings, and are permeable for fish and other aquatic animals. Humans are not used to these natural dams and often destroy them, which is illegal in Austria. In other countries, people work together with beavers not against them. Fabian Holzinger and Franziska Thurner give an example from the USA. There, beavers started building dams in a stormwater treatment facility, resulting in better flow than before.