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In the mid-1800s, a railroad director, entrepreneur, and politician named Lewis Henry Morgan began visiting a largely undeveloped swath of land dotted with beaver ponds in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. What he saw amazed him: "[A] beaver district, more remarkable, perhaps, than any other of equal extent to be found in any part of North America," he wrote. "A rare opportunity was thus offered to examine the works of the beaver, and to see him in his native wilds."
[...] For years, he carefully documented how the beavers behaved and where they built their dams and ponds. Then, in 1868, Morgan published his 396-page beaver bible: The American Beaver and His Works. Folded into each copy was a map, carefully drawn by his railroad's engineers, which detailed the locations of 64 beaver dams and ponds spread over some 125 square kilometers near the community of Ishpeming.
Now, that rare map is giving researchers some new insight into just how busy beavers can be. A new survey shows that many of the dams and ponds that Morgan saw nearly 150 years ago are still there—testament to the resilience of the rodents and their ability to maintain structures over many generations.
All that remains for our energy needs to be met is to teach beavers how to install turbines.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday December 05 2015, @06:23PM
That's cruelty to animals!
I didn't know beavers curse.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 06 2015, @06:33PM
put a large PVC pipe in beaver
That's cruelty to animals!
I don't know, I've seen some movies with that sort of thing and they seemed to be enjoying it.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Tuesday December 08 2015, @03:38AM
put a large PVC pipe in beaver
That's cruelty to animals!
Haha! Indeed it would be! "Beaver dam" would be what we are looking for here. If dam is in right place, you dig up part of the dam, put closed pipe(s) in and beavers rebuild the dam on top "overnight". Then you can provide drainage by water flowing out of the pond by subsurface drainage and beavers will never clog it since it doesn't make a sound. Maintain deep enough water level, beavers stay and maintain the dam over the pipe(s) forever. As long as beavers stay, they will check to be certain there is no leaks in their constructs few times a day.
Beavers are very beneficial, free workers. But we, as humans, need to be smart enough to utilize them properly.