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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · 19d

Do you like learning about beavers but don't have brain space for reading another technical study right now?

Do you enjoy storytelling?

Are you or is someone you know a kid?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then check out this episode of Terrestrials!

www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/rad...

The Builders: How Beavers Mend Our Planet | Radiolab for Kids Presents: Terrestrials | WNYC Studios

A creature whose footprints produce and protect life.

www.wnycstudios.org

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Reposted by Dr. Emily Fairfax

Eos @eos.org · 23d

🦫+🪵=💧💧💧

eos.org/articles/wha...

What Makes Beaver Ponds Bigger? - Eos

For the first time, researchers are able to add hydrologic estimates to find where reintroducing beavers could best benefit a watershed and the humans who live within it.

eos.org

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Reposted by Dr. Emily Fairfax

MPR News @mprnews.org · Sep 11

In Minnesota, beavers have long been considered a nuisance, thanks to their ability to gnaw trees and construct dams that sometimes clog culverts, raise lake levels or flood roads. But among scientists, there’s a growing recognition that these engineers bring a host of environmental benefits.

As nature’s ‘ecosystem engineers,’ beavers could help fight effects of climate change

Beaver dams reduce flooding, create wetlands that boost biodiversity and can even slow wildfires. But bringing back beavers would require a shift in public attitude — and finding ways for humans and beavers to coexist.

www.mprnews.org

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Aug 31

@woods.stanford.edu
@stanthonyfallslab.bsky.social
@umncla.bsky.social

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Aug 31

Beavers are admittedly chaotic and work their ecosystem magic in sometimes mysterious ways.

But we’re trying our best to understand them & work together to fight wildfires!

Check out this article covering Luwen’s recent paper and some of my previous fire + beavs work!

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

How beavers could help fight wildfires | CBC News

New research out of the western U.S. suggests dams and ponds built by beavers can slow floods, store water and even create green firebreaks in wildfire-prone landscapes.

www.cbc.ca

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Reposted by Dr. Emily Fairfax

Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment @woods.stanford.edu · Aug 11

🦫 Bringing back #beavers – and the nature-based solutions they offer for #freshwater, #biodiversity, and #ClimateResilience

New study uses #RemoteSensing to map beaver dams + ponds with an eye toward prioritizing areas for restoration and reintroducing beavers.

🔗 bit.ly/bringing-back-beavers

A woman stands in waders holding a measuring tape. Text reads "Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, New Research, 'Our findings can help land managers figure out where beaver activity will have the biggest impact. It gives them a practical tool for using nature to solve water and climate problems.' Luwen Wan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Earth System Science, Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence"

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Aug 11

Many people want to bring back #beavers for water storage. Big ponds = big benefits for flood, drought, wildfire & more! But what drives big ponds? Is it *just* dam length? What drives dam length?

Get your answers in this new paper by Luwen Wan, Kate Maher, & myself!

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Factors influencing surface water accumulation in beaver pond complexes across the Western United States - Communications Earth & Environment

Dam length, woody vegetation height, and stream power index explain 74% of the variation in pond area, providing a foundation for beaver restoration and watershed management in the western US, accordi...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Dr. Emily Fairfax

Alan Puttock @alanputtock.bsky.social · Aug 5

New job alert! Interested in applied research increasing our understanding of water resilience, nature based solutions and rewilding? @exeter.ac.uk we are looking for a Technical Specialist, working with me and others in Geography and @uoe-creww.bsky.social

jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 26

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 25

The solution? Use field work and community observations to make note of what your local beavers are *actually* building with, and then update the models to reflect that.

A four panel figure from the paper showing a dam made with trash, a dam made with invasive blackberry, a cut burnt pine tree, and a dam made of mud and grass.

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 25

In a new peer-reviewed perspective article led by my postdoc Jessie Moravek and with contributions from many members of the Fairfax lab, we summarized existing popular beaver occupancy models and highlight how beavers like to "break the rules," and then in turn, the models.

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 25

Can you predict where a beaver will build a dam? Or how many dams they will build?

There are many models for beaver habitat availability & dam building potential. One thing they all have in common? They need to be calibrated with local knowledge of place-based beaver behavioral adaptations!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Dr. Emily Fairfax

Mike Waddington 🇨🇦 @peatofmind.bsky.social · Jul 22

Check out our new paper "Ecohydrological drivers of Boreal Shield peatland fire refugia" in Ecohydrology.

Authors: Alex Tekatch, Chantel Markle, Sophie Wilkinson, Paul Moore, @mercury-ecohydro.bsky.social, @peatofmind.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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Reposted by Dr. Emily Fairfax

Climate Disconnect @climate-disconnect.bsky.social · Jul 18

Beaver champion @emilyfairfax.bsky.social telling PBS News about how important beavers are in flood management. She does an amazing job of quickly and memorably explaining what beavers do and why. Also: Did you know beavers make "snuggle piles"?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpLu...

WATCH: What role do beavers play in flood management?

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

www.youtube.com

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 17

I had the very cool opportunity to be interviewed on @pbsnews.org for "Tipping Point: the Mighty Mississippi".

Check it out to hear all about how #beavers were part of the Mississippi River Basin's past, and need to be part of its future as climate changes!

www.youtube.com/live/C9NyCr4...

A screenshot of me on PBS News sitting in front of the Mississippi River and the Saint Anthony Falls Lab, talking about beavers.

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 15

🤖🦫

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 14

100%

I’m just glad the beavers judgement of me was “eh, not a threat. Just a big weird animal” instead of “PREDATOR. SOUND THE (tail) ALARM.”

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 14

Also this beav: ‘scuse me, got work to do. Don’t mess up the dam while I’m out. Thanks.

This beaver was surprisingly unbothered by us standing on its dam - it didn’t even slap its tail. It looked at us, swam back & forth a few times, then went about its errands.

Thanks for being chill, beav!

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Jul 14

Me, standing on a dam and talking to a film crew: sorry we will almost certainly not see any actual beavers today. They’re usually sleeping in the middle of the day, especially when it’s super hot out like today.

This beav at 12pm sharp: sup

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Reposted by Dr. Emily Fairfax

Dr. Sarah Fortner @erthsarah.bsky.social · Jul 10

Thanks @emilyfairfax.bsky.social for the great tour of Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory! Excited to hear about your projects underway & to see the coolness of this science & the Mighty Mississippi up close! @carleton.edu loves beavers too! Can’t wait to see you flood an experimental channel.

Me, Roger Faust, Emily Fairfax, channel that will be flooded behind us & current algae oxygen production experiment by another lab.

Every sensor known to humanity monitors the Mississippi

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Apr 26

That's fantastic!! I love how much the beaver lore / science is spreading - especially here in MN!

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Apr 26

Yes please any photos of the the current state of the beaver wetland would be much appreciated!! It’s the one on the north side of the lake past the berm/bridge.

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Apr 25

Things I’d like to learn from #beavers: how to be famously productive while also being unhurried, unstressed, and peaceful as I go about my work.

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Reposted by Dr. Emily Fairfax

Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · Apr 23

If you've heard me talk about Western U.S. wildfire, you've probably heard me mention that while *baseline* fire risk is lower in the (moister) East, the *conditional* risk can still be extremely high when conditions align (including, as here, in and downwind of pine barrens in New Jersey today).

Neil Lareau @neillareau.bsky.social · Apr 23

Impressive fire activity today in New Jersey. Here is a 3D radar view of the plume structure from the #JonesFire during its peak fire intensity.

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Dr. Emily Fairfax @emilyfairfax.bsky.social · Apr 8

Beavers are native to pretty much all of the US. They also extend about halfway down into Mexico and all the way into the Arctic (they’re increasing in number in the Arctic as it warms and shrubifies)! They are invasive in Patagonia, South America where they were introduced to be a fur resource.

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