Beavers and Wildfire: a stop-motion story by Emily Fairfax

Beaver dams build climate resiliency by slowing water down and storing it in their ponds and the surrounding riparian area. Their wetlands are uniquely resistant to disturbances like droughts and fire!

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Felt Beaver Stop-Motion created by Emily Fairfax

[OmerHossain]

General people: "I don't understand the complexity of scientific research 😩
Dr. Emily Fairfax: Let me explain in 45 seconds
👏👏👏💯

[ronward]

One beaver( Castor canadensis) is great, but it can take two to raise a family. Witnessing a bank lodge beaver in Yankton, SD. I personally gleaned year- long exposure to a family, who I witnessed feed, nurse, and on occasions witness the pair together as busy as a family can be. Feeding on Fremont cottonwoods while simultaneously nursing her kits sounding like babies naturally. I saw her come in nervously with limb, she seemed good with me, submerged, mysteriously entered lodge and heard the action. Not only did their always capture my attention, I learned to fish from nearby woody structure, Spring bringing them into spawn. All aspects of their lifestyles seemed keenly suited for this family life, where local shores, deciduous sprout shooting trees are aided in some forms of propagation by the beavers also. Wood ducks ( Aix sponsa ) had a local cavity nest in an accompanying cottonwood stand and another local resident. Finding cavities can be a test for this Native bird. Beavers in this area store woody forage materials under the ice for winter, and al this woody debris is sustenance for the myriad of Mayflies hatching, cottonwood silk, and all those tangible memories.

[BethV-iv]

Bravo! Elegant and poignant and hopeful.

[lisadigangi]

This is absolutely brilliant! I use this in my classroom to demonstrate engineering, stop motion animation, and bioinspiration.

[wlatno]

I had to watch this just for a school project but I didn't expect to go through a rollercoaster of emotions when I thought the Beaver was going to die. Beautiful work

[aliaoutrey]

Yay for beavers!!! Thank you for acknowledging them so creatively 😊

[lauralilia]

That is a wonderful depiction of a beaver's work! You nailed the message and impact to living creatures. Thank you for such an educational and creative stop-motion story.

[bigonegeorgegrace]

Emily! We are soo impressed with your message and vision. I can't wait until someone sends this to Califonia's governor!

[sharonazar]

Mother Nature without humans can do amazing things!!

[carmensosa]

Thank you for this wonderful interpretation! You have inspired me.

[Kempster_K]

It's criminal this only has 713 likes! I remember when I first saw your tweet about this a few years ago and it came across my path a few days ago. Then today someone I was talking to mentioned beavers' role in nature and I had to come find this to share!

[metalmamasue]

I love wildlife restoration and rewilding projects. The stop motion animation video was very cool. When my oldest son was a kid, he just loved the old stop motion dinosaur and Godzilla movies. I found a documentary about them and he loved that tape. He used to play it all the time and explain how painstaking it was to make a movie or film that way. Idk why he loved that documentary so much but he did lol 😊 Nice video, go beavers. Now if we couId just get the USFWS to stop destroying so many animals 🤔😮

[Intelife]

Love it. Let all wildlife Managers see this. Why are Beavers not a “ species of Even though their numbers may be considered viable their contribution to climate change mitigation is not adequately taken into account.

[TJFritz]

Excellent video. Too bad our governments are not as intelligent. To find a way to help the Beaver 🦫 to find a place in this ever changing landscape. 🙏 🌎. They are Gods natural Fire extinguisher 🦫

[cynthiaeagleton]

OMG - adorable! Also educational - but have to recover from the beaver love first. Simple, powerful, memorable!!

[seachangeau]

oooh this is so clever - and go beavers. i wonder what the aussie equivalent is? we don't have a lot of rivers but i know we are greedy about taking too much water out of the system and using it to irrigate stupid crops like cotton or rice that we shouldn't grow here.

[janett]

Well done, Emily! We're CU Boulder alums - so proud!

[LouiseGray-sxdt]

“The Way To Control Nature
Is To Obey Her”

A Polynesian Saying

[grahamstone]

Great work, but the dam is backwards.

[rusticfurkin]

This depiction is only half the story. It does not show where all the wood has come from to build the dam. The beaver will have felled riverbank and field margin trees to construct the dam at a time when we are all being encouraged to plant more trees to combat climate change. A single beaver will fell 200 trees in 1 year. In the process it is destroying an already well established environment supporting a wide biodiversity. Furthermore the dam will alter the biodiversity of the river and will prevent the wild trout and the few remaining salmon reaching their spawning grounds in the upper reaches of the river.