Events

Join Itasca Waters and Minnesota Sea Grant in learning about the effects of beaver ponds and dams as part of the Itasca Water Wisdom online webinar series, co-sponsored by MNSG.

Beavers are powerful ecosystem engineers capable of radically transforming the landscapes they inhabit. From lakes, to rivers, to streams – beaver dam building, tree cutting, and canal digging influence a multitude of biological and physical processes. This, in turn, can improve things like water quality, fish and waterbird habitat, and even the ecosystem’s resilience to drought, flood, and fire. It can also be a headache when it results in things like flooded roads or loss of ornamental trees.

This talk will cover what the beavers here in the Great Lakes region do and do not do, how we currently manage them, and strategies for more sustainable management in the future.

Speaker

• Emily Fairfax, Ph.D., University of Minnesota Department of Geography, Environment and Society & Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory Assistant Professor