00:00Did you know beavers can help fight drought? Known as nature's ecosystem engineers, beavers arrange sticks and pack the gaps
00:07with mud, grass, and rocks to build dams.
00:10Those dams slow the flow of water, creating ponds that allow water to seep into the ground.
00:16It's why conservation crews are taking a cue from these busy builders.
00:20In southwestern Wyoming's Green River Basin, Nick Walrath and his team at Trout Unlimited are building structures called beaver dam
00:28analogs.
00:30These man-made versions mimic natural dams, with the goal of eventually having beavers take over and maintain them.
00:36They create these areas where in drought, in extreme drought situations, the ground acts like a sponge and it holds
00:47the water higher in the system for longer.
00:49That stored groundwater can help keep streams flowing through dry periods, supporting habitat for native fish and other wildlife when
00:57water is scarce.
00:58Walrath and his team have built hundreds of dams, with beavers already moving into some of the areas they've restored.
01:04Some of those between 2020 and now have been kind of overtaken, or beavers have moved into them, and so
01:13we don't do a whole lot of maintenance or anything on them.
01:15Other sites need years of restoration, including planting willows to provide food and building material.
01:21Year after year, or sometimes multiple times a year, to do some patching to make sure that the water table
01:27stays high in those areas where we want it to.
01:30And location matters. Beaver dams can flood nearby property and clog irrigation ditches.
01:35The work in Wyoming is one approach within Trout Unlimited's broader effort to protect and restore waterways nationwide.
01:41The next step is to keep restoring these streams until more can support the beavers they hope will take over.
01:47For AccuWeather, I'm Heather Fordham.
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