PBS Shared Planet Features Beaver Restoration and Healthy Riverscapes
Riverscapes Consortium lead and Utah State University professor Joe Wheaton is featured in the “Waters” episode of PBS’s new series Shared Planet, which highlights hopeful stories of people and wildlife thriving together.
PBS’s new series Shared Planet explores hopeful stories of how people and wildlife can thrive together. The final episode, “Waters,” airs Wednesday, May 20 at 10 p.m. ET/8 p.m. MT on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS app, and will be available to stream free for 30 days. The episode features stories from freshwater and marine systems around the world — including an Idaho ranch where beavers are helping hold water on a drought-stressed landscape.
The Idaho segment tells part of the story of Jay Wilde and the Birch Creek restoration project in southeast Idaho. Wilde, a rancher near Preston, set out to bring beavers back to Birch Creek with the goal of restoring perennial streamflow and providing more reliable water for his cattle and horses. Riverscapes Consortium lead and Utah State University professor Joe Wheaton has worked with Wilde on the Birch Creek story since 2014, and the project has become a widely shared example of how beaver-assisted restoration can help recover stream processes.
The PBS segment also features Nate Norman, a Utah State University scientist and member of the Beaver Ecology and Relocation Collaborative, whose work focuses on beaver ecology, relocation, and restoration applications. Together, Wheaton and Norman help explain why beavers matter for riverscape health: their dams can slow water, raise water tables, reconnect streams with floodplains, create habitat, and help landscapes store water longer.
Watch the PBS clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEfWb4rC-kI
Watch Shared Planet on PBS, PBS.org, or the PBS app: https://www.pbs.org/show/shared-planet/
Premiering Wednesday, May 20, at 8:00 PM MT, the “Waters” episode will be available to stream free for 30 days.
Photo credit: Shared Planet Productions Ltd./PBS