H2O'Lyon Webinar, Seminar and Field Series on "HOW CAN BEAVERS HELP RIVER MANAGEMENT AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE?"
H20'Lyon recently led a wonderful 3-part seminar on "How can beavers help river managemetn and climate resilience?" The series featured national and international presentations, and field visits, addressed to researchers, managers, naturalists and students. Even if you missed it live, you can still watch the webinar portions!
After a long period of decline, beaver populations have been expanding in Europe and North America since the beginning of the 20th century. They have the exceptional ability to engineer new habitats by building dams which modify the flow of water and retain sediments, nutriments, plants and wildlife. These modifications can interact with human interest leading sometimes to conflicts, but they also deliver ecosystem services and can help river restoration. Understanding these issues and sharing knowledge and experiences are therefore key for a successful partnership with beavers in restoring ecosystems and combating climateg change.
Webinar: "Beavers as an ecosystem engineer, impact and role in restoration"
- Introduction : summary of the bibliographical report by the students of the Water Science master's program of Lyon (Margaux Predhomme, Arnaud Forêt, Clément George).
- Influence of beavers on the structure and functioning of river corridors (Annegret Larsen, Wageningen University).
- Beaver ecosystem services - how our societies benefit from beaver riverscapes. (Chris Jordan, NOAA Federal).
Webinar: "Beaver management, feedback and knowledge sharing"
- What can we learn from reintroductions in France? (Yoann Bressan, French Biodiversity Agency).
- Managing beavers in a cultural landscape: the example of Switzerland (Christof Angst, InfoFauna).
- How can we help beavers to return and why? Feedback from the United States (Emily Fairfax, University of Minnesota).