Natural History Wanderings

Mongabay reports

NASA satellites reveal restoration power of beavers

• A new partnership between NASA and researchers is measuring the impact of beavers reintroduced to landscapes in Idaho.
• Beavers are one of the world’s most powerful ecosystem engineers, building new habitats by slowing water flow and reducing flooding, while also boosting biodiversity.
• Beavers are all the more important in an age of rapid climate change, as they produce wetter and more resilient habitats, even in the face of wildfires.
• “NASA is interested in how satellite Earth observations can be used for natural resource management,” a member of the space agency’s Ecological Conservation Program tells Mongabay.