Dam failures had minor consequences<\/p>\n
The results were clear. In both floods, the failed beaver dams had only a small and short-lived effect on water levels downstream.<\/p>\n
During the 2011 flood, the dam failure raised river levels near the inn by only about 20 centimetres \u2014 and for just a few minutes. Even if the dam had remained intact, the river would still have overflowed because of the extreme rainfall, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n
When they modelled beaver ponds containing four times the observed water volume, the flooding was still minimal. Only unrealistically high dams could have made a meaningful difference, the researchers said.<\/p>\n
Log jams a likelier culprit<\/p>\n
The study also found that the river\u2019s steep slope, combined with intense rainfall, naturally created fast-moving water, capable of eroding banks and moving large logs. Fallen trees and other kinds of wood jams near bridges were likely a much bigger factor in the flooding and damage than beaver dams far upstream.<\/p>\n
These conditions alone were enough to explain the dramatic \u201cwalls of water\u201d cascading down the river towards the inn, as witnesses reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want rivers to be canals, with the same shape and depth \u2014 we want trees and beaver dams. It would be completely counterproductive to remove them, and impossible anyway,\u201c Biron says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we see something incorrect, scientists feel it is our duty speak out, especially when there are legal implications. The wording in Article 105 is key, so lawyers need to be involved, not just scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study was co-written by Jean Gauthier and Mathieu Dub\u00e9 of Tetra Tech QI, inc., Thomas Buffin B\u00e9langer at Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Rimouski and Maxime Boivin at Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Chicoutimi.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Read the cited paper: \u201cBeaver dam failures: Reconciling science, perception and policy for sustainable river management in Quebec (Canada)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dam failures had minor consequences The results were clear. In both floods, the failed beaver dams had only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-498205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}