Leave it to Beavers: Mammals Chew Through Red Tape to Complete Dam Project

Officials had been struggling with the costs and paperwork needed to form a protected wetland region in the Czech Republic’s Vltava River Basin for months. Then, local beavers came along. They might be quoted as saying, “Permits? We don’t need no stinkin’ permits!”  

Endangered frog, crayfish, and bird species call the river valley home. Most agreed that building a series of dams would allow the Brdy wetland region to retain the water needed to protect these species. Yet raising 30,000,000 Czech koruna ($1,240,200) to fund the effort seemed hard. Building the dam would be tricky, too. It would need to block a river at many points as it flowed through gullies on a closed-down military base. Officials had started to despair. They feared the project might never get off the ground.     

And then they showed up one day in late January to a surprise. The project was finished! 

"(Experts) were negotiating with each other to set up the project and address issues regarding ownership of land,” Bohumil Fišer, head of the Brdy Protected Landscape Area Administration, told Radio Prague International (RPI). “The beavers beat them to it, saving us CZK 30 million. They built the dams without any project documentation and for free.”

Engineers studied the sturdy dam of branches and mud the beavers had built. They proclaimed the project sound. They declared it complete earlier this month.  

"Beavers always know best. The places where they build dams are always chosen just right — better than when we design it on paper," Jaroslav Obermajer told RPI. He is head of the Central Bohemian office of the Czech Nature and Landscape Protection Agency.

Reflect: What lessons can we learn from the way animals shape their environments?

Gif of a beaver from GIPHY.