Canadian Rockies Beaver Project, Canada – Ecohydrology Web Platform

Project Overview

Valley-bottom peatland | Upper Foothills Natural Subregion. Site has up to 6.8 m of peat. Lying beneath the peat is 40 m of alluvium, underlain by black shale of marine origin

Conserve Process YES

Enhance Process YES

Apply Complementary YES

Ecosystem Services

Provisioning

Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources.

Regulating

Regulating Services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control.

Habitat / Supporting

Ecosystem services "that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services". These include services such as nutrient recycling, primary production and soil formation.

Cultural

Cultural Services corresponds nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.

Major Issues

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No issues provided.

EH Engineering Solutions

We have an array of camera traps

We have an array of camera traps to collect information on beaver use of the site plus the use of beaver dams and ponds by other fauna.

We use drones to collect information on

We use drones to collect information on plant greenness.

The site includes a hydrometeorological station (includes

The site includes a hydrometeorological station (includes eddy covariance), an array of shallow groundwater wells, stream gauges and beaver pond level monitoring stations.

We have a meteorological station (includes eddy

We have a meteorological station (includes eddy covariance), multiple stream gauges, and an array of shallow groundwater wells and beaver pond level monitoring stations

Project Activities

Research
public engagement
children's education

Expected Outcomes

The planned research will expose how networks of beaver-built structures radically change the water storage and release capacity of Rocky Mountain headwaters, and evaluate how to deploy one beaver management tool – beaver pond levelers – in a way that achieves a delicate balance between reduced flood extent in sensitive areas while still gaining some of the ecosystem functional benefits provided by beaver dams. As well, we will develop an early alert system to quickly identify and deploy beaver mitigation tools using crowdsourced data

Latest Results

No results provided yet.

Ecohydrology Principles and Solutions

Hydrological Quantification

Quantification of the hydrological processes at catchment scale and mapping the impacts

Ecological Identification

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Ecological Engineering & Nature-based Solutions

We have an array of camera traps to collect information on beaver use of the site plus the use of beaver dams and ponds by other fauna. | We use drones to collect information on plant greenness. | The site includes a hydrometeorological station (includes eddy covariance), an array of shallow groundwater wells, stream gauges and beaver pond level monitoring stations. | We have a meteorological station (includes eddy covariance), multiple stream gauges, and an array of shallow groundwater wells and beaver pond level monitoring stations

Objectives

EH Objectives

Water 1/5

Biodiversity 1/5

Services 5/5

Resilience 5/5

Cultural Heritage 0/5

Project Objectives

Culture, The site is adjacent to the Stoney First Nation Reserve and has been an important site for Indigenous peoples for >10,000 years. There is considerable opportunity to develop improved cultural ties Education, We collaborate with a Charter School which leases the land adjacent to the peatland and will be involving their students in the CastorTracker project.

Key Stakeholders

University of Saskatchewan University of Waterloo Government of Alberta Miistakis Institute Jumpingpound Creek Watershed Partnership Bow River Basin Council Connect Charter School

Methodology

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