Do beaver dams really make flooding worse? Research casts doubt on beavers as flood culprits

Do beaver dams really make flooding worse? Research casts doubt on beavers as flood culprits

Beavers (Castor canadensis) are widely recognized as ecosystem engineers, building dams that reshape water flow and alter the physical structure of rivers and streams. There is a scientific consensus on the positive impact of beaver dams, for example, in creating landscape-scale wetlands, increasing biodiversity and generating heterogeneity that benefits many species. However, during extreme rainfall, beaver dams are quickly blamed for exacerbat…