'The Economic Times' Features the RiverSmart Communities Project's Research on Beavers' Sustainable Impact

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Sometimes the best tools for protecting ecosystems are the ones nature built itself. One need only look at the industrious beaver: research highlighted by UMass Amherst's RiverSmart Communities project—housed within the College of Natural Sciences's Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment—shows how beaver-created wetlands can keep stream corridors lush and damp, creating natural buffers that are more resistant to wildfires and providing refuge for wildlife. This research was recently featured in The Economic Times.

In one area that the RiverSmart Communities project studies, northeastern Washington, efforts to relocate beavers to degraded waterways are demonstrating how these "ecosystem engineers" can restore wetlands while helping communities adapt to a changing climate. Studying areas across the country allows the RiverSmart Communities project to combine "social and river science, institutional and policy research, and community outreach...to research and address river floods in New England."

“Beaver wetlands in northeast Washington's dry landscapes are currently functioning as buffer zones against wildfires, according to the UMass Amherst RiverSmart Communities project. The project involves collaborative efforts of the US Forest Service, Washington Fish and Wildlife, habitat biologists, and volunteer community members; and is a significant change in the approach to the management of beavers in the American West."

— The Economic Times

Learn more about this work in The Economic Times.