Written by Amanda Voth / Photos by Abbey Soukup
During the month of September, The Ogden Nature Center conservation staff and volunteers will install three new BDAs. This will be an exciting and ecologically beneficial addition to the Nature Center and will be able to serve as a great educational opportunity.
BDA stands for beaver dam analog, and their purpose is to mimic the function of a natural beaver dam. Although beavers have a reputation for being a nuisance animal due to their dam-building behaviors affecting human spaces, they are a keystone species for riparian habitats. A dam in a stream acts as a natural speed bump for water. This means water that would otherwise flow very quickly through a stream and cause erosion of the banks is being slowed significantly. When a stream bank is eroded heavily or incised, it disconnects the stream to its natural floodplain. This causes the floodplain to more closely resemble an upland area. When floodplain areas are lost, dozens of species that rely on them are left without the resources they need. This is especially crucial for migrating waterfowl looking for a safe place to eat, nest, and molt. Dams also help to deposit sediment in streams, and the slower flow helps to push water to the surrounding water table. This is especially important in times of drought and makes areas with dams resilient to wildfires. Beavers have been continuously hunted or removed from their natural habitat due to human conflict, and these areas are no longer receiving the ecosystem services the beavers once provided. Beaver Dam Analogs are a step in solving this problem. Wooden posts are installed and pushed deep into the river bed, and materials such as willows, rocks, and mud are packed and woven between the posts. The goal is to create a dam that allows water to only flow over the top of it.BDAs are not meant to be perfect engineering or permanent fixtures and will eventually wash out as a natural dam would too. This will help to deposit sediment throughout the stream system. Our lead ecologist and 2 conservation interns recently volunteered with SagelandCollaborative to get hands-on experience in building BDAs. They worked in Parleys Canyon and assisted in a project that will put 25 new BDAs onto a stream that is a part of the Great Salt Lake watershed. BDAs increase stream complexity, with new pools, and new water pathways which support more wetland plant and animal species. A slow flow of water also allows for more time for pollution to be sequestered from the water. We look forward to the installation of our three new beaver dam analogs at The Ogden NatureCenter, as we strive to continue to make a positive impact on the environment. We are hoping to see increased riparian species and support the cleanliness of the greater Weber watershed.
