That was Jessica Gunn’s mantra when she put on waders and climbed chest-deep into the cool water of the opimihāw Creek at Wanuskewin Heritage Park in mid-September. Gunn was there with a group of University of Saskatchewan (USask) students who were engaging in a unique learning experience: constructing a beaver dam analog (BDA) in the creek.
“A big part of why I wanted to do this course is because it’s so hands-on,” said Gunn, a third-year renewable resource management student who enrolled in SLSC 450.3: Practical and Applied Restoration, a soil science course taught by Dr. Katherine Stewart (PhD), an associate professor in USask’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources.
For Gunn, the day at Wanuskewin was unlike any other school day she had experienced.
“We had a great time as a class,” she said. “I feel like we learned so much.”
The students were invited to Wanuskewin to help the park build a BDA — essentially a “starter” dam that beavers can take over and use to construct their own dam overtop. BDAs are important because they encourage beavers to engage in damming at specific locations. BDAs also assist with controlled flooding, which can help remove invasive species and support additional riparian and aquatic plantings that help provide an optimal habitat for creatures that depend on the creek for their survival, such as arthropods, fish, muskrats, minks, herons, and shrikes.
Click here to see more...