1. Changing the Flow – What it Does to Wildlife Environmental Science 4.5

2. Nature’s Engineers Beavers create deep ponds by damming a stream W/o beaver dams to slow flow of water, free-flowing streams carve deep ditches in the meadows ▫Increases turbidity Beaver dams help conserve water and improve water quality Beaver ponds increase amount of water returned to aquifer by allowing more time for infiltration ▫Plants filter water, improving water quality in stream below dam

3. Beaver dams create valuable habitat for mink, muskrats, otters, raccoons, turtles, frogs, waterfowl, and bass Beavers bring large amounts of plant materials to a pond Some property owners love them; some hate them

4. Danger Below the Dam Supersaturation caused the worst fish kill on the Osage River ▫500,000 fish were killed following the completion of the Truman Dam in 1978 ▫Later a lip was added to prevent fish kills Gas bubble disease (similar to the bends) Popeye

5. Barriers for Fish Salmon, shad, etc. migrate from ocean to spawn in the same fresh water stream where they were hatched Fish ladders – pools of water arranged as a series of steps to enable fish to get past dam ▫Only for low dams Dams can be deadly to young fish ▫Slow current, warm water ▫Power turbines kill millions as they make their way to the ocean

6. Channeled Streams and Wildlife Channel – natural bed of a stream/river where the water usually flows ▫Often deepened and straightened to increase flow of water and prevent flooding  Not good for wildlife Channeled streams have few/no trees to shade water and protect it from sun Nothing to protect bank from force of flowing water ▫Erosion increases ▫Turbidity increases

7. Lack of food, oxygen, and good breeding places become limiting factors for some fish Decreases productivity Destroys habitat of deer, squirrels, wood ducks, otters, eagles, etc.

8. The Kissimmee – Repairing a River The Kissimmee River once meandered 103 mi through central FL A flood-control project took the natural bends out of the river and changed it to a 56-mile-long river Not a good source of food and cover for wildlife Small fish and freshwater shrimp that provided food for birds were gone Waterfowl pop. declined by 90%; nesting bald eagles declined 70%

9. We began to realize the importance of wetlands It took 10 years and $32 million to take the bends out of the Kissimmee It took 20 years and $578 million to put the bends back into the middle third of the river W/o wetlands to absorb the water and return it to the aquifer, the people of Miami are in danger of running out of fresh water