A support group and a lab in the St. Louis area provide resources for people with the allergy to mammal products — and evidence that its effects can be reversed.
Jim Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman Construction, carries a bundle of sticks while working on building a series of artificial beaver dams on a wooded property he owns on Oct. 25, 2024, in Alma Center, Wisconsin. (Joe Timmerman/Wisconsin Watch)
We're glad to be back from a holiday break, and I'll jump right to some exciting news: thanks to all of you, we met our fundraising goal of 50 new donors!
Thanks to NewsMatch, that means we earn a $1000 bonus to support Desk projects. We cannot thank everyone that donated enough, and appreciate you joining us on this collaborative journalism journey.
As we hit the ground running in the New Year, this week I've got a couple of stories to share on our attempts to learn better design from nature.
Bennet Goldstein at Wisconsin Watch reports on the construction of beaver dam analogs (BDAs), human-made imitations that hope to replicate the benefits of those made by our furry engineering friends, like flood control and water quality.
It also highlights how hard people have to work to imitate nature and its complex systems.
“It gives you an appreciation for what beavers do,” says one man in the piece, as he constructs a dam. “They’re one of the hardest-working animals out there, I guess.”
I also hope you can find a few minutes to enjoy the piece below from Madeline Heim at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Estefanía Pinto Ruiz at KWQC-TV6 News, on efforts to collect thousands of acorns to restore struggling floodplain forests.
For the past few decades, the trees that grow in the Mississippi River floodplain, known as floodplain forests, have been struggling. Government agencies and nonprofits are attempting to reverse the decline by planting new trees.
By Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Estefanía Pinto Ruiz, KWQC-TV6 News
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Forester Andy Meier walks toward “the boneyard” at Reno Bottoms on the upper Mississippi River in summer 2023. High water, prolonged flooding, invasive species and tree diseases have been hard on the Mississippi River’s floodplain forests. Credit: Jovanny Hernandez/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Thanks for reading. More next week from across the Basin.
Sincerely,
Michael Crowe Interim Assistant Director, Ag & Water Desk
