Czech Dam Project To Protect Habitat Was Stalled - Beavers Took Care Of The Job At No Cost
Beavers have saved Czech taxpayers $1.2m (£1m) by flooding a protected former army training site where a long-stalled dam was planned. Officials had hoped to build a barrier to shield the Klabava River and its population of critically endangered crayfish from sediment and acidic water spilling over from two nearby ponds. As a bonus it would turn a part of this protected area south of the capital, Prague, into a nature-rich wetland.
First drafted in 2018, the project had a building permit but was delayed by negotiations over the land, long used by the military as training grounds. Yet before the excavators got the green light to begin digging, the herbivorous rodents set to work building a dam of their own. Bohumil Fišer from the Czech Nature Conservation Agency told AFP: “They built a wetland with pools and canals. The area is roughly twice larger than planned.”
The beaver family then moved on to a gulley encircling the ponds, in which the conservationists wanted to build little dams to allow overspill that would help flood the area. Among nature’s great engineers, beavers have long been championed by environmentalists for their ability to protect against flooding, improve water quality and boost wildlife.
So far the beavers have built at least four dams in the gulley and are working on more.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/beavers-save-czech-taxpayers-by-flooding-ex-army-training-site