| jean_thie |
| (Cartographer) |
| 04/19/08 08:00 AM |
Longest Beaver Dam found with GE Makes the News!
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The Longest beaver dam post made the news in Canada this past week. Patti-Kay Hamilton , a reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC -North) located in Yelloknife was visiting the Wood Buffalo National Park Office where parks conservation officers where looking at the Google Earth post of this beaver dam. She wrote the short story line for this news item below which triggered a series of radio newspaper and tv (Discovery Channel) interviews
Quote:
Big dam! Alberta beavers build 850-metre barrier
Wood Buffalo structure the world's largest dam, ecologist says
Last Updated: Monday, April 14, 2008 | 5:50 PM ET Comments 60 Recommend 186
CBC News
An Ottawa scientist has identified what he believes to be the world's largest beaver dam in Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta.
Ecologist Jean Thie, who is Executive Director of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics, said he discovered the 850-metre long dam while scanning satellite images for signs of climate change.
"They are one of the few species that really leave a footprint on the Earth that is visible from satellite," Thie told CBC News in an interview.
"In addition to looking at permafrost melting, I started looking at beaver dams and just scanning all of northern Canada."
The dam is located just south of Lake Clair, north of the Birch Mountains and within the boundaries of the national park. It's about 190 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray, Alta.
Thie said northern Alberta has the richest beaver habitat in the world, adding that he intends to continue to search for even larger dams in the area.
"These are some of the most amazing beaver landscapes in the world," he said. "I would not be surprised if we find a longer dam there than the one we have found so far."
The previously reported largest beaver dam was a 652-metre structure in Three Forks, Montana, Thie said.
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CBC link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/04/14/beaver-park.html
Beaver dam description
http://www.geostrategis.com/p_beavers-longestdam.htm