Beavers and Climate Change

As temperatures in the arctic warm, beavers are moving north from the boreal forests into the Alaskan tundra, where they’re causing all kinds of trouble. Beavers dam rivers – and as they’re doing that on the tundra, they’ve made dozens of new lakes that are flooding the permafrost. Researchers think that is releasing more greenhouse gases. University of Alaska-Fairbanks ecologist Ken Tape describes the situation. (Originally aired August 31st, 2020)