EXPLORING
BEAVER HABITAT WITH GOOGLE EARTH:
BEAVER ENGINEERED LANDSACPES- THE HIGHEST DENSITIES OF BEAVERS IN CANADA
Beavers played a key role in the settlement and development of Canada. Beaver
pelts drove the economy and formed the "currency" for the trade between
the Hudson Bay Company and the aboriginal nations in Canada.
The beaver population steeply declined under the pressures of over trapping and
reached a threatened species status. Presently beavers are reclaiming
much of their original habitat, at least what is left of it. In many
areas this recovery is rather spectacular. This recovery is captured
by comparison of old Aerial Photography with recent high and low resolution
Google Earth imagery.
Figure 1: High
Level Beaver Landscape, Alberta , Canada
. This low resolution obique Google Earth image (Digital Globe) shows an unusually
high concentration of beaver dams in in all the drainage channels. All the
creeks
(Bede,
Caribou,
Parma,
Melto
etc.) have been transformed by beaver
into a long strips of beaver ponds and beaver controlled lakes. The Makenzie
highway is visible as the thin grey line in the high resolution strip on the
right side of the image. the town of High Level, Alberta is just to the north
of the east of the red outline on the Highway.
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Figure 2: High Resolution
Detail of Beaver dams and Ponds. This is the Yellow circle area
enlarged. Drainage is to the right. Beaver dams, ponds and lodges
are clearly visible.
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Figure 3: This
vertical Google Earth image shows the widespread distribution of
beaverdams
and ponds in all creeks. The Green areas in between are slightly
higher and covered with forest which show signs of repeated forest
fires.  |
Figure
4: This NASA World Wind Pseudo Colour Landsat Image (2000) shows the broader landscape
setting of this high density beaver area. The near infrared enhances
the beaver ponds (small black spots creating a loosely knitted
landscape impression). 
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Figure 5: Topgraphic Map of the Beaver
landscape 
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