Not just illegal, the potential impact on a waterbed is huge. I spoke at length with a BLM hydrologist about this, artificial deepening of discrete hot spring pools can and has caused entire areas to wash out into a uniform warm muck.

Y’all realize they change all the time, right?

I'm sure you know much more about natural rates of mineral deposition and erosion and the potential effects of altering them than a literal industry professional with decades of experience.

You say 'generally', but then talk about officials of one very specific country?

Yes, probably only relevant to 80% of his potential readers. What tosh!

Less than 50%, actually, though I doubt that it's true that it only applies to the US. Children usually get a free pass because their meddling is ineffective or impermanent.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230515211304/https://toolhub.t...

And furthermore, they're too busy writing tickets to the beavers, who are doing the real damage.

Not on this forum. The industriousness of the hacker news kids is legend.

Right, we didn't get a ticket. But a handful of 13 year old boys can move some pretty big logs and trees.

It was made very clear that we were not to fuck with the creek or any other waterways, and it was serious business. We had to rip the dam apart and he told us to never do it again.

Fascinating data, thanks!

You’re joking, but there is concern about the environmental damage beavers cause.

https://courses.hamilton.edu/beavers/conservation-and-destru...

Christ, enough of the anti-beaver comments. Beavers co-evolved with species and their environment for a long time and (were) part of the eco system before we nearly eradicated them like we did many other species. From the article you linked:

> Even though the beaver destroys life, its actions give way to new life and help conserve the overall environment. The positive effects of the beaver on its environment far outweigh the negative effects.

That depends how much alternative space there is in the ecosystem. Just because the species could evolve together in an entire wilderness doesn’t mean they can co-exist in every square kilometer.

The environment causes environmental damage as part of the natural cycle of life.

They must be stopped!

Just to play devil's advocate: the first algae were extremely damaging to the environment by releasing toxic oxygen. Of course, that took millions of years to take effect.

So beavers could in principle also be damaging, but taking a long time to kill. (And, of course, nowadays a lot of organisms have come to depend on the once-toxic emissions of algae. Beavers might have a similar effect on the ecosystem.)

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event

Killing off nearly all the wolves, mountain lions, lynx, bears, coyotes, foxes, etc, is probably a good chunk of the problem when talking about small mammal populations.

Relevant: https://lettersofnote.com/2012/07/12/regarding-your-dam-comp...