VIDEO: NASA and BSU use new technology to monitor how water and vegetation improve in areas where beavers are reintroduced

Correction: An earlier version of this story did not correctly describe Idaho Fish and Game’s role in the project. Below is an updated version. 

Idaho is once again looking to the skies to study beaver behavior and ecological conservation through a collaboration between NASA, Boise State University and Utah State University – a project supported by Idaho Fish and Game.

This time, however, they're leaving the parachutes at the office.

This NASA-supported effort is taking place in Idaho, utilizing digital technology to predict which streams can support beavers and how water and vegetation change once they return. 

FULL STORY: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/researchers-become-beaver-believers-after-measuring-the-impacts-of-rewilding 

Fish and Game's Furbearer Staff Biologist Cory Mosby says the technology will help survey miles of waterways with more efficacy. The goal is to retain water and increase vegetation along these watersheds so that beavers and other wildlife and livestock will have more abundant food sources. 

Spring runoff, when the snow melts, can be the saving grace for both agricultural and wild lands. Without any natural barriers to help retain some of that water, the season's snowmelt is free to flow straight down rivers and back out to the ocean. 

Enter the beaver. 

In places where beavers build dams across streams and creeks, their work naturally disperses and retains water longer, thus supporting vegetation and creating better habitats for aquatic species and land animals alike. 

By utilizing NASA's remote sensing data, biologists can investigate which waterways need to be restored as well as monitor their progress after those restoration projects have been completed. 

Check out this cool video, produced by NASA, that illustrates this collaborative project taking place right here in our own backyard.