'Changing Planet' revisits vulnerable ecosystems responding to climate change
Apr. 16—Emily Fairfax has dedicated her life to studying beavers.
Fairfax is an ecohydrologist whose work is revealing how the beaver is an environmental hero.
She uses Google Earth to identify and map beaver dams and channels, and her team showed that beavers' damming activities create underground irrigation systems, resulting in wetlands that act like speed bumps for fires.
"The most interesting fact from a scientific perspective is the impact the beavers can have on the landscape," she says. "They can radically transform a desert into an oasis. The scale of power that they have is amazing."
Fairfax says beaver wetlands remain green and healthy after a fire, averaging three times less damage than areas without beavers.
"Beavers are now being restored to areas where they no longer exist, offering hope that landscapes can be renewed and protected against future fires," she says.
Fairfax's work is part of the second season of the PBS series "Changing Planet," which premieres at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. It will also stream on the PBS app.
"Changing Planet" returns for a second year to revisit some of our planet's most vulnerable ecosystems and provide updates on how communities are working to develop resilience in the face of climate change.
Two new hosts — Ella Al-Shamahi, a paleoanthropologist and stand-up comic, and Ade Adepitan, a television presenter, Paralympian and children's author — join global conservation scientist and CEO of Conservation International M. Sanjayan to uncover this year's stories.
The series travels from Brazil to California, Greenland to the Maldives, Kenya to Cambodia to chart how inspiring individuals and communities are making progress — and facing setbacks — over the last 12 months.
Over the last year, much has happened to report, from the devastating effects of drought in Kenya to the Maldives, where new scientific discoveries offer hope for the world's coral reefs.
"We have an opportunity to do things properly," Sanjayan says. "We have the inherited wisdom, we have the science, and we have the tech to understand when things are going wrong and why. Now we need the money and political muscle to implement what needs doing."
In the first hour, Sanjayan hosts from Australia, a country on the frontline of climate change, both in terms of its devastating effects, but also possible solutions. He travels to the remote Gibson Desert, where the land is under the stewardship of the Indigenous Pintupi, who are having spectacular success preserving a vast and vital ecosystem.
Sanjayan learns about cultural burning and how small, managed fires guard against megafires and invigorate the landscape with new plant growth. He discovers that invasive species — like the camel — threaten native species, but efforts are being made to control and eradicate their population.
Megafires are also a problem in northern California and the series reports on traditional burning practices that mitigate these risks by visiting the Tule, Mono and Yurok tribes. Other efforts to create a fire-resistant landscape include reintroducing the beaver, a native keystone species, whose activities restore creeks and rivers.
"I love beavers and really enjoy studying them," Fairfax says. "There are other animals that synergize with beavers. They are buffalo and prairie dogs. If we let all three work together, they can help restore the environment."
Fairfax says the introduction of drones in her field study work has helped greatly.
"It enables better data collection," she says. "With the drone footage, I'm able to scout where I need to go so that I can get in and get out without disturbing the natural habitat."
On TV
The second season of the PBS series "Changing Planet," premieres at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. It will also stream on the PBS app.
