Our Rivers are Broken - here's how we fix them

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Weird. All Dutch teens learn in high school that you HAVE to give rivers flood plains (which can be used for grazing when they're not flooded), because the river is going to flood regardless of whether you give it appropriate space to do so. I thought that was common knowledge but I guess it would make sense that the Dutch would be among the first to learn that lesson the hard way.

As a Canadian, I can definitely say we have beavers 😂. Every year, we visit my parents in the Laurention mountains and hike up the mountain behind their house. As to travel, you see streams coming down the mountain even in the driest summer. Then you reach the plateau and find .... ponds! Big beaver ponds with huge lodges inside them. The beavers created dams that hold melt water from winter and slowly release it, keeping the forest wet even during drought. While forest fires burn in other areas, land with a beaver population is fire resistant and provides refuge for wildlife of all kinds.

Honestly glad to say that outside of a couple urban areas, New England’s rivers are largely untouched and naturally flowing. They’re always a treat to see.

My gf's dad is a First Nation member, a biologist and a trapper. He loves beavers and hate anyone that want them harm just because they're "destroying" their roads to their cabins. But he's well known so usually people come and ask him to remove them. And for the animal's sake he does usually relocate them :) .I do have have a short video of an angry beaver I helped him release :) They are wonderful creatures

We’ve got 15 acres in the Pacific Northwest USA that’s got serious drainage issues. We’re getting ready to start building swales and beaver dam analogs and once we’ve dealt with some damage done by trespass diversion of water, we’re contacting Fish and Wildlife to invite beavers who need homes. The neighbors hate them in the wetland (which is a mess from agricultural infill) but we’ve got water for them to use higher on the mountain.

Woody debris is so underrated. Some people think they need to "clean" the logs and wood from a stream, but it's actually very valuable for so many reason. Let's allow streams the curve and wind. If all streams are straight and channelized, all of the water rushes down stream and floods the village. Straight streams are steeper and faster, carving deep, and disconnecting theirselves from the surrounding floodplain.

Like another comment said, in the Netherlands they are also giving more space to the rivers. The project is literally called 'ruimte voor de rivieren', or space to the rivers. My commute by train goes over a river with a floodplain and it's my favourite part of the journey. There are also quite a few bird species in the pools that have formed in the flood plains

Love your energy and with you 100%. My work - in the South UK - is restoring, repairing and creating rivers, lakes, wetlands and ponds for various wildlife trusts and I love it!

I live in Doncaster which has just been given city status, Doncaster is below sea level and we have both natural and re-created wetland areas. Yorkshire Wildlife Park has natural wetlands as part of the park, it is next to the river Torne, the area used to be a riding school and was protected from development by the local council. We also have Potteric Carr Nature Reserve in the centre of Doncaster, which is owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, that area was previously railway sidings and an old collery line and is now a thriving wetlands. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust also manage Denaby Ings which is a wetland area on the outskirts of Doncaster and Sprotbrough Flash which is a wier on the river Don. Some work has been done to mitigate flooding along the river Don in both Sheffield and Doncaster. A lot of local farmland on the outskirts of Doncaster is used as a floodplain.

I'm so grateful that Vistula is mostly wild. Or at least the human pressure is not so overwhelming.

While straightening rivers and removing the associated wetlands was an ecological disaster, it was a part of how we managed to eradicate malaria in huge swathes of the globe and therefor saved lots of lives. That's an aspect to keep in mind when reversing that work. Not an excuse to not do it, but something to keep an eye on and react accordingly.

Most the rivers are full of sewage everywhere at the moment due to the water companies being horrific, uncaring dicks!! I come from North Devon & I'm going back soon & cannot wait to see the lovely area again. Want to go home for good eventually. Great video. Thank you

I adore your excitement and passion. I’m so glad this work is being done. I’m in Australia. It’s such a different beastie here trying to fix landscape. Keep being amazing.

In Vienna you can see quite easily deers in some green spaces in the city. You can find rabbits next to the Danube if you look for them. They hide because people walk by all the times, but you checking under some bushes does the trick. I saw once a fox in the city center in the night and in some forest parks I saw once a boar :)

Awesome video buddy! Love seeing you spot light Devon. Tis a great county that has a lot of potential for ecological revival

Great video!! I LOVE the work you do!! Thank you for your wonderful, tireless efforts! Rivers are literally the "rivers of life"! How tragic so many of them have been strangled by dams, natural flows interrupted and straightened. You're the best, my friend!

I got brought here after a great Mossy Earth video on Chernobyl. Glad to see you have more avenues Rob- this was interesting,

I would love an extensive video on how to deal with low groundwater levels with natural ponds. I am trying to restore a pond on the farm of my parents but I am pretty hopeless as even though it is marked as a natural spring it keeps drying up every summer. It would be big enough to hold fish and all kinds of reptiles and insects and be a water source for the foxes and deers and everything else that we have but instead it goes completely dry. Just a few years ago it even contained enough water to feed a small river that would feed a couple fields and some cattle downstream. Now even in the winter its mostly dry. A video on how to do ir yourself for little projects like this would be amazing and so much more efficient than any membership could be. You guys should start community projects and give leads. I dont even know who my local authprities are that could help me with this

Quality man, loved this one