Beaver dams are gaining popularity as a low‐tech, low‐cost strategy to build climate resiliency at the landscape scale. They slow and store water that can be accessed by riparian vegetation during dry periods, effectively protecting riparian ecosystems from droughts. Whether or not this protection extends to wildfire has been discussed anecdotally but has not been examined in a scientific context. We used remotely sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data to compare riparian vegetation greenness in areas with and without beaver damming during wildfire. We include data from five large wildfires of varying burn severity and dominant landcover settings in the western United States in our analysis. We found that beaver‐dammed riparian corridors are relatively unaffected by wildfire when compared to similar riparian corridors without beaver damming. On average, the decrease in NDVI during fire in areas without beaver is 3.05 times as large as it is in areas with beaver. However, plant greenness rebounded in the year after wildfire regardless of beaver activity. Thus, we conclude that, while beaver activity does not necessarily play a role in riparian vegetation post‐fire resilience, it does play a significant role in riparian vegetation fire resistance and refugia creation.

中文翻译：

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烟熏海狸：在整个美国西部的野火期间，海狸筑坝的河岸走廊保持绿色。

海狸大坝作为一种低技术，低成本的策略而越来越受欢迎，可以在景观尺度上增强气候适应能力。它们减缓并存储干旱时期河岸植被可以利用的水，有效地保护了河岸生态系统免受干旱侵害。对于这种保护是否扩展到野火的问题已经进行了讨论，但尚未在科学背景下进行研究。我们使用遥感的归一化植被指数（NDVI）数据来比较野火期间有和没有海狸筑坝的地区的河岸植被绿度。在我们的分析中，我们纳入了来自美国西部的五起大型野火的数据，这些野火具有不同的烧伤严重性和主要的土地覆盖环境。我们发现，与类似的没有河狸围堰的河岸走廊相比，河狸围堰的河岸走廊相对不受野火的影响。平均而言，没有海狸的地区在火灾期间NDVI的下降是有海狸的地区的3.05倍。但是，无论海狸活动如何，在野火发生后的一年中，植物的绿色都会反弹。因此，我们得出的结论是，尽管海狸活动不一定在河岸植被防火后的复原力中发挥作用，但在河岸植被耐火性和避难所的创建中确实起着重要作用。