美国国家公共电台 NPR The Bountiful Benefits Of Bringing Back The Beavers

 

SUSAN DAVIS, HOST:

Few species transform their surroundings enough to make big, ecological¹ changes. Humans are one of them. Beavers³ are another. And once upon a time, hundreds of millions of beavers used to populate North America - not anymore. And their loss has caused immeasurable damage to mountain ecosystems⁴. As Luke Runyon from KUNC reports, efforts are underway to bring the beaver² back.

(SOUNDBITE OF WATER CRASHING)

LUKE RUNYON, BYLINE⁵: It's early in the morning. And Juli Scamardo and I are wearing grayish-green chest waders, trudging⁶ through the mud to find a beaver meadow inside Rocky Mountain National Park.

JULI SCAMARDO: These are like mazes⁷. It's hard to get through a meadow and know where you're going.

RUNYON: Scamardo is a master's student at Colorado State University. She's studying how beavers alter landscapes.

SCAMARDO: They definitely are engineers. And they change their environment to suit them. And it also happens to suit a lot of other species...

RUNYON: ...Like birds, fish and insects. And scientists have shown that we get lots of benefits, too. Beaver dams improve water quality, trap and store carbon and replenish⁸ groundwater. That's why reintroduction projects are underway in states like Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. And the idea is popping up in some unexpected places.

SCOTT HELKER: Hi. My name's Scott Helker. I'm running for governor.

RUNYON: Beaver reintroduction is one of the main planks⁹ of Helker's entire campaign. He's running as a libertarian in Colorado.

HELKER: Honestly, the first time I introduced this, I had one minute. Trying to explain the importance of beavers in a minute is impossible.

RUNYON: Like how a dammed stream could provide a cascade¹⁰ of beaver ponds with water infiltrating¹¹ into the ground.

HELKER: It's one part of many solutions. But it's a cheap solution. It's easy to do. And it'll fill up the aquifers¹². And that's what we want to accomplish, I think.

RUNYON: Bringing beavers back into areas that haven't seen them in a long time has been done before. Not long after World War II, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game relocated beavers throughout the state.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROMOTIONAL FILM)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: In preparing for the operation, beaver must be sorted for even size and weight.

RUNYON: In this promotional film, game wardens¹³ load beavers into wooden crates¹⁴ with parachutes attached. Yes, at one point, we dropped beavers into the back country from airplanes.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROMOTIONAL FILM)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Now into the air and down they swing, down to the ground near a stream or a lake.

RUNYON: Reintroduction efforts today are more targeted and have a varied¹⁵ track record of success. In his new book, "Eager: The Surprising Secret Life Of Beavers," science writer Ben Goldfarb says a state like Utah only has about 10 percent as many beavers it could actually support given the available habitat.

BEN GOLDFARB: And I think that's probably pretty typical, that we're at a very small fraction of the potential beaver abundance.

RUNYON: Back in Rocky Mountain National Park, Julie Scamardo says sections of the park and vast swaths of the American West seem primed for a beaver comeback. But they're not showing up.

SCAMARDO: So we're still kind of asking the question of, like, what else do you want? And having a beaver psychologist would really be the best for these projects, but we don't have any of those so...

RUNYON: We might not know their innermost thoughts. But that's not stopping researchers like Scamardo from trying to boost beaver populations. And while they don't have any set plans for reintroduction at this park, officials have considered bringing beavers in to help regrow vegetation along streams, though they probably won't drop them from airplanes. For NPR News, I'm Luke Runyon in Fort Collins, Colo.

1 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.

2 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。

3 beavers   

海狸( beaver的名词复数 )； 海狸皮毛； 棕灰色； 拼命工作的人

参考例句：

• In 1928 some porpoises were photographed working like beavers to push ashore a waterlogged mattress. 1928年有人把这些海豚象海狸那样把一床浸泡了水的褥垫推上岸时的情景拍摄了下来。
• Thus do the beavers, thus do the bees, thus do men. 海狸是这样做的，蜜蜂是这样做的，人也是这样做的。

4 ecosystems   

n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 trudging   

vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• There was a stream of refugees trudging up the valley towards the border. 一队难民步履艰难地爬上山谷向着边境走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two mules well laden with packs were trudging along. 两头骡子驮着沉重的背包，吃力地往前走。 来自辞典例句

7 mazes   

迷宫( maze的名词复数 )； 纷繁复杂的规则； 复杂难懂的细节； 迷宫图

参考例句：

• The mazes of the dance were ecstatic. 跳舞那种错综曲折，叫人快乐得如登九天。
• For two hours did this singlehearted and simpleminded girl toil through the mazes of the forest. 这位心地单纯的傻姑娘在林间曲径中艰难地走了两个来小时。

8 replenish   

vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满

参考例句：

• I always replenish my food supply before it is depleted.我总是在我的食物吃完之前加以补充。
• We have to import an extra 4 million tons of wheat to replenish our reserves.我们不得不额外进口四百万吨小麦以补充我们的储备。

9 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

10 cascade   

n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下

参考例句：

• She watched the magnificent waterfall cascade down the mountainside.她看着壮观的瀑布从山坡上倾泻而下。
• Her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of curls.她的卷发像瀑布一样垂在肩上。

11 infiltrating   

v.（使）渗透，（指思想）渗入人的心中( infiltrate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Be vigilant against the danger of enemy agents infiltrating the government and boring from within. 要警惕敌特渗入政府内部进行暗中破坏。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The metastatic melanoma is seen here to be infiltrating into the myocardium. 图示转移性黑色素瘤浸润到心肌。 来自互联网

12 aquifers   

n.地下蓄水层，砂石含水层( aquifer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• And in Africa, the aquifers barely recharge at all. 非洲的地下水开采以后几乎得不到补充。 来自时文部分
• Aquifers have water contents over 30%. 含水层的水含过30％。 来自辞典例句

13 wardens   

n.看守人( warden的名词复数 )；管理员；监察员；监察官

参考例句：

• Air raid wardens in tin hats self-importantly stalked the streets. 空袭民防队员戴着钢盔神气活现地走在街上昂首阔步。 来自辞典例句
• The game wardens tranquillized the rhinoceros with a drugged dart. 猎物保护区管理员用麻醉射器让犀牛静了下来。 来自辞典例句

14 crates   

n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱

参考例句：

• We were using crates as seats. 我们用大木箱作为座位。
• Thousands of crates compacted in a warehouse. 数以千计的板条箱堆放在仓库里。

15 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。