Concrete canals may look clean and efficient, but for fish and aquatic insects, they can be nearly lifeless. In a 1994 study titled ‘Evaluation of tire reefs for enhancing aquatic communities in concrete-lined canals’ by researchers Gordon Mueller and Charles Liston, a strange fix for this problem was tested: old tires. The team deposited low, flat tire structures along the floor of two concrete canals in the American Southwest. The results were striking: the invertebrate population near the tire reefs tripled, and fish populations were 20 times greater than in bare stretches of canal.
Why concrete canals are bad news for wildlife
