I dont know about you, but I am a beaver believer. I love these big fur balls, and encourage people to live with them and find solutions when problems arise. They have a fascinating history, and books have been written about them. There’s so much to learn about them. Like so many keystone species, many other animals depend on the beaver to create wetland habitat, necessary to so many endangered and threatened species.
According to George Wuerthner, an environmental activist with over 30 books to his name, two species of animals are essential to turn around the manmade disaster we find ourselves in the midst of. One is the wolf, which has been shown to reverse habitat degradation by regulating deer and elk numbers. The other is the beaver. These large rodents can weigh up to 65 pounds. They dam upstream to create deep water ponds, and build their homes in the middle of those ponds to keep their families safe.
In the late 1400s, beavers inhabited almost all of what we now call Canada and the United States, plus a sliver of northern Mexico. At the start of colonization, there were between 60-400 million beavers. Except for the driest western deserts and the alligator-patrolled swamps of the Florida peninsula, they ranged from coast to coast and from just south of the Rio Grande to the Arctic treeline, as well as north along the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers to the Arctic Ocean. They were nearly wiped out. Unfortunately, for the beaver, they have the most amazing soft fur, packed with up to 23,000 hairs per centimeter. Early colonizers trapped them non stop, using their pelts to create fine top hats and other felted items. The fur trade was one of the earliest global economic enterprises, and beaver fur was known as soft gold. What a different world it was.
Families are central to the beaver, they are fiercely loyal and stay together for life. The whole family works together to make the lodge, the babies learn from their parents how to fell trees, gather stones, and use silt and grasses to make a comfy temperature regulated pad. The ponds create habitat for other animals, and also keep the aquifers regenerated, helping to mitigate drought. They are essential and adorable.
I dont know about you, but I am a beaver believer. I love these big fur balls, and encourage people to live with them and find solutions when problems arise. They have a fascinating history, and books have been written about them. There’s so much to learn about them. Like so many keystone species, many other animals depend on the beaver to create wetland habitat, necessary to so many endangered and threatened species.
According to George Wuerthner, an environmental activist with over 30 books to his name, two species of animals are essential to turn around the manmade disaster we find ourselves in the midst of. One is the wolf, which has been shown to reverse habitat degradation by regulating deer and elk numbers. The other is the beaver. These large rodents can weigh up to 65 pounds. They dam upstream to create deep water ponds, and build their homes in the middle of those ponds to keep their families safe.
In the late 1400s, beavers inhabited almost all of what we now call Canada and the United States, plus a sliver of northern Mexico. At the start of colonization, there were between 60-400 million beavers. Except for the driest western deserts and the alligator-patrolled swamps of the Florida peninsula, they ranged from coast to coast and from just south of the Rio Grande to the Arctic treeline, as well as north along the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers to the Arctic Ocean. They were nearly wiped out. Unfortunately, for the beaver, they have the most amazing soft fur, packed with up to 23,000 hairs per centimeter. Early colonizers trapped them non stop, using their pelts to create fine top hats and other felted items. The fur trade was one of the earliest global economic enterprises, and beaver fur was known as soft gold. What a different world it was.
Families are central to the beaver, they are fiercely loyal and stay together for life. The whole family works together to make the lodge, the babies learn from their parents how to fell trees, gather stones, and use silt and grasses to make a comfy temperature regulated pad. The ponds create habitat for other animals, and also keep the aquifers regenerated, helping to mitigate drought. They are essential and adorable.