Yes, those chubby, “paddle-tailed, bucktoothed, dam-building” rodents who chew off young trees and drag them into streams to build dams, slowing water flow, and effectively engineering whole wilderness landscapes----those critters.
Who knew that beavers are masters of ecological restoration? Their dams, in slowing stream flows, allow water to seep into the land, helping to recharge aquifers, reducing erosion and flooding, and restoring marshes and wetlands.
Their ponds become habitat for myriad other critters---birds, fish, insects, etc.---a diversity of life in “a lush, soggy paradise.”
Read all about it here: baynature.org/2018/12/07/for-beaver-believers-salvation-lies-in-a-once-reviled-rodent
