Beavers are Gaining New Respect

I plan to do my final project on beavers and, thanks to Onno, I was directed to a NY times article on beavers that was published October 27, 2014. It's very interesting to think about the change in human opinion of beavers throughout history. In some of our earlier readings it was clear that the beaver was looked at as a pest that needed to be removed by humans. Also, beaver hats were so popular in England in the 15th century that beavers were extirpated from New York and almost the entire East cost by 1640. The beaver remained almost completely extirpated from the East cost till their reintroduction in the early 1900s to the Adirondacks and similar areas. What early settlers failed to realize is the essential role that beavers play in local ecosystems. Beavers are essential to raising the water table along creeks and streams, which allows trees and plants to grow on the banks which secures the soil and protects it from erosion. It is also very difficult to replicate a beaver dam. The Western US is starting to realize their need for beavers' complex dams, as the hydroelectric dams become a point of contention for environmentalists and power companies. Beaver dams provide an eco-friendly solution to the dam problem in the West, although it seems like common sense, it's taken engineers years to admit that the beaver is still the best dam solution. Not only are Beavers instinctually inclined to stop running water, their dams also require no burning of fossil fuels or poring of cement. It's very likely that beavers are the most sustainable solution to almost any problem that originates from low water tables.