Fantastic story out of the Walton Foundation today about our favorite subject. Good work by Emily Fairfax getting and keeping everyone’s attention.

“Nature Does Work, If You Let It”

Dr. Emily Fairfax understands if you don’t think much about beavers.

But listening to her opine about their conservation credentials might have you questioning everything you think you know about the impact a single species can have on the health of our wetlands, and climate as a whole.

The University of Minnesota assistant professor and former Walton Family Foundation fellow has spent a career researching the ecohydrology of riparian areas, particularly those that have been impacted by beaver damming.

Before she came to this work, “I thought beavers were just this weak animal that didn’t do anything particularly impressive,” she jokes. Now? “I would describe beavers as the most Before she came to this work, “I thought beavers were just this weak animal that didn’t do anything particularly impressive,” she jokes. Now? “I would describe beavers as the most selfish, stubborn and hard-working architect and engineer you’ve ever met.”

I’m not sure I’d describe beavers as selfish. But I agree they are hard working! I have to say I’m worried about this photo; Only one beaver print on her wall? Is Minnesota such a wasteland? I myself ran out of wall space a long time ago and am now cycling items like the Tate.

I think she might need to stock up with the silent auction at the beaver festival this year, don’t you?

Far from “dinky little structures,” Emily says she has seen beaver dams in northern Minnesota that are six-feet tall and 300-feet long. “They literally hold back lakes.”

At one time in North America, around 400 million beavers fastidiously shaped the continent’s geography via these mega-structures, gnawing and stacking their way to evolutionary security. The wetlands that beaver ponds and dams created at one time covered more than 300,000 square miles, saturating – and thereby fire-proofing – a landmass the size of Texas.

Go read the full article. It’s much better than anything I can say here.