If you were anywhere near Hamilton Montana tonight you drive this evening to Bitteroot Audubon and hear all about the fascinating research of this gentleman, Torrey Ritter. He will present his 2.5 year research on why beavers matter to water storage, climate change and ecology, And then tomorrow you could go to the Wildlife Film Festival just a few miles away in Missoula and hear the same sermon from a different preacher at the movies!

Montana is getting a crash course in beavers this week,

“Beavers, Nature’s Ecosystem Engineer” presented April 16

Bitterroot Audubon’s April meeting will feature a presentation on beavers, nature’s ecosystem engineers, by Torrey Ritter. Torrey led a 2 1/2 year research project at MSU aimed at better understanding the ecology of beavers in relation to habitat restoration strategies. Beavers have been identified as a keystone species and an ecosystem engineer because they drastically modify the habitats they occupy and in doing so create environmental conditions that allow certain plant and animals species to inhabit an area where they may not otherwise occur. Researchers radio-marked dispersal-age beavers to evaluate dispersal distances, timing, and outcomes. They also mapped beaver activity to evaluate habitat preferences of beavers starting new colonies in novel areas.

Torrey is a true Beaver Believer who finished his degree at Montana State University studying beaver dispersal patterns and went back for a masters in Organismal biolology (which I didn’t even know was a thing). His wiki page encourages everyone to support your local beavers, so you can tell we’d be fast friends.

Here’s a short look at his his work, and I bet he already has tickets to the beaver premiere tomorrow. Aside from a bad habit of picking up beaver by their tails there’s a lot to like about our new friend in Montana.