I was happy to see this article emerge from the Parks Record in Utah. There was just one part I would have changed, of course…

Sunday Drive: Busy as a beaver

High up on the north side of the river was the Duchesne Ridge, one of my favorite fall color drives with sweeping meadows on its flanks. On the south, towering pines clung precariously to the steep slopes leading down to the river.

The West Fork has its humble beginnings in headwaters along the eastward-facing slopes of Heber Mountain just a mile away. It runs a squiggly line for 20 miles before sweeping down along S.R. 35 to Hanna, where it joins the main Duchesne River, eventually becoming one with the Green River in Ouray on its journey to the Colorado.

Just a few miles in, we spotted a strange-looking grove of fallen aspens. Coming up onto the scene, we could see more than 50 stumps with pointed tops — carved away by the orange front teeth of beavers. The scene was almost eerie. Some of these trees were huge, a few so large that they weren’t cut all the way through. With remnants extending three feet above the ground, you get a sense of the size of beavers, which can be three to four feet long and weigh 75 pounds or more.

Yup. You know what else is big about  beavers? They;re a big deal. A place as dry as Utah knows dam well it needs all its beavers.

All along the river, beaver dams created pond after pond as the West Fork wiggled its way down the valley. Flowage after flowage poured water from the steep north and south canyon walls into the river, from Vat Creek to Telephone Hollow. 

Walking through the brush down to the river, you can quickly see the remarkable engineering that goes into a beaver dam. With the spear-like tree trunks forming a bulkhead, sticks and mud are used to create the main dam. It serves to create a pond environment while establishing a lodging structure underneath for their family.

Uh-oh. Did you just say what I think you said? Did you just write on paper for all the world to see that beavers build a dam which creates an underneath structure for their family to live in?  Are you thinking beavers live INSIDE the dam? With scuba equipmen0 and hard hats?

I know that’s what the New York Times said a couple of times, but  those city slickers were wrong. You don’t want to be as wrong as them do you?

Beavers don’t live IN the dam. They live in a lodge or bank hole. The dam is where they  “work”. You don’t want to sleep where you work do you? Neither do beavers.  The dam is solid like a wall to hold back the water.

Think of it like the AQUAFENCE they used to keep out hurricane Helene.

A beaver dam is the original aquafence.

No surprises here. I’m so old that I remember when the children of the most anti-beaver council member drew pictures of beavers at Earth Day and the mayor told me that he was going through a divorce and his ex-wife had put them up to it and I really shouldn’t show them to anyone.

They’re fairly good at this.

Justin Beaver telling people in Halifax to ‘give a dam’ about voting

A marketing company in Halifax is motivating voters ahead of the upcoming municipal election with help from a furry puppet and the satire campaign, Beaver 4 Mayor.

That’s right. Justin Beaver, as he’s known, is appealing to Haligonians to vote. In fact, he’s encouraging young voters to “give a dam” when it comes to local politics.

“I think everybody in politics right now wants a little more transparency about how things are done, they also want to take care of the big issues, housing, affordability — but not one of them have mentioned a dam, so they’re out of here,” Beaver told Global News.

And we’re what, surprised by this? If I told you once I’ve told you a thousand times, all politics is beavers.

This was a fun headine to come across:

First it was the dodo – now scientists want to resurrect the giant bear and jumbo beaver

At Colossal Biosciences in the US, scientists are already well on their way to reviving the mammoth, Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) and the dodo – but they have other creatures in their sights too.

Prof Beth Shapiro, chief science officer at Colossal, said she had a “very long list” of extinct animals she would like to see brought back.

“I would like to work on all of them because I’d like to learn more about the biology of these animals,” she told The Telegraph. “Carnivores would be cool.

I don’t think you can resurrect species just because :”It would be cool”. Aren’t there some kinds of ethics for scientists?

The giant beaver, castoroides, was an enormous rodent which also lived in North America during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 10,000 years ago. Recovered skulls suggest it could swim underwater for large periods, and had six-inch teeth.

Although bringing back animals from extinction has echoes of Jurassic Park, the team at Colossal hopes the techniques they are pioneering could uncover lost genetic traits from the past and ensure that no species alive today need ever go permanently extinct.

Um, NO. You aren’t going to prevent extinctions by creating Franken-beaver. Trust me on this.

The team is now delving far deeper into the past, hunting for ancient DNA which could lead to the discovery of entirely new species never found in the fossil record.

In recent years, experts have found fragments of DNA that date back two million years in Greenland, and it is possible that samples could be preserved from even further back in time.

However, Prof Shapiro said she would draw the line at ancient hominids and human ancestors, such as Neanderthals.

I assume your team of scientist occasionally have good ideas, Because this is a VERY BAD ONE.

We can’t even figure how to coexist with the size of beaver we have now.