Sometimes folks get the details all wrong and still end up with a right answer. This article from XARALITE is one such case: they clearly dashed off this glowing piece after reading three paragraphs of the BBC Earth article without bothering to learn that this has nothing to do with the Scottish beaver trials and that these particular beavers were in fences. Well, credit for getting the theme – if not the facts.

The Return of the Eurasian Beaver

Four hundred years have passed since Britain was last home to beavers, but in 2011, the Eurasian beaver was reintroduced and now the area they’ve returned to is flourishing. In Devon lies the United Kingdom’s only beaver population; low trees and open plains provide the perfect home for the country’s largest rodents.

Prior to reintroducing the Eurasian Beaver to Britain, trials were held in Scotland to see how the beavers would cope and how they would impact the national landscape. Whilst carrying out the trials, it was found that introducing beavers would be a great way to create and maintain natural habitats. Their dams hold great bodies of water, incredibly useful for other animals too during periods of drought. Their creations also aid the quality of water and prevent flooding by holding back silt, preventing it from travelling into and disturbing other water bodies.

You know how sometimes in archeology they describe finding a fragment and make inferences about the larger artifact it represented? Like bone or pottery? Well. I’d call this an ‘article fragment’ because it literally reads like the author was attacked by bears in the middle of a sentence and couldn’t complete the thougt. But for a brief moment it gets the central idea across: Beavers make and sustain habitat.

Period. End of sentence.

Now here’s a beaver enjoying the habitat in Martinez made available to him or her by our friends at Mountain View Sanitation .  They are using night cameras to track the otter population for the river otter folk but a couple nights ago they got something even better. This is not one of the local beavers in Alhambra Creek.

MVSD is just on the other side of 680 and a fairly circuitous water route up an inlet from the Carquinez strait. Our original beavers were likely the progeny of theirs, at least our original mom who was the only one to ever build and maintain a formal lodge like the ones they boasted in the middle of the ponds out there. Maybe this is a distant cousin or a grand niece or something.

Thanks to Kelly Davidson who shared it with us and gave me permission to post it here!