Why Beavers are Key

1. Keystone species status: National Park Service, "Acadia's North American Beaver: The Ultimate Keystone Species" https://www.nps.gov/articles/north-american-beaver-acadia.htm#:~:text=The%20North%20American%20beaver%20is,the%20keystone%20the%20arch%20collapses.

2. Oxygen supply fact “And with high levels of myoglobin in their muscle tissue, beavers generate a larger supply of oxygen to access while below the surface…”: Forest Preserve District Will County, "Nature curiosity: How do beavers hold their breath for so long?" https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/the-buzz/nature-curiosity-how-do-beavers-hold-their-breath/

3. Reference for anatomy facts including teeth structure & capacity for smell and hearing: University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, Biology Department, "Castor canadensis - American Beaver": https://www3.uwsp.edu/biology/VertebrateCollection/Pages/Vertebrates/Mammals%20of%20Wisconsin/Castor%20canadensis/Castor%20canadensis.aspx 

4. Hearing fact: “Despite possessing relatively small ears, beavers have large auditory cavities that allow them to hear effectively in and out of water..." Identifying and Managing Aquatic Rodents in Texas: Beaver, Nutria and Muskrats http://wildlife.tamu.edu/files/2010/04/6_Idetifying_and_managing_Aquatic_Rodents.pdf

5. Fur density fact: Beavers (Superpower Field Guide), page 20

6. Fun fact about beavers being strong: Beaverland, page 5

7. Beaver Population Fact: Oregon Wild website, https://oregonwild.org/wildlife/beaver.

 

Ecosystem Engineers

1. Modifying their environment fact: Oregon Wild, https://oregonwild.org/wildlife/beaver. 

2. Sustained flow of water fact: Ecosystem Engineers in Water Environments, "Beaver: Nature's ecosystem engineers," https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wat2.1494#wat21494-bib-0076.

3. Photo of dam from space: Government of Canada, "World’s Largest Beaver Dam," https://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nt/woodbuffalo/nature/beaver_gallery#:~:text=The%20world%27s%20largest%20beaver%20dam%20is%20visible%20from%20space%20in,approximately%20775%20metres%20in%20length.

4. Fact about bees and termites altering their environments: Boston University, "Beavers vs. Humans," https://www.bu.edu/articles/2015/beavers-vs-humans/.

 

Hometown Heroes

1. Primarily reference the spreadsheet if other people are allowed to have access to it? 

2. Upper Klamath Basin fact: OPB, "Bringing beavers back to the Beaver State," https://www.opb.org/article/2021/04/30/upper-klamath-basin-tribes-oregon-laws-beavers/.

3. Water storage and temperature fact: USGS, "Relocated Beaver Can Increase Water Storage and Decrease Temperatures in Headwater Streams,"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/forest-and-rangeland-ecosystem-science-center/news/relocated-beaver-can-increase-water

4. Beavers bringing water storage and helping other animals in the desert: BBC, "The beavers returning to the desert," https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210713-the-beavers-returning-to-the-desert

5. Sediment and nutrient storage fact: Wiley Online Library, "Sediment and nutrient storage in a beaver engineered wetland, "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/esp.4398

6. Beavers support riparian environments fact: Nature Communications, "Beaver dams overshadow climate extremes in controlling riparian hydrology and water quality," https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34022-0

7. Beavers support environments where plants like stream violets can thrive: Washington Native Plant Society, "Viola glabella," https://www.wnps.org/native-plant-directory/433-viola-glabella

8. Wildlife Pond Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afck1_p4_K0

 

Climate Champions

1. "It may seem trite to say that beavers are a key part of a national climate action plan, but the reality is that they are a force of 15–40 million highly skilled environmental engineers...", Dr. Chris Jordan at NOAA and Dr. Emily Fairfax, Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota, Beaver: The North American freshwater climate action plan, https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wat2.1592.

2. Impact of beavers on their environment: OPB, "Humans have been relocating beavers for a century. We are only now learning some of the effects," https://www.opb.org/article/2021/09/09/humans-have-been-relocating-beavers-for-centuries-we-are-only-now-learning-some-of-the-effects/

3. Quote about marginalized communities being the most impact by the effects of climate change, https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-report-shows-disproportionate-impacts-climate-change-socially-vulnerable.

4. Protecting mature and old growth storage fact: Oregon Wild Forest Campaign, https://www.climate-forests.org/.

5. Beaver Pond carbon storage fact: Sierra, "Beavers Are the Ultimate Ecosystem Engineers," https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-4-july-august/feature/beavers-are-ultimate-ecosystem-engineers 

6. If the impact of beaver carbon storage happened across North America fact: Science, "What Role Do Beavers Play in Climate Change?," https://www.science.org/content/article/what-role-do-beavers-play-climate-change

7. Increasing fire temperature fact: Environmental Defense Fund, https://www.edf.org/climate/heres-how-climate-change-affects-wildfires 

8. Emily Fairfax stop motion video: Beavers and Wildfire: a stop-motion story by Emily Fairfax

9. Climate Change increasing instances of draught fact: NASA, "Drought Makes its Home on the Range," https://climate.nasa.gov/news/3117/drought-makes-its-home-on-the-range/

10. Nearly half of U.S. streams are in poor condition fact: ScienceNews, "Simple hand-built structures can help streams survive wildfires and drought," https://www.sciencenews.org/article/stream-survival-beaver-dam-simple-structures-wildfires-drought

11. Waterways across North America are struggling to sustain life the way they once did fact: Environmental Protection Agency, "EPA Survey Finds More Than Half of the Nation’s River and Stream Miles in Poor Condition," https://www.epa.gov/archive/epapages/newsroom_archive/newsreleases/26a31559bb37a7d285257b3a00589ddf.html

 

All in An Evening’s Work

1. Beavers becoming nocturnal due to changing threats over time: AZ Animals, "Are Beavers Nocturnal Or Diurnal? Their Sleep Behavior Explained," https://a-z-animals.com/blog/are-beavers-nocturnal-or-diurnal-their-sleep-behavior-explained/#:~:text=Beavers%20are%20Nocturnal%20Due%20to,certain%20times%20of%20the%20day.

2. The perceived length of beaver days can change in length fact: Smithsonian Institute National Zoo, "Beavers," https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/beaver

3. General source for learning about beaver diet: Beaver Western Cooperative, "What Beavers Eat," https://beaverworks.org/beaver-grocery-stores/

4. Beaver diet informational source: Smithsonian Institute National Zoo, https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/beaver#:~:text=Beavers%20are%20herbivores%2C%20eating%20leaves,%2C%20willow%2C%20birch%20and%20maple. 

5. Beaver diet in comparison to other rodents fact: WildlifeBoss, "Do Beavers Eat Meat? (Are They Carnivores?)," https://wildlifeboss.com/do-beavers-eat-meat/

6. Fact about where beavers live and work: Sciencing, "Sleeping Habits of Beavers," https://sciencing.com/sleeping-habits-beavers-8318007.html.

7. Fact about the length of dams: Britannica, "Rodents, Rabbits, Insectivores & Shrews: Beaver," https://www.britannica.com/animal/beaver#ref755892.

8. Beaver to do list/ how they split the workload fact: BBC Earth, "Seven animals who mate for life," https://www.bbcearth.com/news/seven-animals-who-mate-for-life.

9. Fact about 6-12 Beavers of different generations living together: National Park Service Gates of the Artic, "Family Life," https://www.nps.gov/gaar/learn/nature/beaver-family-life.htm.

10. Fact about seniority-based authority and how different generations of beaver have different roles: Beaver Solutions, "Beaver Behavior and Biology," https://www.beaversolutions.com/beaver-facts-education/beaver-behavior-and-biology/.

11. Fact about juvenile beavers leaving to find their own places: Beaver Solutions, "Beaver Behavior and Biology," https://www.beaversolutions.com/beaver-facts-education/beaver-behavior-and-biology/.

12. Fact about dams helping to establish wetland habitat for other creatures too: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_dam.

 

Dam Threats

1. The beaver fur trade quickly became a dominant industry in North America fact: NPR, "'Beaverland' author deep dives into how beavers shaped America," https://www.npr.org/2023/01/14/1149296896/beaverland-author-deep-dives-into-how-beavers-shaped-america.

2. 56 million Indigenous people across North, South and Central America were killed in a 100 year span: CNN, "European colonizers killed so many Native Americans that it changed the global climate," https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/world/european-colonization-climate-change-trnd/index.html

3. 400 million beavers once lived in North America: National Geographic, "Beavers—Once Nearly Extinct—Could Help Fight Climate Change," https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/beavers-climate-change-conservation-news#:~:text=In%20North%20America%2C%20when%20the,their%20furs%20made%20great%20hats.

4. The Blackfeet tribe's legacy of connection to beavers: Invisible Reality: Storytellers, Storylakers, and the Supernatural World of the Blackfeet by Rosalyn R. LaPier.

5. “BEAVER PAR FLÈCHE” by  Blackfoot tribe member Darrell Norman and Angelika Harden-Norman. Shared with artists' permission: http://www.blackfeetculturecamp.com/contact-us/.

6. Facts about A) Beavers’ environmental usefulness and connection to water, particularly in drier landscapes like the Northern Plains, often outweighed their value as meat, so many Native tribes enforced restrictions against hunting them, B) The Algonquin people and other woodland tribes allowed for the hunting of beaver,  as long as the creature was honored by care for its carcass, C) This practice of reciprocity, of engaging with the inherent value of all living things through an equal give-and-take relationship, kept animal populations at healthy levels: Beaverland, pages 158, 159, 160.

7. Fact about Beavers rising popularity in the 1900s with early conservationists as well as the conflict that began to happen in the agriculture industry: Eager, page 142.

8. Image featuring a vintage "Be an Eager Beaver" cartoon: Main Federal Savings and Loan Association, 1958, https://www.etsy.com/listing/871789826/vintage-rare-federal-savings-dimes-1958?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=antique+beaver+art&ref=sr_gallery-3-14&pro=1&organic_search_click=1.

9. Fact about critical forces merging for the protection of beavers: The Guardian, "Beaver believers: Native Americans promote resurgence of 'nature's engineers,' " https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/23/beavers-native-american-tribes-washington-california.

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Beaver Coexistence

1. Story about a rancher in northeastern Nevada: New York Times, "It Was War. Then, a Rancher’s Truce With Some Pesky Beavers Paid Off,"  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/climate/climate-change-beavers.html.

2. Yurok tribe's efforts to protect beavers through constructing dam analogues: The Guardian, "Beaver believers: Native Americans promote resurgence of 'nature's engineers,' "https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/23/beavers-native-american-tribes-washington-california.

3. Tribal Nations are breaking down barriers and advocating for better ways to work alongside natural efforts of wildlife and the land itself: The Guardian, "Beaver believers: Native Americans promote resurgence of 'nature's engineers,' "https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/23/beavers-native-american-tribes-washington-california.

4. Bill passed to change classification for beavers in Oregon: HB3464 Oregon State Legislature, "Relating to protecting beavers to mitigate climate change effects," https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Measures/Overview/HB3464.

5. More info about Beaver Deceivers: https://wetlandsconservancy.org/can-you-deceive-a-beaver-sometimes/

6. Fact about painting to protect special trees from beaver bites: Plant Based News, "How Painted Trees Are Saving The Lives Of Beavers In America,"https://plantbasednews.org/culture/wierd-wonderful/united-states-painted-trees-save-beavers/

7. Diversity can look messy quote: directly sourced via email from Jefferson Jacobs, Riparian Restoration Manager for the Oregon Natural Desert Association.

8. Quote about addressing the Climate Crisis: Elle, "Why We Need More Women Leading the Fight for the Planet," https://www.elle.com/culture/a34111453/why-we-need-more-women-leading-the-fight-for-the-planet/.