North America's beaver population faced near extinction due to the fur trade. Fashion changes and conservation efforts allowed their numbers to slowly recover. Remarkably, beavers are now recognized for their role in managing drought and floods. Their dams create wetlands and act as fire refuges, benefiting ecosystems. This rodent's comeback highlights its value as a natural environmental engineer.

North America's beaver population faced near extinction due to the fur trade. Fashion changes and conservation efforts allowed their numbers to slowly recover. Remarkably,…

For much of the last century, the beaver was largely missing from many North American rivers. Intense trapping for fur had reduced populations so severely that, in many regions,…