10 sense of place
Landscape alteration
Beavers have unmatched ability to induce natural habitat succession. Here, in less than three summers after settling in a remote area of dry hills and coniferous forests in northern Montana prairie, a family of beavers created a large lake by building a series of dams in two local creeks and flooding the basin. The newly created wetland was soon colonized by cranes, terns, shorebirds, and waterfowl making it an island of biological diversity in an otherwise dry habitat. All within a single generation of beavers and a duration of a single NSF grant that allowed us to work in the area (on house finches).
