Coexist with the Beaver

The beaver can be an engineer’s best friend in many situations. When I was city forester in Colorado Springs I tried to tell our city engineers to work with the beaver in the drainageways and not rely so much on the expensive “drop structures” they like to design. They looked at my like I was a “tree hugger!” Imagine that! In reality I was in a fight with beavers chewing down many of the willows and cottonwoods that we so much desired. There are ways to coexist with this little creature to all of our benefits.