Are beavers a nuisance or a necessity? Why Colorado wildlife officials are wading into the debate.
… [Beavers] are praised for bringing lands alive with lush threaded wetlands that offer resiliency in droughts and wildfires. On the other hand, a rancher or streamside homeowner might counter that they are just smelly rats — rats with a single-minded penchant for property damage. They gnaw down landscaping and cause floods. … This month, CPW is having to wade into the middle of the contentious beaver debate and come up with a management strategy for an animal considered a keystone species. That means an entire ecosystem would change drastically without the presence of beavers.
Other biodiversity news:
- The Sonoma County Gazette (Santa Rosa, Calif.): Ducks are back on Sonoma County’s wetlands
- SFGate: An endangered sea species is thriving in an urban SoCal river
- Inside Climate News: The Trump administration dismisses the Endangered Species List as ‘Hotel California.’ But there’s far more to the story
