Beaver are the classic keystone species and ecosystem engineers. Their dams can alter landscapes in positive ways by creating, enhancing and maintaining wetland and riparian habitats for an array of species such as fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, waterfowl, shorebirds, songbirds, plants and invertebrates. Despite their critical role, beaver experienced massive population declines because of intensive trapping in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then, beaver populations have rebounded in many U.S. rivers and streams, but they still haven’t re-inhabited their full historical range or are not present at the density that they were prior to trapping. To help understand beaver distribution, CCI worked with Defenders’ beaver experts in our Field Conservation department to create iBeaver, a data collection tool that can record the location of a user’s observation and then prompt them to answer a series of survey-style questions to gather more information. Access the survey here!
