Today, April 7th is International Beaver Day. Although not endangered, this small animal plays an important role in maintaining local ecosystems. Sometimes referred to as nature's engineers, the benefits of having local beavers are many: their ponds "increase stream flows in seasonally dry streams by storing run-off in the rainy season," the cute beaver workers help waterfowl "by creating increased areas of water," and they even help to restore streams! In fact, 600 beavers put to work by the US government in the 1930s to stop soil erosion by streams in Oregon were so effective, that it was estimated each of the adorable animals completed work worth $300!

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The North American beavers are nature’s hard-working architects. They have an innate ability to build structures that can rival even some ambitious human projects. These impressive skilled creatures also ended up becoming the main characters of a video game (it’s called Timberborn, if you want to look for it).

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