Mary O'Brien of the Grand Canyon Trust is preaching a new Gospel, with the beaver cast as savior and time shifter.

"The humble, hardworking rodent, through its dams and ponds, can extend the release of water late into summer, saturating the ground and healing watersheds. It has the power to re-create the primordial, wetter West that existed for millennia -- a West we just missed seeing. ...

Beaver are a keystone species: Amen. Beaver restore riparian habitat: Amen. Beaver raise up the water table: Amen. Beaver show us the Western landscape as it was just prior to permanent white settlement. A big amen for this."

Kevin Taylor reports for High Country News June 1, 2009. [2]