"Few species manipulate their surroundings enough to make big ecological changes. Humans are one. Beavers are another.

At one point, the rodents numbered in the hundreds of millions in North America, changing the ecological workings of countless streams and rivers. As settlers moved West, they hunted and trapped them to near extinction. Now there are new efforts across the Western U.S. to understand what makes them tick, mimic their engineering skills, boost their numbers, and in turn, get us more comfortable with the way they transform rivers and streams.

Juli Scamardo treks through a beaver meadow in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado early one recent morning."

Luke Runyon reports for NPR's Weekend Edition June 24, 2018. [2]