The variety of sizes and types of sticks on a dam. Photo by Maya Walters. |
Some of the trees that beavers cut get carried downstream and collect in larger creeks and rivers. Here they may slow the waterflow, improving the habitat for salmon. Even though beavers do not live in these large creeks, their actions have an effect on them. Smaller streams are more suitable habitat than large rivers, which are powerful enough to wash the beaver dams away. |
| Beavers have an influence over vegetation growth in riparian zones*. They do not arbitrarily choose trees to use in their dams, but have favorite species which they cut first, and ignore other types of trees entirely. As the beavers cut more of their favored trees to use in their dams, the tree species that they don't use begin to dominate the surrounding forest. If the population was extremely high, they could eventually cut almost all of their favorite trees from a small area of the nearby forest, creating open patches where shrubs would grow thickly. |
beavers -- page 2 of 5
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