Texas Fauna Project

North American Beaver

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Many watercourses in west Texas have suffered from down-cutting due to overgrazing and lumbering, causing riparian willows and cottonwoods to die out, and creeks and alluvial aquifers to dry out. Jeff Bennett, a hydrologist who has worked in the Big Bend and Trans-Pecos for the National Park Service and the American Bird Conservancy, is exploring ways to mimic the beaver's engineering strategies to try to restore these creeks.