Beavers (Drought and Wildfire Superheroes!) with Emily Fairfax

Golden State Naturalist

Scale a beaver dam with me and Dr. Emily Fairfax, beaver researcher, ecohydrologist, assistant professor at CSU Channel Islands, and science communicator extraordinaire who has been featured on NPR's Science Friday and All Things Considered. In this episode, you'll hear us discuss ecosystem engineers, what beavers eat, the best time of year to look for beaver dams, the North American Fur Trade, how beavers can permanently change landscapes, rodents of unusual size, what it means to be a keystone species, dam building, the fish that live in beaver ponds, what beavers do with those flat tails, natural infinity pools, the difference between a dam and a lodge, and why beavers are drought and wildfire superheroes.

Here are some helpful resources:

Emily's amazing stop-motion video on beavers and wildfire

Bay Nature article on human-beaver interactions in California

USDA Factsheet on invasive nutria

WorldAtlas on how beavers build dams

Leave it to Beaver

Emily's talk for California Naturalist's CONES speaker series

You can find me on Instagram or TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist

You can support me on Patreon at www.patreon.com/michellefullner

My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com

The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can find it and the Creative Commons license here.