American beaver

Beavers live along creeks and streams and in lakes and reservoirs. They cut trees to build dams, sometimes creating large ponds, and build lodges of sticks and mud for shelter, food storage and raising young. In Utah, aspen, cottonwood and willow are their preferred foods; in summer they eat green water-side plants.

Fur trapping in the 1700s and 1800s cut beaver numbers sharply. They have since returned to much of their old range, but Wild Aware Utah says habitat loss still limits them in many parts of Utah. Their ponds help fish, birds, big game and other wildlife, and hold spring runoff that keeps streams flowing later into summer.

Beavers are mostly nocturnal, so chewed stumps, felled trees, dams and lodges are easier to find than the animals. They are protected wildlife managed by the Division of Wildlife Resources. Fencing individual trees protects landscaping; conflicts that non-lethal fixes can't solve go to the DWR.