Keith D Johnson<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://epicure.social/@Pollinators" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Pollinators</span></a></span> Before he died, my friend / colleague Toby Hemenway wrote this wonderful story about <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/beavers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>beavers</span></a> (we published it in the magazine, too).<br>"As Bill Mollison has observed, everything gardens. The beaver, however, goes far beyond simple <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/gardening" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>gardening</span></a> to feats of complex <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/ecosystem" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ecosystem</span></a> transformation. Beaver don’t merely build dams that create <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/ponds" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ponds</span></a>. They control the flow of vast amounts of energy and material. With tough incisors and instinct, beavers create a shifting mosaic of moist and dry meadows, wet forests, <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/marshes" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>marshes</span></a>, <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/bogs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>bogs</span></a>, streams, and open water that change the climate, nutrient flow, vegetation, wildlife, <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/hydrology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>hydrology</span></a>, and even <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/geology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>geology</span></a> of entire <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/watersheds" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>watersheds</span></a>." <a href="https://tobyhemenway.com/150-the-watershed-wisdom-of-the-beaver/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">tobyhemenway.com/150-the-water</span><span class="invisible">shed-wisdom-of-the-beaver/</span></a> <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/permculture" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>permculture</span></a></p>