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posted by martyb on Saturday December 05 2015, @01:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the location-location-location dept.

In the mid-1800s, a railroad director, entrepreneur, and politician named Lewis Henry Morgan began visiting a largely undeveloped swath of land dotted with beaver ponds in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. What he saw amazed him: "[A] beaver district, more remarkable, perhaps, than any other of equal extent to be found in any part of North America," he wrote. "A rare opportunity was thus offered to examine the works of the beaver, and to see him in his native wilds."

[...] For years, he carefully documented how the beavers behaved and where they built their dams and ponds. Then, in 1868, Morgan published his 396-page beaver bible: The American Beaver and His Works. Folded into each copy was a map, carefully drawn by his railroad's engineers, which detailed the locations of 64 beaver dams and ponds spread over some 125 square kilometers near the community of Ishpeming.

Now, that rare map is giving researchers some new insight into just how busy beavers can be. A new survey shows that many of the dams and ponds that Morgan saw nearly 150 years ago are still there—testament to the resilience of the rodents and their ability to maintain structures over many generations.

All that remains for our energy needs to be met is to teach beavers how to install turbines.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @06:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 05 2015, @06:50PM (#272232)

    i wonder if the europeans are wishing they still had some beaver gens in themselves .. right about now ^_^ maybe then europe will last another century