Think Wild: The Beaver Den - Scientific Literacy Book Club

Each month we select a published research paper relating to beavers to read, critically evaluate, and discuss.

Beavers are fascinating animals with so many mechanisms of influencing the world. Closely examining primary literature will give us a deeper understanding of how their influences on other species and environmental processes are studied and established. Scientific writing can be impenetrable, but discussing a text together is a great way to enhance understanding and grow curiosity for the details that others notice.

• July: Naiman, Robert J., Carol A. Johnston, and James C. Kelley. "Alteration of North American streams by beaver." BioScience 38, no. 11 (1988): 753-762.



• August: Wright, Justin P., Clive G. Jones, and Alexander S. Flecker. "An ecosystem engineer, the beaver, increases species richness at the landscape scale." Oecologia 132 (2002): 96-101.



• September: Fairfax, Emily, and Andrew Whittle. "Smokey the Beaver: beaver‐dammed riparian corridors stay green during wildfire throughout the western United States." Ecological Applications 30, no. 8 (2020): e02225.