Eat Beaver save trees

On a winding country lane in a secret location in east Devon, just a few metres from the side of the road, an inconspicuous pile of logs, twigs, sticks and leaves has been crammed over the rushing River Otter.

Passersby would not give this messy mound a second thought, but closer inspection reveals a very deliberate quality to its construction, in the form of neatly cut branches layered in a distinctive pattern. This is a wild beaver dam.

“The animals on this river system, no one is putting their hands up saying how they got here,” says Steve Hussey, of Devon Wildlife Trust, crouching on the bank. “They just appeared so they could have escaped or [been] deliberately put there.”   Guardian article