If you build it, they will come.

“If you build it, they will come”

It’s a line that’s stuck with me since childhood. I’m not going to lie, scenes like this make me a little bit misty. We have a friend; A beaver, in the desert. One of North America’s most prosecuted animals has come to help us protect and restore this land. We first started to see hints of our hero through step ponds that began to appear, made out of highly invasive tamarisk. During the record-breaking drought of 2018, our whole region went dry, as did most of the state. We nearly lost the last trickle of water from our only remaining (natural) water source. It was the beaver and nutria, with their tamarisk borders that helped us to protect our herd, and provide a desperately needed water source for the struggling wildlife in the region.

Nearly all of the water sources had gone bone dry, but these step ponds created with invasive tamarisk helped us get through it.

Working with nature.

Tamarisk can be a nasty weed, choking out waterways and using more than its fair share of the resource! Thankfully, it’s the beaver and nutria’s favorite building material out here.

July 2018. The water was leaving us, but we still had pockets of life in the step ponds created.

Their shallow step ponds held through the winter and created the foundation for what is now a blossoming habitat. Thanks to their help, our desert creek shores are now peppered with ducks, geese, and small flocks that we have yet to identify. Last night, the mustangs grazed peacefully with a blue heron nearby.