UINTA MOUNTAINS, Utah — Most Utahns likely do not know how much beavers mean to our environment.
As one of what's called a "keystone species," without them in an environment, many other species suffer. That's exactly what was happening for the last 10 years in a remote area of Utah's mountains.
A group of biologists in Utah is hoping to help the environment by relying on some of mother nature's best workers — reintroducing beavers into an area still struggling from a massive mudslide that happened over 10 years ago.
That mudslide in the early 2010s tore a path through the mountainside and took with it the native beaver population that helped the area thrive.
But on Tuesday, biologists from Utah State University, Hill Air Force Base and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
"We're removing them from an area where they're causing problems,” said Shane Hill with DWR, "[and] putting them in an area where we want them — to utilize them as a tool to restore.”
The seven beavers include two adults that were trapped in different locations — a male and a female.
The hopes are that they will start a beaver family of their own by being released together.
The others are from a family consisting of a mom, a dad, and their three offspring — or "kits."
All of them were caught in Cache County, and on Tuesday found their new home in the Uintas.
After hours of work building starter dams for the beavers, the team was able to release them.
They will now be charged with restoring the landscape, including things like wildfire resistance, helping the native aspen trees grow back stronger and better, helping other species by making the ecosystem thrive, and growing the population of beavers so the area can thrive for years to come.
More information about the benefits beavers have on ecosystems can be found on USU's website.
