The sound of a beaver's tail slapping the water as a canoe or rowboat approaches is a familiar one on many ponds and lakes in New Hampshire. Even though these encounters seem to make humans and beavers enemies, there are ways the two can work collectively.
Beavers add to habitat diversity through their foraging and dam-building activities.
Openings created by beavers in forested landscapes progress first from newly flooded areas to stagnant ponds, then to open meadows. When beavers abandon their habitat and move on, water levels drop, and the organic matter dries and decomposes. This allows grasses and forbs, herbs other than grass, to establish themselves. In time, shrubs and trees re-occupy these meadows and the cycle begins all over again. Each one of these stages benefit wildlife species.