For International Beaver Day a beaver swimming in Grand Teton National Park

© Charlie Hamilton James/Getty Image

Leave it to the beaver. Busy building wetlands

For International Beaver Day, we take a peek at one of nature's most prolific engineers. To the beaver, dams help keep their lodges and litters safe, but their positive impact ripples through the environment: restoring wetlands, combating climate change, and removing fertilizer runoff. If we protect their habitat, the beaver will pay it forward by creating the wetlands so many threatened or endangered species rely on.