Beaver depend on fire-created aspen-birch stands within reach of waterways.

Evidence

Beaver. Stands of deciduous trees within a few hundred feet of lakes and streams are required. Aspen, paper birch, and willow are favored. Cuttings from these trees are used for dams, lodges, and winter food caches. In the primeval system these trees were found on burns, but within 70-100 yr after a fire beaver often fell all of the aspen and birch within reach of waterways. They must then move on to a newer burn. Fire exclusion is now preventing the regrowth of aspen-birch stands, and a high percentage of the available stands have been cut by beaver. A population decline can be expected. — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 427

Categorization

• XREF: Beaver as fire-dependent keystone engineers connects to the reader’s environmental-justice thread on wildlife and land use. — connects to: Timber wolf pack survival depends on fire-maintained prey habitat across large territories. — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 432; Logging-era slash fires replaced red and white pine with aspen, birch, and jack pine — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 63; Indigenous people deliberately burned jack pine for blueberries — Miron L. Heinselman, Fire in the Virgin Forests of the…, 55 (+2 more)

Related

• Logging-era slash fires replaced red and white pine with aspen, birch, and jack pine (similarity 0.86)
• Jack pine, birches, and aspen colonize fire and logging damaged soils (similarity 0.84)
• Timber wolf pack survival depends on fire-maintained prey habitat across large territories. (similarity 0.81)
• Indigenous people deliberately burned jack pine for blueberries (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Jack pine, birches, and aspen colonize fire and logging damaged soils #corroborates (0.78) — Vinson Brown, Reading the Woods, 861