Few mammals have a bigger positive impact on the planet than the beaver. With its bright orange buck teeth, the creature is an expert engineer that brings life wherever it waddles and even fights fires. Our story begins in the Bronx river, once known as the “open sewer” of New York City. After some humans decide to clean it up, we meet one of the river’s residents - José the beaver. We learn about the US government parachuting beavers out of planes into the mountains. And finally head to California where we discover how one beaver family saved acres of land from burning.

Special thanks to author Ben Goldfarb, Christian Murphy from the Bronx River Alliance and Dr. Emily Fairfax.

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KEEP LEARNING!

Read Ben Goldfarb’s book Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.

Watch the US government drop beavers out of planes into mountains.

Read Leila Philip’s Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America.

Watch Leave It to Beavers, a documentary about beavers restoring rivers and wetlands.

Read about how reintroducing beavers can enhance ecological health.

Read about how beaver dams help wildfire-ravaged ecosystems recover.

Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González and sound-designed by Mira Burt-Wintonick. Our team includes Alan Goffinski, Joe Plourde and Tanya Chawla. Fact checking was by Diane Kelly.

Our advisors for this show were Ana Luz Porzecanski, Nicole Depalma, Liza Demby and Tovah Barocas.

Support for

Terrestrials

also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, and the John Templeton Foundation.

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The Builders: How Beavers Mend Our Planet

Terrestrials