A pair of beavers is hard at work beside a creek In western Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest a resurgence of willow trees has drawn the beavers back to their ancestral home after a six-decade absence At the creek’s edge the female scoops up thick mud and leaves pressing the mass against her chest with her front paws as she trudges up the bank Not far from her the male gnaws on the trunk of a willow
pausing every few bites to listen for the creaking or snapping sounds that will tell him that the tree will fall Soon the tree crashes to the ground The female hurries to help her mate strip the tree of its branches and chew the trunk into logs that can be rolled to the creek There the pair will build a dam to create a pond the perfect place to make a home and raise a family
