Beaver Bombing, It’s Not What You Think

Ecological activists are reintroducing beavers to rivers without the proper permits.

I have mixed emotions about this.

On the one hand, we have all sorts of ecological chicanery carried out under the auspices of restoration, and on the other hand, it's beavers, who are ecological miracle workers:

In 1998, Olivier Rubbers “beaver bombed” his local waterways.

In layman’s terms, that means he re-released beavers into the wild, letting them naturally dam up a river. It was technically illegal, but it raises the question — is it wrong?

Rubbers picked up beavers from Germany, then crossed the border into his native Belgium to release them. He repeated this several times over two years, bringing a total of 97 beavers into his country. He watched as the beavers did their magic, turning streams into beaver ponds, a perfect habitat for frogs, fish, and more.

………

And Rubbers is not alone. There is an underground network of wildlife lovers who also do this type of conservation: illegally introducing, removing, or reintroducing species to bring balance back to nature. Some have proper scientific backgrounds, while others, like Rubbers, do not.

Not sure how I feel about this while phenomenon.

What I do know is that the permitting process should be more efficient, and these actions should not be limited to cute animals like beavers.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯