This headline of breaking new research literally made me laugh out loud. I know it’s going to come as a big shock to you, so make sure not to take a mouthful of anything before you read it.

Beavers thrive in river estuaries along North America’s northwest coast

Got that? I don’t mean to rock your world or anything, but it turns out beavers can live in estuaries! Like Alhambra Creek which was their residence for a decade!

Get the fuck out, i know you’re thinking. You mean estuaries like the Carquinez strait? Stop. Stop. You’re blowing my mind.

Beavers are widespread in estuaries and tidal wetlands in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, demonstrating that they are not restricted to rivers and streams, Gregory Hood at the Skagit River System Cooperative, U.S., reports July 8, 2026, in the journal PLOS One.

Researchers surveyed North American beaver (Castor canadensis) lodges and dams in tidal wetlands in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon to understand how beavers use river deltas and estuaries. They found that beavers were widespread in these tidal habitats, with an average of 19 dams and 2 lodges per kilometer in surveyed channels of the Snohomish and Skagit rivers. This is more than twice the density of beaver dams previously reported for nontidal river channels.

You mean like they did right here in Martinez every day  for 10 years? I thought our beavers were special, like circus freaks. Didn’t you?

Detailed measurements of beaver structures revealed that dams in tidal habitats tend to be shorter than those in rivers, meaning that they would usually be flooded at high tide. This suggests that their main function is to trap water at low tides, allowing beavers to move freely through the river system. They may also help block saltwater brought in by the tide. The researchers inspected historic aerial photos on Google Earth dating to 1990 and found that an estuarine beaver dam can remain in place for at least 35 years, spanning multiple generations of beaver.

You mean all those years I was describing the beaver dam as right on the point where the high tide reaches I was telling the truth? That;’s so weird to have teams of researchers proving what you actually observed for a decade.

The study expands the known habitat distribution of beavers and demonstrates that these charismatic creatures can thrive in river estuaries. The density of dams also suggests that they may have a significant ecological impact in these habitats. By creating deep pools of water at low tide, their dams may provide important habitat for threatened species such as Chinook and coho salmon. But more research is needed to understand how conservationists can work with beavers to restore river estuaries in the Pacific Northwest, the authors say.

The author adds, “The conventional view of beaver is that they live exclusively in rivers and lakes. My work shows that beaver are much more adaptable than this. They are also broadly distributed and resident in tidal marshes and swamps of the Pacific Northwest, from at least British Columbia to southern Oregon. So, it would not be surprising if beaver were found in tidal habitats in other regions of North America or Eurasia.

Whoa. Next you’ll be telling me that these freak beavers actually matter to wildlife or steelhead or something.

“Now that we know that beaver can be commonly found in tidal wetlands, we also know that there are new questions to ask about beaver ecology in these systems. We have a lot to learn about tidal beaver ecology and how it compares to more conventional river and lake beaver.

“Knowing that beaver are commonly found in tidal marshes and swamps leads to the realization that we need to account for the ecosystem effects of beaver in these systems. Beaver are ecosystem engineers in rivers and lakes, i.e., their dam-building activities have broad effects on other flora and fauna in those ecosystems. So, they are likely to also be ecosystem engineers in tidal ecosystems. Without accounting for beaver in tidal ecosystems, our understanding and management of these systems is likely to be incomplete and flawed.”

Good point. I wish you had made it 20 years ago. It might have helped us with the city.

I believe Horatio said it best:

There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave
To tell us this.

Hamlet  I::5

Still shaking my head,

Are we shocked?

I’m getting closer on my pollination activity for next year’s beaver festival. The point is sparked by the great study done last year showing that beaver dams increase pollinators in the area, which was smart to undertake because one of the hardest folk to persuade about beavers are farmers. And nothing is more attractive to them than the idea of  getting more pollinators. Which mean more crops which mean more dollars in their pockets.

Beaver wetlands create a buzz and a flutter for pollinators

Mike Digout is still working away filming beavers in the morning. Sometimes I’m painfully envious. but sometimes I’m sorry for him that he doesn’t get to sleep in like us. It’s wonderful to see a free beaver doing what he does best, not in a zoo and not trapped in a cage. Enjoy.

In this video from June, I had a ground-level view to film ChewBarka as he snacked on leaves. The area that I filmed this video is now under water, as the river has risen by almost a metre since then. Now Chewbarka swims through this area to find food. It’s a bonus for him, but it throws a wrench at my beaver hobby.

I have a few beaver accomplishments of which I am very proud. The first of course is actually doing enough arguing, hand-shaking and persuading to prevent the beavers in Martinez from being killed or shipped off to Plumas in a cage. But one of the most recent is this one: The concept, creation and slogging effort towards execution that became the California Beaver Summit in 2021. I truly believe that it became the seed that grew into a new beaver world in California.