When Beaver Means Beavers in the 111th Congress
In the 111th Congress, the word “beaver” has been used in just one sense, a sense which is not the sense you may have in your mind right now. Three bills (H.R. 146, S. 22S. 109) reflecting a successful effort to create the Beaver Basin Wilderness on the shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Another bill (H.R. 5130) would start off the process to add 10 miles of the Beaver River to the Wild and Scenic Rivers system. These bills mention “Beaver” as a place name and aim to protect those places, but the place names themselves recognize the historic importance and continuing presence of the actual beavers there. Yes, even in developed New England beavers are still there, with the modifier “nuisance” is amended before the word “beaver” because of beaver dams’ natural tendency to flood the low-lying areas where someone decided to put a subdivision. H.R. 5130 would (and the other bills do) help provide a place for beavers to continue their lives in wild systems into the future, damming up streams and diverting nourishing water to sustain a diverse habitat for life in all its kingdoms and phylums.
