| Summary: | This chapter describes beaver habitat selection and modification activities. It discusses their unusual ability to modify environments to suit their needs, including lodge and dam construction, location selection for these structures, and alteration of vegetation. Historically beavers have been described as a forest species. Whilst beavers may preferentially select wooded freshwater habitats, particularly in more northern landscapes, they are capable of successfully establishing in widely varying terrain, including mountainous, brackish, tundra, cultivated, and urban landscapes. Beavers occupy a wide range of freshwater bodies (ponds, streams, rivers, marshes, and lakes) but will also travel through brackish and saltwater bodies during dispersal. Beavers prefer still or slow-moving water with stable water levels of at least 0.6–1.0 m in depth, but they are highly adaptable and can modify many types of natural, cultivated, and artificial habitats. When preferred habitats are unavailable or already occupied by other beavers, they will select narrower watercourses and construct complex dam structures to create preferred/suitable habitats. In the process of engineering their habitat, beavers create trails and canals to access forage. They harvest saplings, shrubs, and trees, which they consume and use to fill their food caches for the northern winter.
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