It’s difficult to be a river in the desert, even under ideal conditions. The ecology maintains a delicate equilibrium, allowing water supplies to flourish despite the hard circumstances. These water sources in otherwise extremely arid regions are critical to the survival of distinctive animals, agriculture, and even tourism, as they supply fresh drinking water to the neighboring communities.

However, man-made issues like climate change, over-farming, and pollution have exacerbated an already difficult situation in some locations. Rivers in Utah and Colorado that are part of the Colorado River Basin are barely surviving the unusually dry season. When riverbeds get too dry, fish and other aquatic species perish, and the risk of wildfires rises substantially.

About six years ago, a team of academics had an intriguing notion for restoring the health of some of Utah’s most fragile rivers: bring in the beavers.

In 2019, master’s student Emma Doden and a team of researchers from Utah State University launched a “translocation” effort to reintroduce displaced beavers to locations such as Utah’s Price River in the hopes of reviving them.

Why beavers? It simply makes damn sense! (Sorry.)

Beaver dams restrict the flow of water in specific parts of a river, resulting in ponds and wetlands. In drought-stricken places, fish and other species might seek refuge in ponds while the rest of the river runs dry, therefore avoiding harm until it rains again.]

When beavers live in a watershed, the advantages are enormous: improved water quality, higher fish populations, increased nutrient availability, and fewer or less catastrophic wildfires.

This is why beavers have been dubbed “keystone species,” or any animal that has a disproportionate influence on the ecology surrounding them.

Doden and her colleagues abducted or relocated beavers from their native homes because they were a “nuisance,” interfering with infrastructure, or posing a threat, and brought them to the Price River after a brief quarantine period.

Despite the best efforts of the study team, not all translocated beavers have survived or remained in their new homes over time. Some beavers struggle to adapt to their new environment and succumb to predators, while others choose to leave on their own initiative.

But enough people have stayed and built dams since 2019, and the team is beginning to see the effects of their efforts. In reality, beaver programs similar to this one have been underway around the state in recent years.

The river’s water levels are presently at their healthiest in years. The fish are prospering. Utah residents are thrilled with the outcomes of the trial.

A piece in The Salt Lake Tribune dated 2025 (six years after the beaver translocation began) states that the restoration of the Price River “helped save our Utah town.”

“A tributary of the Colorado River, the Price River flows through downtown Helper. On a sunny day, you may expect to see visitors and locals kayaking, tubing, and fishing along the river’s edge. A decade ago, it was difficult to picture this scene—and the booming recreation industry that goes with it—being conceivable.”

Of course, it wasn’t only the beavers. Other government water cleanup initiatives assisted in the removal of trash, the dismantling of outdated and failing dams, and the implementation of stricter agricultural grazing laws in the area, which reduced important plant life.

However, the experts recognize that the beavers, and their extraordinary engineering job, are the true MVPs.

In other dry, failing rivers in the vicinity, researchers are bringing in beavers and even building manufactured beaver dams. They hope that when the rivers improve in health, the creatures will take over.

Utah’s San Rafael River, which is in poor condition, is a major contender. A natural flood in one region of the river prompted a large number of beavers to return, and “riparian habitat along that stretch had increased by 230%, and it had the most diverse flow patterns of anywhere on the river,” according to KUER.

It’s difficult to think that beavers almost became extinct during the peak of the fur trapping business and that they continued to struggle because they were deemed nuisances and pests. They are now receiving the recognition they deserve as engineering wonders, and their numbers have recovered as a result of improved public relations and conservation efforts.