Meet Waabi & Sookaa
In the fall of 2023, a beaver dam in Oakland's biological preserve came to the attention of the campus community. For a few months our trail cams caught footage of a single beaver, but in February 2024, we confirmed that we had a pair.
The pair are not the first beaver to build a home on Oakland's campus, but this is the first time our university has sought alternatives to removing the beaver. In the spirit of that turn toward coexistence, we've created a digital wetland to document our path toward accommodating the beaver family (and meeting the needs of our campus) and to help us envision new futures where humans and beaver once again share spaces on the landscape.
We invite you to envision what it would be like to rewater the land with the help of beaver, to picture them back on the landscape after their near extinction in the 19th century, and to celebrate the benefits that their leaky dams and wetlands provide. We invite you to, in other words, imagine the Castorcene, a world made more biodiverse and more resistant to the climate crisis, with the aid of beaver. You will also get to know our pair, Waabigwan and Noosookaa!
Beaver Facts
Water Purifiers
Dams raise the water table. Slowing the water behind a dam helps purify water, trapping sediment and removing toxins. New water canals generate food landscapes for other species. Dams also mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon within wetlands and improving hydrology.
Protective Ponds
Beavers create ponds for protection from predators. Beaver predators include bears, lynx, otters, fishers, wolves, coyotes, cougars. Beavers can stay underwater for fifteen minutes and have transparent eyelids to see under water.
Beaver Buffet
A beaver’s diet consists of the cambium layer of wood – logs are stripped to find nutritious tissue in the cambium layer below bark. Beavers need to fell trees for food and lodging. But don’t forget: Humans are the most dangerous species to forests. We commit clear-cutting; beavers create eco-systems.
Keeping up with kits
Male and female beavers reach maturity at three years of age. They mate from January-February and give birth to kits in April-June. A litter will usually consist of four kits, with both male and female parents caring for them. Kits stay with their parents for two years until they move on to form their own colony.
Beyond the Pelt
Beyond the Pelt is a space dedicated to Waabi & Sookaa and their journey to creating a new ecosystem. Through trail cam footage and short essays, we invite you to join the pair on their journey to reclaiming the land around Galloway creek.
Featured Post
“Crossings”
Inspired by “OU species monitoring 4.7.25 – beaver with LONG branch”
July 2025
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© 2025 by Castorcene: A Digital Wetland