Beaver Marsh in Cuyahoga Valley National Park was transformed from an old salvage yard into a 70-acre wetland in the 1980s through the combined effects of human effort and beaver activity. Volunteers organized by a local Sierra Club removed cars and other materials from the former business site, while beavers flooded the area by building a dam across the Ohio & Erie Canal. The resulting waters awakened long-dormant seeds of wetland plants, creating a vivid example of nature recovering when given a chance. The marsh now supports abundant wildlife, including beavers, turtles, otters, frogs, songbirds, and great blue herons. Ohio's beaver population, eliminated by heavy trapping by 1830, rebounded in recent decades, and river otters reintroduced in 1986 spread as water quality improved. Volunteers continue to monitor the marsh's health by studying changes in bird and amphibian populations.
