Wildlife officials are culling beavers and demolishing their dams in a swampland nature preserve in southwestern Indiana to protect a species of oak tree rarely found in the state.
Overcup oaks thrive in swamps, but beaver dams in the Twin Swamps Nature Preserve have elevated water levels so high that the trees have been damaged or killed.
Now, the state has stepped in to combat the threat at the 500-acre (200-hectare) property in Mount Vernon. Despite the delicacy of the habitat and the apparent destruction of the beavers, the goal isn’t to eliminate the beaver population from the preserve altogether, but to reduce it.
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