Beavers Spotted Near DTE Energy's River Rouge Plant

New evidence released this week reveals that the Detroit River is once again becoming home to the beaver.

According to the Detroit Free Press, a trail camera set up at DTE Energy's River Rouge Power Plant recently caught images of a beaver dragging a small tree into the river.

"They could be expanding their range," John Hartig, manager of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge told the newspaper.

Following a long absence, beaver sightings have been popping up around the area since 2009. Last year, Rick Simek of the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Environmental Interpretive Center reported a beaver in the Rouge River.

But what might seem like a normal occurrence could actually be a sign of the increasing water and habitat quality of the Rouge watershed.

According to an article written by Simek, beaver trapping led to the local extinction of the species in Metro Detroit in the 1830s, with "no traces of the species left by 1877."

The DTE video is proof of the beaver's return to Dearborn more than a century later.

And it's good news for the Rouge, too.

Beaver dams—according to the national group Beavers, Wetlands, and Wildlife—are known to improve the natural habitat for other animals, as well as the local water quality.

Read the complete story on The Detroit Free Press website.