Bringing more beavers to watersheds is a powerful drought-fighting tool, experts say

GREEN RIVER, Wyo. (AP) — On Jackson Ramsay's family ranch late in the summer, there were few signs it had just weathered the worst-ever winter snowpack and record-setting heat.Water twisted unhurriedly through the land, splayed into various branches that rejoined to form pools behind mounds of piled sticks. Young willows stretched from the bank across an expanse roughly the length of a football field, fed from moisture below.Then a familiar brown head emerged from a deep pool: a beaver.“They're thriving here,” Ramsay said, beaming at the creature. “They benefit us, and hopefully we benefit them.”The Ramsays' ranch in southwest Wyoming is one of many areas embracing the semiaquatic rodents as nature's engineers. Conservation groups and government agencies are increasing their use of “starter homes” made of wood and brush to encourage the creatures to move in and expand upon the initial structures. Beaver dams slow moving water in a way...