Beavers represent much of what was destroyed by the changes to the land that colonization caused, as well as the side effects of damaging or destroying any single part of the ecosystem. Prior to colonization, beavers were a highly common animal in New England that served a particularly important role in the ecosystem. However, as beaver skins were used in the fur trade between indigenous people and European colonizers, beavers became a commodity, meaning they were transformed within colonial society from being a wild animal into an object that had a particular economic value. The result of this was that people lost sight of the ecological importance beavers possessed, something that might have not been apparent to colonizers in the first place. Because beavers built dams, they had a key role in preserving bodies of water and regulating the dryness (and thus the fertility) of the soil. As overhunting led to the gradual elimination of the beaver from its once populous numbers, many unwanted ecological consequences ensued. Beavers thus represent how the colonizers’ attitude of treating the land and its animals as commodities was destructive, not just in a direct way, but through a complex web of interrelated side effects.
Beavers Symbol Timeline in Changes in the Land
