dam.nation (2024-)
created by Marcos Krivocapich, Milton Lim, and Patrick Blenkarn
In 1946, the Argentine government imported 20 Canadian beavers (consisting of 10 pairs of beaver mates). The humans’ intent was to create a viable fur trade out of the southern Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego. Instead, the humans created a major invasive species issue: the beaver has no predators so far south and beaver pelts weren’t nearly as lucrative as the government economic advisors thought. Today there are hundreds of thousands of beavers in Tierra del Fuego—nearly one for every resident. In the decades since their ‘invasion’, the beavers have caused widespread ecology problems, changed natural waterways, and altered both the landscape and biosphere.