Save the Mammals, a national proactive wildlife organization dedicated to animal heritage projects, this week announced its intention to reintroduce beavers in Ohio.

The feeder streams of the upper Scioto River, just south of Ada, are among four areas in Ohio under consideration for reintroduction of the once-common Scioto Marsh mammal.

The other three areas are Ripley, near the Ohio River in southwestern Ohio; Barnesville in southeastern Ohio; and a yet-to-be named area in northeastern Ohio.

Save the Mammals has a federal grant to reintroduce rare mammals into habitants they once roamed. If successful, the grant hopes to bring beavers to parts of Ohio, Indiana and western Pennsylvania. The last recorded sighting of beavers in Hardin County was in 1871, according to Howe’s History of Ohio (1890 edition).

Should the upper Scioto area be selected over its three competitors, two beaver pairs will be released possibly as soon as September.

A public hearing is the next step in the process. That hearing takes place in Steinman Lumber building behind the Ada police station on April 1.