Talk:Beaver in the Sierra Nevada

Rodents Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Rodents, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of rodents on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.RodentsWikipedia:WikiProject RodentsTemplate:WikiProject RodentsRodent articles

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

WikiProject Rodents to-do list:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Drafts
Cleanup : Beaver dam • Bolivian hemorrhagic fever • Campbell's dwarf hamster • Fancy mouse • Golden hamster • Guinea pig breed
Expand : Bolivian hemorrhagic fever • Least chipmunk (requested) • California ground squirrel (requested) • Lemming (requested)
Merge : List of literary accounts of the Pied Piper • Mousetrap
NPOV : Birbalomys • Gambian pouched rat • Golden hamster • Hamster ball • Mountain Beaver • Pacarana • Plague (disease) • Prairie dog • Rat-catcher • Syrian hamster variations • The Rats (novel) • Tree squirrel
Stubs : Rodent stubs
Update : Baird's pocket gopher • Beaver • Black squirrel • Chinchilla • Cypriot mouse • Eurasian beaver • House mouse • Rabies
Verify : Acouchi • Aethomys • Ailuravus • Allegheny woodrat • American red squirrel • Anatole (mouse) • Anomalomyidae • Apodemus • Arctic ground squirrel • Argentine hemorrhagic fever • Armintomys • Batomys • Beaver • Beaver dam • Black-tailed prairie dog • Blesmol • Bobak marmot • Eligmodontia • Guinea pig • Mountain beaver • North American beaver • Tokudaia
Wikify : Baird's pocket gopher • Golden hamster • Indian giant flying squirrel
Other : photo requests

Trimming article for NPOV

I just did a dramatic trimming of the article. The article was largely structured as an argument that beavers were native to the Sierra Nevada. It even had a sentence "In contrast to Grinnell's claims, the Bryant and Stephens accounts stating that beaver are native to the high Sierra are supported by the evidence below."

The article violated a core tenet of Wikipedia: maintaining a neutral point of view. It is not permissible for an article to provide lengthy evidence in support of one side of an argument, even if the evidence is well-researched. We have to report on controversies, not resolve them.

I also trimmed unsupported sentences, or sentences that were supported only by unreliable sources, such as blogs.

Hope this helps to explain the dramatic edit. —hike395 (talk) 13:36, 18 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]