We like figuring out how things work.

TreeBeaver started when we mixed the hobbies we already loved with the skills we use professionally: IT, GIS, research, design and solving weird problems. Add a cool laser and a strong preference for interesting handmade things over mass-produced plastic junk, and here we are.

The name came from a hike and one confidently misidentified porcupine. It became a friend-group legend and eventually inspired CACRI—the Canadian Arboreal Castor Research Initiative—our entirely legitimate research program dedicated to the study of tree beavers. The forest gets most of the credit for the psychedelic side of our work too.

The porcupine is now our mascot. It’s basically a Canadian cactus with legs.

We also get plenty of inspiration from our kid, who has no shortage of ideas and very little concern for whether they’re practical.

Some pieces start with map data. Others start with an old newspaper, a public-domain archive find, a local story or an idea that sounded fun enough to try.

We also build our own open-source tools for handling map data, creating layered terrain and cleaning up old artwork for the laser. If a repetitive part can be scripted, it probably will be.

Every piece is researched, designed, prototyped, finished and assembled by us. Lasers are fun. Sharks with lasers are probably not. Putting this stuff together definitely is.

We’re making things we think are cool and hoping other people think they’re worth buying.