It inhabits areas near lakes, ponds, and streams with access to suitable food and building resources. Beavers are known for their ability to modify an environment through the construction of dams, which often cause flooding of the surrounding areas (Jenkins and Busher 1979).

In the European region, the North American Beaver was introduced to Finland in 1937 (Parker et al. 2012), from where it naturally dispersed to the Karelia and Leningrad regions (northwestern European Russia). Dewas et al. (2011) and Parker et al. (2012) reported the presence of small populations of this beaver in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland and Ukraine. Some of these introduced subpopulations in Europe are considered to have become extinct, but they may still be present in Belgium (Vanstaen 2019), Germany and Luxemburg (Hollander et al. 2017), and significant subpopulations are known to remain in Finland and northern Russia (Halley et al. 2021).

This species is found as native throughout North America except the arctic tundra, peninsular Florida and the deserts of the southwestern United States (Wilson and Ruff 1999). Its range extends into northern Mexico. It is also introduced in the Russian Far East, Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island (Russia). In 1946, North American Beavers were introduced to Isla Grande, Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). North American Beavers are now found in all streams in the Andean and extra-Andean areas, and in nearly all aquatic habitats on Isla Grande as well as other Chilean islands of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago (Lizarralde et al. 2004).

Hunting and trapping of the American Beaver is regulated at the national level. Introduced populations occur in some protected areas.