Photos of beavers taken from the porch while talking to my brother on the phone - Nature's Little Wonders

Last night I stepped out on the porch while talking to my brother on the phone and noticed this tranquil domestic scene directly below me at the edge of the slough. Four beavers have dug their version of the Erie Canel just below the cabin to better access the tress on this side.

Another group from the back slough has begun working the way up the lane from the other end. One thing I wonder about is that they ignore smaller trees that are a few years old and seem perfect for transport. Instead, they spend several nights taking down on a massive tree that then gets hung up on the surrounding and does not fall to the ground, creating an ongoing hazard for everyone. I guess they know their business, but maybe they could use an MBA to help them reorganize their processes. That would at least ensure that no more trees would get taken down, and they could learn all about the joys of focus groups and powerpoint presentations.

The deprivations of the Back Slough Gang from last year are recorded here. https://thatsjustthewildwood.blogspot.com/2018/09/view-of-chute-beavers-use-to-harvest.html

"We haul'd some barges in our day

Filled with lumber, coal and hay

We know every inch of the way

From Albany to Bufallo

Low bridge, ev'rybody down

Low bridge, we're coming to a town

You'll always know your neighbour

And you'll always know your pal

If ya ever navigated on the Erie Canal"

from Low Bridge

by Thomas Allen

View of the chute the beavers use to harvest tree branches; with figure

"A figure in a landscape: strip the artifacts away 

And leave a habitat composed of water,

trees, and glaciated soil."

from The Interior of the Future

by John Koethe

Well maybe not trees. The beavers, in the 5-6 years the cabin has been completed, a period coinciding with higher water levels, have taken down thousands of trees. There are three beaver lodges nearby and so the attack has come from every direction. While they are fun to watch and their efforts have opened some unexpected vista's, moving thru the felled trees is a challenge. The bird habitat is reduced and the more highly visible cabin a bit of a security risk. My brother-in-law an expert in everything beaver tells me that they will eventually take all the nearby trees and move on. He also refers to them as nature's little wonders. However by that point we will be a moonscape with tripping hazards. I placed wire around some trees, an expensive solution and we have also brought in spruce seedlings, since beaver are less likely to eat them. But to some extent we have to try to imagine a different landscape than the beautiful poplar grove we started with. The sloughs are often surrounded by drowned trees from rising water levels as well. As they obtain their water via groundwater, rain and snow melt the beavers do not build dams here and probably do not influence the levels much. Some 15 years ago the sloughs began to dry up, some completely and the populations of beavers and species of ducks like Blue Winged Teals crashed. The beavers have come back with a vengeance pushing into new areas in a competition for space and harvesting wider areas around the sloughs.

I have mentioned the rather pivotable role beavers have played in my life in an earlier post here.

https://thatsjustthewildwood.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-beaver.html

But I wish they were a bit neater. 

And attempts at negotiation are going no better than those with the tent caterpillars earlier in the summer.

                                 

Image from ISFDB website. 

Illustration Future Future Fiction, Number One, Nov. 1939