Beaver Dam

                       February, 2011

Woke up one day to see this out the back window . . . a bunch of trees cut down by the stream . . .

Beaver had cut down many trees in one area of the stream

Clearly beaver did this.  They also put that log across the other two--why?  Wanting it to bend? 

That would be hard for them to get that cross-log into position so there must be a reason for it.

Also, look at this in the middle of the stream. . .

This is the coolest part by far--very surprising to me.  In winter there is a small stream that cuts off from the main stream and goes along the west (right) side of the streambed.

I was back there looking at things and noticed what appeared to be a man-made small channel.  The photos don't show it well but there is a natural "bowl" in the stream where it would

be likely that the beaver would build their hut.  For some reason it is important to them to bring in a small stream of water in the back side.  And if you look at this closely you

will see:

They have dug a small trench is the sand/mud/clay and put up a rock/wood dam to channel the water.  This looks like something children would do playing in the

stream.  Rocks are placed and then a big piece of wood added at the top--and see the piece of bark they have used.  But this isn't kids doing this because . . .

when their channel runs into a buried log, they just chew their way through it and keep going!  Take another look at the first photo of this and you'll see both the dam and the chewed log.

I read a little about how beavers build their dams and they often cut the trees down and come back weeks/months later to build.  It doesn't appear that they've done much since

the first night.

My associates . . .