Beavers

I told you the story about the traveling beaver Lynn and I found while fighting a grass fire when we were kids. (See Wildfires, May 16, 2007) It would be many years before the beavers established a home in the valley. Dad had always wanted a beaver pond on our property. It wasn’t until 1989, the year after he passed away, that I first noticed the beginnings of a new beaver pond across the road from the old spring house. For many years, the beaver flourished in the area; at one time they had as many as four different dams. It was always a highlight of an evening to walk down to the beaver ponds to watch the beaver. The beaver dams also brought a lot of other wildlife to the area that we were not used to seeing: muskrats, cedar waxwings, king fishers, blue herons, geese and ducks. Eventually, their primary food source, poplars or aspen, was depleted and after several big storms washed out the dams in 2004 (I think), they moved on. All that remains now are the old beaver meadows.