Busy

Before it rises and turns onto the shoulder of the hill, Town Street meanders through overgrown meadowland, now woods. On the uphill side it's boggy. Actually it's more than boggy: it's a shallow pond, and in it is a handsome new home with a water view. Beavers have arrived.
The beaver (castor canadensis) is an engaging creature - all right, a rodent - with a sleek fur coat and a friendly, unthreatening manner. He has an inquisitive nose, a dextrous pair of forepaws, and a cool set of extra eyelids, transparent ones, like underwater goggles. Beavers are peaceful and intelligent, and they mate for life. In the animal world they are stars of cognitive behaviour: they reason, use tools, and build complex structures. They are remarkably adept and inventive engineers. In the winter, for example, they lower the water level so they can surface under the ice to breathe, without risk from predators. They are visionaries, and their projects are mighty: in northern Alberta there's a beaver dam 2,790 feet long.
They are wonderful animals on someone else's land, though on yours they might seem problematic. Beavers alter the landscape more than any other creature except man. They are unstoppable. Tireless, resourceful and determined, beavers want things their way, and that way is a big pond with a lodge in the middle and a dam along the downstream edge. It may not be what you had in mind, but before you consider eviction, consider the beaver's place in the world.
The beaver is a naturalist's dream: everything he does is good for the planet. Castor canadensis is a keystone species, creating rich habitat for fish, ducks, wading birds, turtles, amphibians and frogs. But beavers do more than that. They're like benevolent super-creatures, in charge of a system that sustains life on earth.
In natural hydrology, beavers are huge. Beaver dams, and the ponds' wide, absorbent edges, and the wetlands that surround them, provide natural flood protection. Beavers' quiet pondwaters allow young creatures of many species to thrive, and rich organic matter to settle. Their wetlands are portals to the aquifer, which provides us with groundwater. Beaver dams filter the streamwater that passes over them, producing bacteria which feed on the phosphates and nitrates from agricultural runoff. Miraculously, these bacteria devour pesticides and herbicides. And, as if all this were not enough, beavers have a sense of humor. They are known to enjoy playing practical jokes.
Okay, they cut down a lot of trees, and they put the pond where they want it, not where you do. If these are problems for you, help is available: get "Coexisting with Beavers," which offers solutions like the Beaver Deceiver and the Castor Master. Go on the web to www.beaversww.org
It's not in the Yankee spirit to let someone else move onto your land and develop it for his own purposes, but the beaver's purposes are admirable. He'll take down that scrubby woodlot and create a clean, glimmering, exquisite pond, filled with thriving wildlife. An earthly paradise on your property: isn't this an offer you can't refuse?
This region is rich in beavers. Recently, at their pond on Cream Hill Road, I noted mallards, Canada geese, a handsome grey heron and about a zillion spring peepers. Also a small dark head moving across the water, tugging a v-shaped wave, swimming steadily toward the rushes. Someone was hard at work, saving the planet.
May, 2008