Busy As...
Alyssa LaRocque
I can still remember the spring day in 2017 when I walked down towards the Tube Hill on one of my regular nature check-in walks (I like to see how things change with the seasons). The snow had largely melted, revealing how the ground beneath had fared during the winter. In my travels, I had arrived at the bridge at the base of the Tube Hill to check how high the stream was and see if there were any creatures near the water’s edge. It didn’t take long to realize that there had indeed been a creature present. I gaped at the large half-circle gap on one edge of the bridge.
I had seen the clear signs of our friendly neighbourhood beavers many times at camp before - usually the stereotypical pointy stumps whose upper portion had been neatly trimmed and carted away, leaving behind a pile of woodchips as evidence. However, I had never seen a beaver’s handiwork on a man-made structure before, and I couldn’t help but smile as I imagined the beavers using it as a secret entrance and exit into the stream.
Needless to say, that fall we replaced the bridge!
Despite the extra work it caused, I am still very glad that we have beavers around camp. Beavers are God’s wetland caretakers. Their building and damming projects slow down and spread out waterflow, creating water that is more still and shallow which gets absorbed more easily into the land. Many different plant and animal species need this kind of environment to flourish. This also helps improve water quality because the pools created by their dams prevent soil erosion, and when water passes through that non-eroded soil, heavy metals and other harmful substances are naturally filtered out.
Beavers’ building habits are helpful for wetlands, but they can sometimes cause surprises for their human friends! This summer at camp, our water levels were the highest they have ever been in the summer, and we learned that it might have been due in part to a beaver dam that clogged a drainage spot on our lake system.
The next time you’re at camp, maybe you too will get to see signs of a busy Beacon beaver, or perhaps even catch a sighting of the creature itself! Other than the stream at the bottom of the tube hill, another great place to look for one is along the water’s edge at Uncle Charlie’s Cabin. This summer I enjoyed watching a beaver quietly swim around for quite some time while I sat on the rocks at the water’s edge there. I hope you have the opportunity to meet one of these wetland guardians sometime soon!
