The beaver dam

I went for a walk in the woods today, still snowed over. Rubber gum boots hopscotching over rotted locks, the banks of small meandering creeks, and muddy waters flooding the forest understory. The beavers have been at work back here.

From as far back as I can remember as a child the creek behind our house has had a steady stream of beavers come and gone. Generations who's prescence can be tracked through the cycles of the saplings and vines advancing and retreating near the swamp margins. Beavers are engineers, some scientists may even call then "keystone species", as in the keystone that holds the archway together. Like the stone that taken out causes the arch to fall, the beaver creates an ecosystem around it through its very beaver nature you could say. Without the beaver the ecosystem changes back to something else completely.

I remember years ago when there was no swamp, only a bottomland forest full of sycamores, oaks, and pines. When the beavers dammed the creek the water moved in over the forest and with that all sorts of new grasses, vines, cattails, and bullrushes moved in with the waters. With the flooding and the beavers gnawing many trees died over time, creating life from the death of the trees and space as new habitat for many plants and animals. A place ducks, geese, and herons see from above on their migratory routes and stop over to feed. They feed on fish and invertebrates feeding in turn on the algae and phytoplankton thriving in the still warm waters of the swamp. Raccoons forage for crawdads along the muddy banks and tributaries. Opposoms and skunks, weasels and otters come in attracted in turn by this new larder of life. Birds nest, fish swim, and the beavers just do what they do. Seemingly oblivious of the tremendous changes they have wrought and the special role the serve for all the other creatures in the system. The swamp becomes a place full of life.

In the snow like this it is gorgeous. No beavers, they are undoubedtely holed up cozy in their lodge, but I did jump a pair of young white tail deer in the snow. Trotting off unabashedly to stop and look back before melting into the trees. There were kingfishers chattering obnoxiously in affected flight across the clearing and even a great blue heron, regal and wise standing one footed in the snow hunting patiently.

That is the story of the beaver dam...