Beaver Fever. December 23, 2012
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.Tags: beaver dam, beaver damage, beavers, flooding, Hawley
trackback
Along route 8A in Hawley, a beaver has decided to turn a tumbling brook into a series of ponds:
It’s pretty, unless it floods your yard and home, or pollutes your well with Giardia lamblia, or just plain takes down the trees along your private stretch of brook:
City people sign petitions to Save The Beavers, while country people have to live with the consequences. As often as not, they find a way to make the problem go away, regardless of whatever laws the mammal-huggers pass.
I’m a big booster of Nature, but see us as a part of it which ought not to be disregarded, as long as we recognize the rest of it.
Little Bang Theory 
We saw this beaver dam action a couple of weeks ago, and I was thinking of letting you know about this photo op – but you beat me to it. All of Hallockville, Hawley, could be flooded out in a bad storm, so it’s a scary site. Thanks for the great pics of this amazing, mind boggling slice of nature in action.
Hi Pam, Long time no hear! 🙂
Yeah, city folk love the cute li’l buggers enough to get them protected, and country folk have to live with the consequences of this shallow understanding of what’s actually going on. Polluted wells, flooded yards and roads over-topped in rainstorms aren’t cute. If that dam breaks in a Spring flood, local people could take some heavy losses.
Isn’t it amazing how quickly this developed?
Is that really the work of just one beaver or is there a team? I know they’re capable of doing a tremendous amount of damage but their constructions are amazing to see.
Susan, it’s a recent development, so I expect it’s a lone beaver, though they don’t stay “lone” for long!
And yeah, they’re industrious as all get-out, hence the associated sayings. 🙂
I was just looking at this photo the other day and was struck by how clear and beautiful the image was. The yellow of the wood and the pure stillness of the water combine to make a stunning image. It would be a really great photo printed LARGE.
Thank you, ma’am. It really IS quite clear, and though I hadn’t visualized it as a print, I might have to rethink that!