Who wants to celebrate International Beaver Day with me?
Yesterday, I got a personal, guided tour of a local beaver dam and lodge and learned so much about beavers. Sadly, I didn't get to see any beavers, they are most active around dusk. It was a great day to be outside, so I asked my son if he wanted to go on a hike with me. He is a Ranger for our County Park System and leads educational hikes for residents, so when he asked where I wanted to go I told him the beaver pond.
He started out by showing me the different dam levels, from downstream to the main dam. I cannot remember for the life of me what he called the smaller dams, but they are built as backups, if the main dam ever breaks apart they won't lose their entire pond. As we hiked to their lodge, he pointed out all of the different trees that they had chewed down. Talk about precise, angled cuts. Lumberjacks have serious competition: saws vs beaver teeth!
The lodge itself was in the middle of their pond and he told me how they build them up and have vents for air. There are canals and tunnels underneath the water to connect them to land. He showed me how some of the branches form loose extensions from the lodge-- they are there when the water around the lodge freezes and it's hard to get to land for fresh wood. They can leave the lodge under the ice and swim to the branches and nibble away.
Beavers are freaking smart! And cute.
He's leading a hike tomorrow night up there so it was good for him to check out the trails and see what needs to be cleared today to make it accessible for the group. I teased him that I was sorry I made him work on his day off. And he let me ask all of the silly questions that I had and kindly said that there are no dumb questions. LOL!!
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!
Yesterday, I got a personal, guided tour of a local beaver dam and lodge and learned so much about beavers. Sadly, I didn't get to see any beavers, they are most active around dusk. It was a great day to be outside, so I asked my son if he wanted to go on a hike with me. He is a Ranger for our County Park System and leads educational hikes for residents, so when he asked where I wanted to go I told him the beaver pond.
He started out by showing me the different dam levels, from downstream to the main dam. I cannot remember for the life of me what he called the smaller dams, but they are built as backups, if the main dam ever breaks apart they won't lose their entire pond. As we hiked to their lodge, he pointed out all of the different trees that they had chewed down. Talk about precise, angled cuts. Lumberjacks have serious competition: saws vs beaver teeth!
The lodge itself was in the middle of their pond and he told me how they build them up and have vents for air. There are canals and tunnels underneath the water to connect them to land. He showed me how some of the branches form loose extensions from the lodge-- they are there when the water around the lodge freezes and it's hard to get to land for fresh wood. They can leave the lodge under the ice and swim to the branches and nibble away.
Beavers are freaking smart! And cute.
He's leading a hike tomorrow night up there so it was good for him to check out the trails and see what needs to be cleared today to make it accessible for the group. I teased him that I was sorry I made him work on his day off. And he let me ask all of the silly questions that I had and kindly said that there are no dumb questions. LOL!!
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!
