2018 starts with some nice words about beavers from Blane Klemek, an outdoorsy columnist from Detroit Lakes Michigan. It starts with the usual collection of interesting facts people seem driven to write about in winter, but gets a whole lot better. He must be a hardy sort of fellow. The weather report there this morning is -18 degrees with a wind chill warning. It is fairly hard to imagine people doing anything in that temperature, let alone watching beavers.
Blane Klemek column: Beavers are amazing animals
Beavers are the largest native rodents found in North America. Adults average 35 pounds with some individuals reaching as much as 65 pounds. Specimens of 90 pounds have also been recorded. Aside from the impressive dams that beavers construct to contain water that they require to survive, the lodges of beavers are unique and elaborate in design, too. The inside chamber may be as wide as eight feet and as high as three feet and is lined with soft vegetative materials like grass and woodchips. Depending also on the structure’s design, the entrances may differ as well. Some are straight up and through the floor of the lodge, whereas other lodges are entered through gradually sloped entrance holes.
T
hough sometimes viewed as pests because of the problems they can create for people, property, and roadways as a result of damming activities that back up water and cause flooding, beaver ponds also provide many benefits for other species of wildlife. Flooded trees often die and subsequently become excellent nesting trees for wood ducks and other cavity-using wildlife. River otter, mink, turtles, frogs, toads, salamanders, aquatic invertebrates, fish, and many species of birds such as belted kingfishers, great blue herons, and scores of songbirds, shorebirds, and waterfowl use beaver ponds and the associated habitats. In time, because of sedimentation, diminishing timber, or hydrologic changes, beavers eventually abandon their ponds. These old ponds often become lush meadows.
More nice things to say about beavers from Arkansas of all places, where it’s a balmy 11 degrees this morning (In case you forgot your geography Arkansas is the southern state that sits right on top of Louisiana which puts it about the same latitude as the other LA. Not sure whether beavers in Arkansas got a memo about preparing a food cache for the first time this winter, but not to worry because I’m told global warming is a hoax) Now, because of the location the news story is all about hunters. But still, it’s ARKANSAS saying good things about beavers!
The great comeback of Arkansas wood ducks
Of the 15 species of ducks most likely to be killed by Arkansas hunters, only the wood duck lives here in appreciable numbers year-round. Most ducks breed north of The Natural State, then return to Arkansas to overwinter. But wood ducks are common in our forested stream bottoms and swamps during all seasons. Most years, they are the second-most-harvested duck in Arkansas behind mallards, comprising about 10 percent of the take.
Wood ducks are common now, but they haven’t always been plentiful. In the early 1900s, populations reached all-time lows as a result of excessive clearing of bottomland forests, draining of swamps and market hunting. Wood-duck numbers fell so low that the bird’s hunting season was closed nationwide for 20 years. It reopened in 1941 with a modest one-bird limit in 14 states.
Many folks believed wood ducks could never recover, but they were wrong.
Thanks to its amazing resiliency and sound wildlife management, the woodie staged a remarkable comeback. Artificial nest boxes built by government officials and conservation-minded citizens, the construction of thousands of wooded ponds and the comeback of the beaver (which creates prime nesting and rearing habitat for wood ducks) have all helped increase and stabilize wood-duck populations.
You would think there’d be a steady stream of duck hunters keeping beaver dams on their land to help the wood duck population in Arkansas, wouldn’t you? Hmm…Something tells me we shouldn’t hold our breath.
Worth A Dam of course tried adding wood duck boxes years ago when our beavers were active. Our friend Brian Murphy helped the eagle scout volunteer hang them down stream and everything. Brian knows all about them and keeps track of wood duck boxes all over walnut creek and concord. But that part of Alhambra Creek was just too busy for them to settle in.
Lessons learned.
