On the list of ridiculous things I would place the idea that

1. Anyone seeking safety would ask to be changed into a beaver to avoid danger.
2. Beavers would ever be fooled by a murderer or criminal.
3. Beavers have a king or male hierarchy of any kind.
4. That a beaver would ever make friends with anyone who stands upon their dam.

One thing I do agree with, of course, is that it makes perfect sense to ask beavers to “Change you” because that is, after all, changing and transforming things is what they do for a living.

The Song of Hiawatha

Over rock and over river,
Through bush, and brake, and forest,
Ran the cunning Pau-Puk-Keewis;
Like an antelope he bounded,
Till he came unto a streamlet
In the middle of the forest,

To a streamlet still and tranquil,
That had overflowed its margin,
To a dam made by the beavers,
To a pond of quiet water,
Where knee-deep the trees were standing,
Where the water lilies floated,
Where the rushes waved and whispered.

On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis,
On the dam of trunks and branches,
Through whose chinks the water spouted,
O’er whose summit flowed the streamlet.
From the bottom rose the beaver,
Looked with two great eyes of wonder,
Eyes that seemed to ask a question,
At the stranger, Pau-Puk-Keewis.

On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis,
O’er his ankles flowed the streamlet,
Flowed the bright and silvery water,
And he spake unto the beaver,
With a smile he spake in this wise:
 “O my friend Ahmeek, the beaver,
Cool and pleasant is the water;
Let me dive into the water,
Let me rest there in your lodges;
Change me, too, into a beaver!”

Cautiously replied the beaver,
With reserve he thus made answer:
“Let me first consult the others,
Let me ask the other beavers.”
Down he sank into the water,
Heavily sank he, as a stone sinks,
Down among the leaves and branches,
Brown and matted at the bottom.

 On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis,
O’er his ankles flowed the streamlet,
Spouted through the chinks below him,
Dashed upon the stones beneath him,
Spread serene and calm before him,
And the sunshine and the shadows
Fell in flecks and gleams upon him,
Fell in little shining patches,
Through the waving, rustling branches.

  From the bottom rose the beavers,
Silently above the surface
Rose one head and then another,
Till the pond seemed full of beavers,
Full of black and shining faces.

  To the beavers Pau-Puk-Keewis
Spake entreating, said in this wise:
“Very pleasant is your dwelling,
O my friends! and safe from danger;
Can you not, with all your cunning,
All your wisdom and contrivance,
Change me, too, into a beaver?”
  “Yes!” replied Ahmeek, the beaver,

He the King of all the beavers,
“Let yourself slide down among us,
Down into the tranquil water.”
  Down into the pond among them
Silently sank Pau-Puk-Keewis;
Black became his shirt of deer-skin,
Black his moccasins and leggings,
In a broad black tail behind him
Spread his fox-tails and his fringes;
He was changed into a beaver.

Now this is where it starts to get interesting.

  “Make me large,” said Pau-Puk-Keewis,
“Make me large and make me larger,
Larger than the other beavers.”
“Yes,” the beaver chief responded,
“When our lodge below you enter,
In our wigwam we will make you
Ten times larger than the others.”

Didja catch that? Yes buddy we’ll make you larger and more important than any of us. Just come down INTO OUR LODGE first.

 Thus into the clear, brown water
Silently sank Pau-Puk-Keewis:
Found the bottom covered over
With the trunks of trees and branches,
Hoards of food against the winter,
Piles and heaps against the famine;
Found the lodge with arching doorway,
Leading into spacious chambers.

  Here they made him large and larger,
Made him largest of the beavers,
Ten times larger than the others.
“You shall be our ruler,” said they;
“Chief and King of all the beavers.”

Something tells me these beavers have his number and realize to catch this evil fool all they have to do is flatter his enormous ego. Gosh who does that remind me of?

 But not long had Pau-Puk-Keewis
Sat in state among the beavers,
When there came a voice of warning
From the watchman at his station
In the water-flags and lilies,
Saying, “Here Is Hiawatha!
Hiawatha with his hunters!”

  Then they heard a cry above them,
Heard a shouting and a tramping,
Heard a crashing and a rushing,
And the water round and o’er them
Sank and sucked away in eddies,
And they knew their dam was broken.

  On the lodge’s roof the hunters
Leaped, and broke it all asunder;
Streamed the sunshine through the crevice,
Sprang the beavers through the doorway,
Hid themselves in deeper water,
In the channel of the streamlet;

But the mighty Pau-Puk-Keewis
Could not pass beneath the doorway;
He was puffed with pride and feeding,
He was swollen like a bladder.

Through the roof looked Hiawatha,
Cried aloud, “O Pau-Puk-Keewis
Vain are all your craft and cunning,
Vain your manifold disguises!
Well I know you, Pau-Puk-Keewis!”

With their clubs they beat and bruised him,
Beat to death poor Pau-Puk-Keewis,
Pounded him as maize is pounded,
Till his skull was crushed to pieces.
  Six tall hunters, lithe and limber,
Bore him home on poles and branches,
Bore the body of the beaver;

And that is why you don’t ask for safety by changing into a beaver. Here endeth the lesson.

Those beavers gave him a chance to prove himself worthy and he showed his ego by demanding to be a huge one. Ameek thought well, okay then. The number one thing that keeps beavers safe is being able to sneak away, but since you know best and you are asking to have that be impossible: so be  it

. Best of luck to you king beaver

.

 

It was usually the first week in January when we’d see sudden evidence of beaver feasting overnight. All of a sudden there’d be chews on several trees at once and at least one down. i remember thinking that the creek looked like many of our homes the morning after new year’s eve, empty bottles lying around speaking to a night of revelry.

Sometimes it was at the start of the month, sometimes later, and sometimes it didn’t happen at all. The surprising part was always that it didn’t continue to happen, it was definitely a ‘one-off’ kind of thing. What ever set of circumstances made it occur just went away until the following year.

Obviously it wasn’t hunger (since beavers get hungry every day). I always assumed some kind of adolescent maturity ritual when a kit suddenly decided he could take down a tree like dad, or maybe dad got him started on one to teach him. The point was, it was a night of learning and then it was over and the beavers went back to chewing plants or a single tree or eating cattails.

Which is what I thought of this morning when I saw this.

Beavers chewing up trees at water’s edge along Riverfront Park

Gnawing nocturnal visitors to Spokane’s Riverfront Park had officials scrambling to save towering cottonwoods from a watery grave this winter.

A flourishing beaver population along the banks of the Spokane River, stretching east from the 100-acre park in the city’s downtown to the shores behind Gonzaga University at least, is being blamed for gashes in the trunks of shoreline trees. The targets are not only those in the willow and cedar families that are staples of the beaver’s diet, but also pine and hawthorn trees that don’t have the same type of bark the creatures prefer.

The activity is puzzling experts and drawing the attention of a sleuthing class of preschoolers.

Joe Cannon, a restoration ecologist with the Lands Council in Spokane, said it’s the most active he’s ever seen the semiaquatic rodent that has often crossed paths with urban dwellers in the city by the falls.

“They’re always here, they’re just having a bigger presence this year than they’ve had,” said Cannon, standing amid a row of trees near Lake Arthur on Gonzaga’s campus last week that showed the telltale signs of beaver chewing.

At least it’s Washington so they know what to do and the area has expert to call on (hi Joe!) better yet – a classroom of preschoolers to  investigate!  Even if the news artist has never seen an actual beaver before.

It’s that activity that caught the attention of Chelsea Inman’s preschool students at the Community Building Children’s Center. Groups of a half-dozen students, between the ages of 3 and 5, take routine tours through the park and began spotting beaver activity in late November, Inman said.

“We’ve been bringing students to the park for years and never seen beaver activity before,” Inman said.

Students found some downed saplings near the upper dam, and followed the wood scraps “Scooby Doo-like,” Inman said, to the damaged trees to the west. The trail included some trail-marking posts on the bridge leading between Havermale Island and the north bank of the river, suggesting the beavers became confused and started gnawing the wooden markers, believing them to be tree trunks, she said.

On Monday afternoon, Inman’s students gathered in a circle, as they do twice a day, to talk about their investigation and what they learned about the eager animal.

“I think it’s a good idea, to let everyone know that beavers were chewing our trees,” said Olivia, 4, who also said her favorite animal was a beaver.

Nelson, 5, said it was important for beavers to have a source of food in the park, so they didn’t venture into other, more dangerous parts of town.

I’m right there with you Olivia! There is generally nothing I like better than an episode of “beaver detective”. Especially when the heroes are in four and five! You did great work, and are paying attention in just the right way. I hope you receive Ranger Rick magazine because you’re going to see a story about children watching out for local beavers very soon.

Yesterday was good but exhausting so I’m taking the morning off and giving you something to keep you busy. I honestly can’t even remember making this, but it’s fun to watch.