When we start feeling proud of our little bit of beaver paradise here in Martinez, a glance or two northwards puts humility back in our step. Take Seattle for instance. – which is so full of beaver intelligence it boasts soccer parks like these.
Take a timeout for nature at Seattle’s Magnuson Park
Seattle families are familiar with the park’s soccer and youth-ultimate fields, but fall is a great time to enjoy the wetlands and look for beaver, listen for frogs and watch for 200 different birds.
From sports fields to art sales to its immense lakefront off-leash dog area, Magnuson Park is a lot of things to a lot of people. But to Seattle’s nature fanciers, it’s a special place.
Just ask Emily Bishton, otherwise known as Teacher Emily, who spent 13 years as an environmental educator, showing people around the park.
“It has such a diversity of ecosystems. The wetlands are very unique. There is a milelong lakeshore, acres and acres of grassland ecosystem.”
There is forest too, but it comes in small chunks, so there is lots of the kind of edge habitat — part forest, part meadow — that attracts a lot of wildlife. For example, around 200 species of birds will spend time in the park over the year.
Because the fields are nestled up against the wild part of the park, they are easily accessible if you want to go for quick stroll during warm-up. At times the wild comes onto the field. For example, when my son was in seventh grade, play at his ultimate game came to a halt when a teammate found an owl pellet on the sidelines.
Engineers installed the most spectacular section, a 30-acre network of wetlands and ponds, in 2008 and 2010. They are just east and south of the playing fields. They are still changing year to year.
Not those kinds of engineers, but still….
Right as it turns dark, there’s a good chance you can see adult beavers and young beavers also.”
Even if you don’t see beavers around, or it’s the wrong time of day, you can find a lot of evidence of where they have been at work. It doesn’t take long to find stumps or logs with chewed ends.
Beavers are relentless in the pace of their activity, taking down trees, building dams and lodges, and even digging canals. They are as busy as a … as a mother with three kids and a full-time job. And their work isn’t always convenient for humans. They have flooded the trails from time to time, so that parks staff have had to install devices called “beaver deceivers” to keep the water flowing. But Bishton says the beavers also do the city a service, by chewing down young trees.
“The beavers have definitely helped clear some open space for some trees to get as big as they should and so people to be able to see,” she says.
That’s not all those beavers are doing for your park-a-topia, Emily, They are affecting the invertebrate population which is increasing the density and diversity of fish and birds. They are causing coppicing on all those branches they chew and making safe new homes for all kinds of migratory and songbirds. By changing the fish population they are attracting river otters to the wetlands. And their filtering toxins out of the waters with their dams.
Heck, and if you hadn’t installed those beaver deceivers they would have made those expensive wetlands themselves for free.
