As I was cruising around the internet yesterday I came across this paper by Don J. Neff, and titled, astoundingly, A 70 year history of a Colorado beaver colony. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I settled down to read it. Would we learn how a colony responded to the loss of a mate? To serious flooding? Or what happens after beavers disperse? 70 years is a good long time. I couldn’t wait to read the secrets observers unfurled during that time.
Alas, the paper was entirely about the work of the colony over 70 years, and not about the beavers themselves. It told the story of new canals and lost dams in much the same way that an observer describing a new off ramp on highway 24 would learn about the lives of the people who drive it every day. I was very disappointed.
Above Moraine Pond Warren found a series of ponds, the first two being of good size and each containing a lodge. About 75 feet upstream was found a pond which was formed when a lodgepole pine on the south bank of the channel fell with the crown pointing downstream. The beavers used the mass of earth in the roots of the tree as part of a dam which created a pond some 15feet wide and 4 feet deep. The boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park crosses the stream immediately above the fallen pine and marks the approximate upper end of the Moraine Colony.
However, no beaver effort is wasted. The most interesting part of the paper is the summary of the 27 years it was observed by Enos Mills. The author of the paper uses his colorful and detailed observations, but describes them as dismissively unscientific and fragmented. I of course bought his book immediately, but found a google version this morning and am thrilled to recognize exactly what I was looking for.
The entire text is searchable here, and don’t bother me after earthday because I’ll be reading my copy over and over again. No radio collars, no telemetry, no regression analysis, no dendrite chronology – just a man with eyes and ears and the rare capacity to really watch beavers. Oh and if that’s not exciting enough for you, guess who the young man Enos was inspired by, met by chance on a SF beach in 1889, and ultimately befriended? I’ll give you a hint. He lived in Martinez.
Muir wrote to Mills in 1913: “I shall always feel good when I look your way: for you are making good on a noble career. I glory in your success as a writer and lecturer and in saving God’s parks for the welfare of humanity. Good luck and long life to you.”
So Enos is famously called the ‘John Muir’ of the rockies, and once said “I owe everything to Muir. If it hadn’t been for him I would have been a mere gypsy.” [Literary Digest, July 14, 1917] . John Muir who lived in Martinez. Where our beavers live. Who died a year after Enos “In Beaver World” was published. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by destiny?
Say it with me now. It’s a small beaver world.
