BEAVER AND TROUT ARE FRIENDS, TOO

Fun little beaver/fish interaction: When I approached this pond near the headwaters of the Arkansas River yesterday, I inadvertently startled a half-dozen brown trout preparing to spawn in the gravel below the dam (it’s a common misapprehension that beavers smother rocky trout habitat; in fact, they filter out sediment and thereby keep downstream gravel and cobble clean). Rather than fleeing downriver, the fish all dashed up to the base of the dam and tucked themselves into the brushy cover at its foot. Beavers thus created the finest spawning grounds imaginable: pristine gravel immediately adjacent to dense cover!