‘Tis the season to get lost in corn. As summer comes to an end and harvest season approaches, fields across Quebec have been carved up for your enjoyment. Several corn mazes have already popped up across the province. But Éco-Odyssée in Wakefield breaks the mold.
There, you can embark on a journey through a sprawling water labyrinth, wandering between marsh and forest.
The maze is actually inspired by the beaver.
“The concept of the water maze came to” founder and beaver specialist Michel Leclair “from the beavers that he worked alongside for 35 years,” the Éco-Odyssée website explains.
“The beaver, upon settling in a habitat, digs a network of underwater canals that are similar to a labyrinth. This network allows it to move around throughout the entire year in order to find food and wood to build dams.”
This looks entirely delightful. The only sentence that confuses me is “beavers dig a series of Underwater canals“.. Underwater? Were you expecting viaducts instead?
Michel LeClaire has been working with beavers since Reagan was president. Both Mike Callahan and Skip Lisle traveled to Canada once upon a time to learn from him. I do not think every single one of his ideas holds true today but he is page one on the story of human adaptions for coexistence.
His latest invention looks absolutely magical. So very much better than a corn maze.
