After maintaining this website for a decade and writing about the cascade of beaver news around the country, you start to realize certain things.

September is the month for sudden worries about beaver dams causing flooding, October seems to be the for writing about roads washing out because of failed dams and December is the sweetly wistful month where whimsical columnists write stories of beavers asleep beneath the ice like cozy children.

January, however, is the month for complaining about beavers chewing trees.

Hungry beavers make mess in LaSalle, town moves quickly to prevent clogged drain

Busy beavers have been keeping LaSalle tree trimmers just as busy. The semiaquatic rodent has been chewing through some trees along Turkey Creek near Malden Road. The town is moving fast to clear a path, ensuring the drain doesn’t get clogged.

“There were some trees taken down by beavers in that area, so we’ve sort of moved it to the front of our list,” said Mark Beggs, LaSalle’s manager of roads and parks.

The Turkey Creek drain doesn’t provide beavers enough trees to make permanent lodges or dams, according to Cedar. She assumes they must just be practicing their lumberjack skills.

“A lot of young beavers … have to figure out what trees they are able to remove,” Cedar said. “Can they cut down this tree on their own? Is that too big? Is that too small?”

Cedar said there has been similar beaver activity near drains within city limits as well.

Hmm. Windsor is pretty far away from Martinez. 4000 miles to be precise. But gosh darn if we didn’t find the same thing in our creek this January. Coincidence? This report is from Montana.

Park board hears more on beavers in Beaver Creek Park

Hill County Park Board met Monday and discussed beaver management options and beaver trapping reports, as well as park usage.

Fran Buell of Gildford provided a beaver damage control report for the board. The document said, “At the December 2019 Montana Trappers Association Board of Directors meeting, the funding of beaver damage control on Beaver Creek Park was discussed. It was agreed that the Montana Trappers Association would continue funding to a Montana Trappers Association member to assist in beaver damage control until it will be discussed again at their May 2020 board meeting. Again, beaver damage control will be under the supervision of the Beaver Creek Park superintendent.”

Buell said the trapper has not been actively trapping since the first part of December due to the warm weather because he would like to have sufficient ice on the ponds to safely and efficiently set traps.

Bring in the traps! Who needs another ice-skating rink anyway? Here’s a letter of support from Pennsylvania,

LTE: Let the beavers of Cobalt Ridge and Quincy Hollow be

Residents of Cobalt Ridge and Quincy Hollow have been observing the activities of beavers in the greenbelt between the two sections. The beavers have been repeatedly building a small dam at the expense of some trees in the immediate area. Initially someone attempted to discourage the beavers by destroying the dam only to see reconstruction start immediately.

Rain events also tended to damage the beaver work efforts. It now appears that more drastic measures are being taken. At least one beaver has been killed by trappers who claim to have been hired by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The trapping activity continues since the beaver construction activity has not been deterred.

The dam has never been large enough to jeopardize storm water drainage lines entering the creek. It did create a pool of water that improved fishing as youngsters were observed enjoying this activity for the first time in years.

Mark Bogdan

We might look up Mark. There are a few clues in this letter that he might have an environmental background. “Greenbelt” and “Rain events” to mention two. We could always use another beaver defender Plus he has a pretty unusual name and that’s always easier to google.

Here’s what I wonder. Is there some biological imperative that leads to beaver chewing in January? A sudden tooth growth spurt or a preparation for bleaker days ahead? Is there some ancient evolutionary memory that reminds beavers – even in places like Martinez where they’ll never be frozen in- reminds them to eat some cambium? These trees often aren’t felled. Just nibbled.

Why?

If there is a soundtrack you should be hearing in your head all through this post, It’s the jaunty Andrew sisters number above. I could not get it out of my head all day yesterday. And here’s the reason why. At our beaver dinner Sunday, we had two guests who take the train from the east bay and walk up Castro to our house. When they got here they told us about some pretty interesting marks on the trees.

So of course I made Jon check first thing in the morning. And guess what he found? Chew Chew Chew Baby!

That beautiful gnawed arrow! Precious beautiful wood chips! Look at how lovely. If there’s a more heavenly sight for these sore eyes I can not imagine what it is. After we finished dancing a jig and calling everyone we know to share our cigars we  did what we could to face any backlash that might arise. I connected with city leaders and Jon wrapped the trees to make sure the final product isn’t felled into the street or the restaurant.

Beavers in Martinez again. Just like it used to be.

There are a few fascinating things about this bit of manna from heaven. The first is timing. Every year the beavers were with us, like clockwork, around new years we would see a massive chewing night. Not -mind you- a massive felling night, just chewing. Several trees in a clump. Almost like marking territory. For no apparent reason,

It used to vaguely remind me of the half empty bottles you find in your kitchen the day after new years. Did we drink all that?

Was this a beaver party? A single beaver with a very sudden tooth growth spurt? Who can say, But this is not a new phenomenon, the January tree massacre. It’s something I’d worry about every year. I don’t know if it happens everywhere or if its something of a family tradition unique to our beavers, but I know it exists.

Another thing worth noting about this incident is that this is the EXACT SAME PLACE the beavers were living before. Right above where they lived. So whether that means this is some offspring visiting his old haunts or some disperser staying overnight at a ghost town because it was easier than making a new home from scratch we cannot say but it’s pretty awesome news anyway.

And the final bit of awesome sauce is that if you look closely you can see that these VERY trees have been chewed before, resprouted, and chewed again. If there is a better educational poster for coppicing I certainly don’t know what it is.

Of course there’s no guarantee that a beaver that visits is a beaver that stays. It might just be “one of those things”. A random stop on a journey somewhere else. Like all magical trysts we could get all excited but this could turn out to be a classic one night stand [of trees]. Just because you really really like when someone visits it doesn’t ever mean they’ll stay.

Cue the second soundtrack.

But we’ll always have Paris. A town that gets happy about beavers. A town that knows what a flow device is. A network of people to help. A village of people where 200 people react with joy when I post a picture of a tree chewed by beavers. Who else has that?

There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.

If it be now, ’tis not to come.

f it be not to come, it will be now.

If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.