Last night’s trip to the dam showed a creek much drained and a water level lower than I had seen it in a year. All the dams had been broken in the storm, so each of the ponds had lost as much as a foot of water. The horrible sandbar is visible again under the Escobar bridge. The water coming out of the flow device could actually be heard pouring, since the secondary dam had lowered that pond so much. And the fourth dam was washed out significantly.
By 8 the beavers were already hard at work, three kits and one adult mudding the primary dam. In fact, the adult made a delivery of fresh mud over and over again once every thirty seconds. It was pretty grueling work, although the kits still had time to stop and nibble. We were told that the level was lower on Saturday, so that means the work is going in the right direction, but it was a little daunting.
Something that multiple home buyers know; increased real estate doesn’t just make you wealthy. Sometimes it means you have three times as many roofs to leak, or boards to warp.
Well they had plenty of raw materials, and a full staff of helpers, so I’m sure they’ll get it done. I’m hydrophobic when it comes to water loss, but they seemed to take it in stride. Beavers fix things, its what they do.
Beaver friend TP sends this announcement:
Did i tell you i saw a beautiful beaver in the Benicia State Recreation Area wetlands off military west? The dam is in the stream just south of the freeway and he/she was paddling along in the water.The thing i thought was good news for us was there was not a tree in sight, i mean not anywhere close to the stream or wetlands. just tons of reeds. so that is what he/she was both feeding on and using to build the dam, i guess. Does that mean our beavers can do well without a ton of trees on the shoreline anymore?
Yes it does, although I wonder if you actually saw a dam? Some beavers don’t build them when they have water wide enough to manage. Our beavers certainly eat tulle: they yank them up by the roots, wash them off in the water and chew them like carrots.
