The Huron Nature Center is in Michigan on lake Huron across the water from Ontario and they have some exciting new neighbors! Hey what a great place for a beaver festival this summer! I would start planning activities now.

Beavers setting up shop near Nature Center

The Huron County Nature Center has some new critters that have set up a new residence on property. Some beavers have been spotted building a dam and lodge near Loosemore Road, east of the center of the nature center property.

Kathy Kent, a spokesperson for the nature center, said the dam was first noticeable in late October, and began with just a small collection of sticks to start off with.

“It soon became clear that the beavers were at work, harvesting wood from the sides of the marsh and creating an organized structure,” Kent said.

Cameras along the Nature Center trails have identified three beavers so far, a family unit of two parents and one kit, which is the name for beaver offspring. Kits generally live with their parents for two years as they learn how to survive and build lodges and dams.

Hmm I’m guessing if they’re building a lodge and heading into winter that’s NOT a kit. It’s a yearling, or nearly yearling. And they will have their kits in May or June. Since the weather report says light snow today and a balmy temperature of 20 degrees I’m thinking they haven’t even mated yet. You are in for a treat when they’re first little fuzzy face appears on camera. I hope your patience lasts that long.

While no other beavers have been confirmed near the center before, fallen trees and chew marks on others indicate they have been in the area in the recent past, with some fallen trees having marks showing they fell upwards of 10 years ago.

“When you think about it, pre-settlement Huron County was probably mostly wetland,” Kent said. “Hence the rich soil that we enjoy here. Beavers certainly played a large role in creating and sustaining those wetlands that created that soil.”

Ya think?

Beavers on lake Huron? They certainly appeared in the last of the Mohicans.

Instead of taking the path which led directly toward the camp of the Delawares, Magua led his party for some distance down the windings of the stream, and along the little artificial lake of the beavers. The day began to dawn as they entered the clearing which had been formed by those sagacious and industrious animals. Though Magua, who had resumed his ancient garb, bore the outline of a fox on the dressed skin which formed his robe, there was one chief of his party who carried the beaver as his peculiar symbol, or “totem.” There would have been a species of profanity in the omission, had this man passed so powerful a community of his fancied kindred, without bestowing some evidence of his regard. Accordingly, he paused, and spoke in words as kind and friendly as if he were addressing more intelligent beings. He called the animals his cousins, and reminded them that his protecting influence was the reason they remained unharmed, while many avaricious traders were prompting the Indians to take their lives. He promised a continuance of his favors, and admonished them to be grateful. After which, he spoke of the expedition in which he was himself engaged, and intimated, though with sufficient delicacy and circumlocution, the expediency of bestowing on their relative a portion of that wisdom for which they were so renowned.