LOCAL COLUMN: Beavers are the original stormwater engineers
By Joe Carter, DVM | For The Transcript
Are you looking for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education, storm water management and a role model?
I offer you the beaver!
Within sight of the lights of Owen Field lies a beaver’s dam. What a learning opportunity for Norman’s children.
You want more engineers? I can’t think of a better teacher than a beaver. They are one of the smartest animals we know. Construction management is no problem for them. They are the original “design and build” construction company.
You want a role model?
Beavers mate for life and are fiercely loyal to their families along with being very protective. “Tail slapping” against the water’s surface is an indication to their family that danger is approaching.
You want a hard worker?
“Busy as a beaver” as the old saying goes. A harder worker hasn’t been made. They start early and finish late.
A grand park along the Canadian River with a nature center and an outdoor classroom would give students a unique learning environment.
So how does a beaver build a dam?
Phase 1: They drop trees in a stream resulting in the water slowing down.
Phase 2: Then they gather branches, sticks and rocks in their mouths and swim out to the felled trees. Using their front paws, they start plugging holes constructing a dam that slows the flow of the stream. It creates a pond behind the dam.
They build their houses, called lodges, in the water. The dams create ponds that slow the water down (this is the central theme of todays column #payattention) so it doesn’t wash away their house. Good idea, eager beaver.
Here’s another good idea of the beaver. They build their lodges with underwater entrances. Predators have a tougher time getting to them this way i.e., they have to hold their breath and swim underwater. There aren’t many beaver predators that are snorkelers. I can only think of one. Us!
Beavers are always thinking ahead.
They manipulate their environment in order to survive. Again, very cleaver eager beaver.
Beavers love willow branches and will store them at the bottom of their pond for winter eating. Beavers don’t want to venture far in the winter to gather food since they are targets for all those hungry predators.
Beavers are herbivores, meaning they only eat plants.
Beavers are the original stormwater engineers. Shawn O’Leary, Norman’s public works director, gave a lecture once about stormwater. He said, “the number one principle to remember about stormwater/rain runoff management is — SLOW IT DOWN.” Fast water erodes the land, floods our streets and muddies our drinking water.
Beavers were designed for stormwater management. They are nature’s stormwater mitigator. Beaver dams are like speed bumps in creeks. They improve water quality by allowing pollutants to settle purifying dirty runoff water.
Beaver ponds also lessen the damage from droughts. They hold water for thirsty animals to drink. They are a natural filtration system, slowing down the water as it moves down stream.
Beaver dams create wetlands that are critical habitats for thousands of other species of animals. Birds, amphibians, fish and aquatic insects all benefit from the hard-working beaver.
Some more building history:
LaVO: Historic dam builders on the comeback trail
Carl LaVO Special to Bucks County Courier Times
My youngest sister, Deb, and I were hiking remote trails in the Dolly Sods region of West Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains when we happened upon something we’d never seen before. A massive wooden dam the length of a football field and intricately laced with twigs and small logs. It was so sturdy we explored it. It was the work of nature’s busiest mammals. Beavers.
Nature’s engineers are no strangers to Bucks County. They helped define its early history until hunted to extinction. Lenape Indians named streams for them — “amochkhannes”. That’s “amoch” for beaver and “khannes” for creeks. Tongue-tangled English settlers figured out the meaning. “Oh, beaver . . . beaver creek!” they declared. The translation endured for the longest at 11 miles in Nockamixon and Tinicum townships.
Amochkhannes were just about everywhere. On tributaries draining the Great Swamp below Quakertown, the plateau between Ottsville and the Delaware River in Upper Bucks and lowland streams of Central and Lower Bucks. Beaver ponds provided drinking water for livestock, places to fish and a natural means of flood control. It seemed the perfect symbiosis between humans and beavers. What’s more, the critters love working the dreadful night shift.
By the 1700s, a beaver holocaust was underway. European tailors couldn’t keep up with demand for the soft, furry pelts to make top hats and felt-trimmed haute couture.
Discovery of “castoreum” from beaver sex glands also became a key ingredient in perfume.
When the source of beavers dried up in Russia, furriers turned to an endless supply in North America. Indians and immigrant trappers raced to feed the market. Slaughter of beavers was relentless.
Hunters earned $4 a pelt. In today’s currency, that would be $80. A hunter could earn $4,000 for the typical 50-pelt haul.
Uncontrolled harvesting exterminated beavers from Pennsylvania and most Eastern states. A miracle saved those left in North America when beaver fur fell out of fashion. The hunts subsided. The hunts subsided. By the 20th century, citizens began realizing the animals’ environmental benefits. “Today this aquatic fur bearer is back,” declared the Pennsylvania Game Commission last year.
I’d say “Hurray! The best dam engineers are back! Don’t damn them for their fur ever again!”
Bob 
