VP Cheryl Reynolds took a beaver field trip and tracked down the beavers she had seen a few years back on Sonoma Creek. She found the beavers in full swing with at least three lovely dams on display. The creek is stony with very little loose soil so the dams reflect the materials available and have little mud to speak of.
This is the beaver habitat I found 2 yrs ago and haven’t been out there much. We walked the creek today and found 3 dams. I couldn’t get through to where I thought the lodge was before. this first dam is where someone was supposedly takng it apart last year. It’s the most beautiful beaver habitat I have seen. It’s really weird though, the river is all rock. the dams are a combination of rock and branches, no mud.T
Watershed friend Brock Dolman says that they wash out every winter and the beavers have to rebuild in the spring and fall. They look pretty qualified at their year round jobs.
My understanding from the Sonoma Valley folks, is that they continually have
the beavers there, but it is just that the creek is too rowdy in the winter
and always blows out their dams and they move into bank burrows for the
winter and then rebuild each spring to fall small ones like in the photo.
Some think that some may also go down to the lower marshes of Sonoma Creek
and hang out for the rough winter flows as well? Likely, all is happening?
Just got to stop the vineyard depredation permits!!
It’s fun to see stones in the dams. I just watched a National Geographic movie of beavers and saw images of them lifting and carrying stones to place in the dam. They definitely don’t get the opportunity in Alhambra Creek. Still they are spoiled for mud, and it looks like the Sonoma beavers would love some in their efforts. Its nice to see how adaptable their instincts are, proving that beaver building relies on both inherent biology and available materials and practice.
\Photos By: Cheryl Reynolds
If you discover a beaver field trip of your very own, we would love to see photos! Its important to keep track of known colonies so that we can monitor a city’s response. Lets just say most cities first reaction to a beaver dam isn’t ‘wow an opportunity to restore our creek!’. They sometimes need a little civic nudge in the right direction.
(For four years.)
