Dear Editor:
One of Estes Park’s tourist and local resident’s most outstanding attractions is the 6:30-8:00 P.M. nightly “show” put on by the Beaver at their dam sites on Fish Creek Road near Cheley Camp Road.
Now comes word that the Town Trustees, County Commissioners, EVRPD and Department of Wildlife (DOW) have given the okay to seek funds and build a bike/hike Trail along Fish Creek Road, which will intersect the Beaver dams. Why? As a frequent visitor to the area to watch the “show”, I see many people parking or stopping to watch, but never have I seen a biker or hiker in that area! So why now?
Estes Park has been labeled “Nature’s Wonderland”, thus it is unimaginable to me that the Officials entrusted with the sanctity of wildlife in the community appear to be supporting this action. These “community Beaver” need to be protected. They are an asset to Estes Park and the Proposed Trail will simply drive them away or worse. How would Enos Mills react to this Proposal?
The citizens of Estes Park need to contact their community leaders and the DOW and help put a stop to this Plan now, before it’s too late, if that’s not already the case.
Bill Melton, Estes Park Colorado
Ahh Bill, that might be my favorite letter to the editor, EVER. Estes Park is where Enos Mills lived and wrote his famous “In Beaver World”! Of course I wrote back that Bill was from the home town of MY hero and as it happened I was from the home town of HIS hero, so we obviously had alot in common. For the record. Here’s what Enos Mills had to say about beaver dams.
The dam is the largest and in many respects the most influential beaver work. Across a stream it is an inviting thorough fare for the folk of the wild. As soon as a dam is completed, it becomes a wilderness highway. It is used day and night. Across it go bears and lions. rabbits and wolves, mice and porcupines; chipmonks use it for a bridge, birds alight upon it, trout attempt to leap it and in the evening the deer cast their reflections with the willows in its quiet pond. Across it dash the pursuer and the pursued. Upon it take place battles and courtships. Often it is torn by hoof and claw. many a drama, romantic and picturesque, fierce and wild is staged upon the beaver dam.
The Beaver dam gives new character to the landscape. It frequently alters the course of a stream and changes the topography. It introduces water into the scene. It nourishes new plant life. It brings new birds. It provides harbor and a home for fish throughout the changing seasons. It seizes sediment and soil from the rushing waters and it sends waters through subterranean ways to form and feed springs which give bloom to terraces below.
p.74 Enos Mills In beaver World
And here’s a reminder of Mills trip to Martinez as Muir’s guest 1908, five years before the publication of his book.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is called destiny (and history, even though its not on a mural or anything….) YET.
