Another wonderful beaver film from our friend Willy de Koning of the Netherlands. She also wrote me a note about the different origins of the brown and black beavers. Looks like we have some fruits of diversity growing in the beaver tree too!
I’d like to sent you a new film of the beavers in Limburg, the south part of The Netherlands where I live. There also live a lot of beavers, more and more during the years. It’s not difficult to see them. In this part of the country live brown and black beavers. De black beavers were reintroduced in the Eifel in Germany and came originally from Poland. In Poland they were in earliyer years held fot their fur and specially selected for that
From the German Eifel they came to he south part of The Netherlands by small rivers. Now we have beaver families with brown, darkbrown and black beavers.
Wow, thanks Willy. That is really fun to see. I assume on smaller rivers these guys are still building dams every now and then? It’s wonderful to see the population recovering. Although maybe everyone doesn’t share our excitement.
Now from Canada we have the most polite article I have ever seen about a beaver dam washing out the road. Considering how much damage it caused, it’s amazingly good hearted. I guess it’s true what they say about those nice Canadians?
Builder beavers can obliterate roads when dams collapse
Two cars on Highway 141 in Muskoka, Ont. plunge into a submerged crevasse drivers believed was simply a flooded roadway. Though each road was damaged by a mad rush of water, the flood could be traced to a single cause — the collapse of a dam built by beavers.
No foul to the beavers. Their diligent dam building helps create beneficial wetlands and encourages bio-diversity. However, like all real estate, the location of dams is critical.
“Beavers are very industrious and love to stop the flow of water,” says John Potts, maintenance superintendent at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) Bancroft office. “We often have beavers working alongside our highways.”
Potts says he admires the industriousness of beavers and respects the impressive force of water and sediment released when a dam bursts.
“Typically we experience one dam break per year and some of them are not very significant,” he says. “But I wouldn’t want to be driving through the area at the moment a big dam lets loose.”
I’m sure we all wish we had beaver-wisdom in our road crews but seriously? You can’t blame the beavers for trying? I think I need to sit down. I’m feeling a little weak around the knees. Usually transportation crews are not friends to the beaver, but this is one for the history books.Thanks for the eye opener, Ontario!
