Lewis Henry Morgan – Worth A Dam

Flooded Railroad Tracks Posed a Hazard in Lee, MA. Fortunately someone had the good sense to hire Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions to fix the problem. He posted this yesterday on the Beaver Management Forum.

Recent Flow Device Installation Protects Railroad in Lee, MA
These pictures reveal flooding that was relieved when a blocked culvert on Highway 102 in Lee, MA was opened and fitted with a Fence and Pipe flow device. BMF member and aspiring NY flow device installer Sue Hendler and Josh Rondeau helped me on this project. The water was dropped by 18 inches but the beavers and a huge wetland remain. The railroad was very concerned about unstable tracks and a possible derailment. Trains can pass safely now.

Photo Mike Callahan – Water on the tracks\

Sue Hendler and Josh Rondeau help with the installation. Photo Mike Callahan

Flow device installed – Mike Callahan Photo

Great work Mike! And we are always happy to see you passing along what you know to the next generation of beaver helpers!

Maybe you’d be thinking that beavers and trains never coexist well. You’d be wrong. And just remember that one of the most important beaver books in history was written by an early railroad man who had the good fortune of crossing the united states looking to see where track should be laid. His name was Lewis Henry Morgan and he produced drawings like this.

I got to visit my old favorite beaver habitat on the border or Nevada yesterday in the high desert, and saw sadly that they had foolishly ripped out the myriad of little dams down stream. I was relieved to see that beavers had responded to this tragedy by building the tallest dam upstream that I have ever seen in the area. It was so tall the water backed up in a majestic pool and covered the entrances to their old lodge again. In the middle of waterless sage, scrub and pinyon pine, there was a beautiful pond, which made me very happy.

Isn’t this a lovely picture? Its from a very seminal work by Lewis Henry Morgan entitled “The American Beaver and His Works”. Morgan was a lawyer turned Iroquois-friend, turned anthropologist and was remarkable for his progressive thinking about cultures and intelligence. He used his study of beavers (he called them “mutes” so he must not of heard them talking…) to question the 1800’s generally accepted notion that animal behavior is based soley on instinct.

“I propose to submit, in a brief form, a series
of considerations or arguments based upon the
structural organization, and authenticated acts, of
the higher animals, tending to show: first, that
they possess a mental principle; secondly, that
the qualities which it manifests are essentially
the same as those displayed by the human mind;
and lastly, that the difference between these
qualities, and inferentially, between the
principles they respectively represent, is one of
degree and not of kind” (Morgan 1868: 252) .

By studying dams, lodges and canals and the way they adapted to specific habitats, Morgan was able to argue fairly effectively that beavers were using complex thinking that combined instinct with pragmatic appraisal and available resources. Beaver friend Bob Arnebeck discusses Morgan’s work here. This was no small feat, and Morgan recognized that it was a significant challenge to the idea that only humans could make these kinds of decisions.

I have to say it is fairly remarkable to me that a man more than a hundred years ago was already beginning to notice that beaver mythology had gotten out of hand. Do you know that some had written about a “slave beaver” who did the work for the colony, but didn’t enjoy its spoils and had a less lustrous coat? Hmm I wonder what in our culture could have made people think that?

“I cannot refrain from smiling when I read the accounts of different authors who have written on the economy of these animals, as there seem to be a contest between them who shall most exceed in fiction”. page 309.

Ahh a man after my own heart. For an overview, check out this weirdly contextual article from Irene Cheng of Cabinet Maginzine (?) it has a lovely description of his work which got me thinking. The link to the original text is on google books and is wholly searchable.

Oh and this morning Jon stopped to see our “mutes” finishing their dam repairs. A yearling picked up a final stick, put it in the gap of the primary dam, and then swam off to bed.

The American Beaver and His Works By Lewis Henry Morgan

The American Beaver and His Works By Lewis Henry Morgan

Got that? The “Slave beaver” builds dams by breaking sticks with its head, giving it a little worn patch, and the “Master beaver” takes it easy and spends his days eating fish. Just want to make sure you’re all paying attention.