It all started when I went down to our ponds and saw a recently-felled young birch tree with its trunk cut in segments and wood chips all around. I suspected that this was not the work of a phantom forester.
The next day, most of that birch was gone and I went looking for it. I found it on a small island in our wild, bog pond, where it could be used as food, a lodge rafter, or both. We had received the mixed blessing of an American beaver on our place looking for real estate with a water view.
I finally saw him yesterday and the day before: He’s an adult between three and four feet long in good condition, as you see from the images here. If he attracts a mate and has a family, we’re going to have to worry about them blocking up our drainage culverts to dam and raise the water. If they do that, we’ll get a trapper to perform a beaver removal-and-release operation and take them for a ride to where they can be beneficial.
American beavers (Castor canadensis), not to be confused with Eurasian beavers, are the largest native rodents in North America. On balance, they benefit the environment by creating and filtering needed wetlands for other species.
These semi-aquatic mammals have webbed hind feet for swimming and self-sharpening incisors for felling trees. They’re most active nocturnally, use their broad tails as rudders and to give warnings by loud water slapping, and they can be pugnacious. Don’t try to touch one if you value having 10 fingers. (Images of the beaver taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 27, 202; sex assumed.)