Wildlife & Related

[waffles]

I'm basic I guess

[Bailey Guns]

Little background:

About 900' of Cottonwood Creek runs thru our property. The house sits about 20' feet or so above the creek bed. It tends to flow very heavily in the spring during the rainy season. Earlier this year we were outside and heard the crash of a large tree falling somewhere in the creek bed. The undergrowth was already heavy and the creek was flowing too hard to get down there to see what it was. We assumed it was a weakened or dead tree falling due to the water flow.

About a month or 6 weeks ago we noticed a tree appeared to have fallen. Probably wouldn't have noticed but it made a clear spot where the road was visible. A few other trees nearby appeared to be dying. At that time the summer growth was in full swing...so were rattlesnakes. So we couldn't get down there to investigate. I did take a look at a downed tree thru the binos and told Mrs BG it looked like it had been felled by a beaver. Couldn't really tell for sure, though.

Last night the power went out. We thought we heard a crash but weren't sure. This morning, the line on the power pole in our front yard was dislodged from the insulator. The energy from the line literally splintered the 6"x6"x8' crossmember that separates the lines. Apparently the little bastards dropped another tree that hit the lines causing them to break free from the insulator.

We took a little walk along the creek this morning and found the problem. Beavers. They've felled 2 or 3 dozen trees down there. At least 2 dams. A pretty impressive pond is beginning to form, too. And that's just what we can see. I can't really tell the extent of the problem but we're gonna have to do something to relocate them. I'll have to look into the best options.

All of this has been accomplished by them since March. There was no sign of them then.

Pretty good sized cottonwood:


More of their handywork:






Dam 1:


Dam 2:


Part of one of the ponds: