Rob Rich

But when the water spreads out, you know, they are very comfortable in water. but not as much on land. You've got to imagine a beaver has front feet that are very dexterous, about the size of a deck of cards or so. And then the hind feet are double or even more than double that size. And they're webbed, entirely webbed.

So it's like walking on hands on one part, but then enormous flippers on the back. And so they're very awkward and just very slow. And they do smell a lot. And so they're very attractive to a number of predators on land. And so being in water is a safe place for them. They're just ultimate graceful in the water. And so that's safe.

And as the water extends, they're both encouraging new like willow, aspen, cottonwood regeneration, and then able to access that for their own food and building uses as well.

Yeah, that's right. A lot of species, wherever beavers were in that range, have co-evolved with beavers and depend on their work and their disturbance factor to make the habitats where they thrive. And so willows are just a consummate example of that. They're

truly an amazing plant in their ability to be you know just a sprig if it's attached you know gets a little bit of a root hold in moist soil can just take off and can propagate very fast in ways that are really great and so Beavers are a little bit different than like an elk or a deer or other browser in that they're not seeking so much the buds. They don't want that just fresh shoot growth.

And so plants like willows, aspens, cottonwoods, those are kind of their... three favorites, really. Those are some of the plants that evolved in those riparian systems that really thrive as well. And so it is a very dynamic cycle. And beavers, they create diversity by being dynamic. One of the things that they do is they don't always stay in that spot.

As one food patch will become diminished a little bit, they'll shift to another. And so at each of those different stages, temporally in the beaver succession, that brings a whole new suite of species that will thrive in that altered state. And so it's a constantly shifting mosaic that beavers really promote.

Yes. I mean, one of the greatest predictors of future beaver habitat is historic beaver presence. And so that's why it's important to have that eye to be able to see where a prior dam complex was or other old chew sign that you can see on sticks and things around. Those are all great signs. for where future beavers could establish as well.

And that's really important for people involved in beaver restoration is looking at kind of where those prior sites were productive because those are the places that they will likely come back to.

Yeah, great question. So it does vary a ton, but generally they are working very hard and in a way very fast on it. Sometimes alterations or blowouts will happen in a dam system naturally or human caused for various reasons. And beavers are very fast to return to that leak and triggered a lot by the sound of flowing water as well. The instinct, that is a trigger to where the leak is, so to speak.

But I also sometimes resist the idea of just the busy being a beaver. If you ever get the chance to watch a beaver doing its work in this setting, they're never frenzied in their activity. I always really appreciate just how deliberate and just like tactful they are in placement. It's more of just like a constant process as opposed to just like this frenzy of activity. And

They have just really mastered the art of maintenance. I think so many of us humans just don't know how to do basic maintenance activities sometimes. We can dispose of something or get a new one, but we don't know how to really just tinker and maintain things over time.

And so I think that's part of what makes beaver structures so resilient is that they're constantly evolving and adapting with the changes that they're facing.

Kind of all of the above. It generally starts with, you know, just some berming of some mud at the base. You know, it's not only stick. So there's some anchoring things in there going on, like the mud. Sometimes even rocks are rolled in and stones can be rolled in as part of like a supporting base. But, you know, it's it is a very complex. And remember, this is in a aquatic environment.

environment where water is flowing around all the time, you don't have the, you know, the ability to do this in dry times, but they use that to their advantage as well. And then as it crests out of the water, you know, they do add a berm of mud, especially on that upstream edge where the water is pounding.

And they will use mud as well to kind of add a little shellac like coating to it to keep it from just water getting through all those crannies of the sticks, so to speak.

Yeah, very much all the above. I think it's not a gendered activity. I think both male and female contribute to dam building and the yearlings as well. It takes the kits a little bit of time to get comfortable to that point. When they're born, they actually don't have their waterproofing gland active yet. And so they stay in the lodge for a little bit of a time.

But after they get that waterproofing gland active and they can be in the water effectively, you know, they will also watch and participate and learn from the process as well.

I believe so. I'm not as familiar with those type of environments, but play and just experimenting and using those tools is very important for

So many animals, you look at bears or wolves or any other animals that are socially oriented like that, that watch each other, learn from each other, and do have play, that play and practicing with their future tools kind of as a very important instinct or way of entering their future work. And so I think that is a possibility, yeah.