Beaver Wars, Part the First

So, having declared victory in the Battle of the Mouse and the Battle of the Chipmunk, we turned our attention to the Battle of the Beaver. The beaver is a determined and resourceful adversary, but as we need to drive down a road, not navigate a river, we had little choice but to declare war. This is what we faced:




Flooded out section of road, with gravel surface washed away, basically a river crossing the road to a depth of two feet.







The other side of road showing water pouring from one pond, across road, from there it flows into dammed area.




The water flow was considerable, as you can see, and would eventually have eroded away the gravel road making it impassable.




This, you might say, is a small dam. But this is only the secondary dam! This was built just a couple of yards from the road to further raise the water level. In the distance you can see the main dam.




That beaver did a dam fine job.




Beaver dams are extremely well-built and very difficult to dismantle.




The resulting pond on the other side of the dam is actually quite beautiful.




These dead tree stumps look like fingers.




Paul used a rake and his bare hands to take apart the dam piece by piece.




Busted!


Now you might think that was the end of it - but think again. The beaver is not called "busy" for nothing - and he soon repaired the damage and once again, the road was flooded. A few days of torrential rain to follow, and we were in big trouble - but with a call in to the Department of Natural Resources gave us hope. We really didn't want to have to camp out all night with a shotgun ...

Stay tuned for Beaver Wars: Part the Second ...