Beavers in my neighborhood

We usually think of beavers as living high in a Rocky Mountain stream in the age of the mountain men. Beavers certainly did contribute to the exploration of the west by mountain men searching for their fortune in the form of beaver pelts for hats and clothing, and in the process beavers were wiped out in many areas of the U.S. due to the demand for their fur. However, over the last 150 years beavers have reestablished themselves either naturally, or with human help through trap and relocation, to almost all of their original range. Today they are living in Tennessee and are actually right here in Fairfield Glade.

If you go to the Overlook near Dorchester Golf course (follow the signs off of Westchester) and go down the path to Daddy’s Creek you will see trees recently cut down by beavers. Also look for white sticks at the water’s edge cut off at 45 degree angles (white, because the beavers have eaten off all the bark). The white sticks in a stream are usually my first indication that beavers are in the vicinity. Don’t look for a beaver dam or classic beaver lodge because on bigger and faster streams like Daddy’s Creek beavers often just excavate a den under the river bank. If you want to see any beavers you will need to be patient and very stealthy. Beavers rarely are out during the day, especially where there is any human activity. I have seen them high in the mountains in Colorado, in Texas, Idaho and Pennsylvania, but only at dusk and dawn.

Beavers are big. Adults are 40-70 pounds and 3 to 4 feet long including the flat broad tail. Once I was fly fishing in Idaho about dawn one morning, standing nearly chest deep in a quiet lake when I saw a very large beaver swimming on top of the water heading directly for me. I stayed still until I could no longer stand the thought of staring eye to eye with a 50 pound rodent. Wanting to communicate properly, I slapped the water with my hand and Mr. Beaver slapped the water with his tail and disappeared underwater. I half expected to soon feel something gnawing on my leg but I reminded myself that beavers are never a threat to humans.

Beavers are sometimes not welcome neighbors to humans because they cut down trees and they dam up streams and flood low areas. But when they aren’t interfering with us, they actually do much good in nature. Their dams create wetlands that are needed by many species. And their dams actually minimize flooding and erosion by holding back water. They cut down trees to eat the inner bark and to build dams and lodges. Beavers have been know to cut down trees up to 5 feet in diameter, but usually they work on trees less than a foot across. This isn’t a problem out in the middle of nowhere, but if it is in your backyard then you may not be too happy to see beavers move in next door and drop your $200 River Birch on your driveway. A wrap of chicken wire two feet up the trunk will save your trees.

You don’t need to be a mountain man to see wild beavers but you do need to get a little bit off the beaten path along a nice stream in the Big South Fork Recreation Area, the Cades Cove area of the GSMNP, or just down by our own little Daddy’s Creek. The variety of wildlife within a few miles of your home is amazing…you just have to look around. Beavers right here in Fairfield Glade…who would have believed it.