Beaver Dams

      One of our property bounds is a trout stream. The state Fish and Game Department dump some trout in that stream every year, but there are more wild trout swimming about than stockers. Every summer I fish it and occasionally bring home a few trout to eat.
      Fishing it upstream last summer, I came upon a large beaver dam, nearly waist high on the downstream side. Upstream, water was backed up as far as the eye could see. My dogs were with me, as they usually are when I’m fishing that stream, and, rather than stay on the banks as they usually do, one decided to swim across the beaver pond. I called them both in and skedaddled. Beavers around dogs make me nervous ever since I read of a German shepherd killed by a beaver while swimming.

The dam in December

      I had planned to trek back there to fish the pond without the dogs for company, but never got there. It looked like a difficult place to fish, with alders leaning on from the banks on both sides. From our home, whenever the stream is up, we can hear the water tumbling through and over that dam, a frequent reminder that the pond is there.

The new dam is flooding the field. 

            Now the beaver has another dam upstream that is flooding an old pasture. It is easily visible from the road into our place.  It will be interesting fishing next spring. 
      In the slow moving water of old beaver ponds, silt settles out of the water and eventually fills in the pond. Sometimes these filled in ponds create meadows and these openings in the forest are always fun to find. The flat bottoms of valleys were created over the ages by beavers and the filled in ponds they left behind.