Regarding the beavers…my preference is to avoid harming or trapping them. Since new beavers will quickly replace the current residents if we move them (and any young left behind in the lodge would starve), I am hoping we can live harmoniously with them by continuing to wrap the trees, etc.

I feel that the beavers have a role in the ecosystem which is not always a negative one. In fact, they eat many small branches and weeds that would otherwise become completely overgrown… They are not likely to fell any large trees at this point, since they use the larger ones not for food but for lodge-building, and they already have a lodge… so they will mostly be eating the smaller vegetation, which to them is more tender and tasty. I feel this is not always a bad thing (I have a ton of weeds behind my house that I wish they’d get to work on….with all this rain, they grow back faster than I can pull them!)

"Man is the only animal that blushes—or needs to." – Mark Twain

— Ms. Kathleen Summers · 15 August 2003 · #