One spring we arrived to find that beavers had, in just a few days time, built a lodge around the base of our dock. The lodge was four feet high, with a radius of six feet. It weighed a literal ton, and then some. Many of the timbers had five-inch diameters, and had been taken from the living stock of aspen and birch between the dock and the house. Incidental to their construction, the beavers had taken every aspen along the shoreline and in the nearby woods, a dozen very large trees. They were starting in on the birch as well.

Gentler and nobler folk might have welcomed this invasion. Wilder and rougher folk would have dispatched the beavers, with two or three quick rifle shots.

We chose moderation, evicting them by dismantling their lodge.

Government agencies do this with a few sticks of dynamite. At the base of our dock, that was not a wise option. So we began pulling stick by stick from the structure, washing away the mud with buckets of water. We took long breaks, to let the adults remove the kits, if any were inside. The experience gave us an appreciation for the skill and intelligence represented in such a structure.

The volume of mud was impressive. It is used to bury and anchor the structural members, providing weight, and insulation from external heat and cold. The lodge was at least two parts mud to one part wood. We wondered how they dredge this stuff up, and how they transport it in such huge quantities. Even with so much mud in the mix, the branches are carefully woven through the walls of the structure. Attacking with a shovel, we never got much leverage into the walls, because we were blocked by branches. Presumably, a digging wolf would encounter the same difficulty.

It took long hours to dismantle the lodge. Fortunately, there were a thousand nearby sites where the beavers could rebuild, without human interference.

Top of Page

Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605