A few years ago developers decided that they would build a shopping center in a field that is in a corner of two intersecting highways here in Keene, New Hampshire
The trouble was it wasn’t just a field but a wetland as well. After fighting tooth and nail over what impact building in a wetland would have on the town, the developers and the town came to an agreement and the shopping center was built on the drier part of the large parcel.
They started by building huge berms and planting them with pine, spruce, fir, cedar and juniper to give the place a woodsy feel and to hide what remained of the wetland. In landscaping terminology a berm is a long mound of soil that resembles a dam or levee but doesn’t hold back any water. They are a good way to reduce noise and they provide a good screen when planted.
I’ll have to give the developers credit for not totally ignoring the wildlife in the area because they planted quite a few fruit bearing trees like mountain ash (Sorbus,) the fruits of which are shown here. Many birds feed on these berries.
Nice ripe juniper berries also await hungry birds.
Flowering crab apple trees offer even more fruit.
Everything seemed to be going well and all of the local birds and beasts happily co-existed with the shopping center. Until beavers started moving into the water retention pond, that is. Then things started to get interesting.
The beavers started cutting down the ornamental trees-in this case a Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryiana.) A tree this size would easily cost over $500.00 to replace and might run close to a thousand after the stump was dug out and a new tree planted. But what should the developers expect after providing a nice man made pond and then an open path from the tree to the pond? The beavers said “Thank you very much-we’ll take it! You can bet we’ll shop here again!”
There are many more ornamental trees in this area and one of them had these beautiful poplar sunburst (Xanthoria hasseana) lichens on it. I hope the beavers will leave this tree alone but I doubt that they will. Hungry beavers have to eat, after all.
Alders grow naturally on the banks of the pond so I’m surprised that the beavers aren’t eating them or the many birches and poplars that grow nearby. These female alder cones (strobiles) have alder tongue gall, brought on by a natural pathogen that causes a chemically induced distortion of tissues. These long curled “tongues” are very noticeable.
Cattails (Typha) grow in abundance throughout the wetland. Beavers eat the new shoots in the spring and red winged blackbirds will line their nests with the fluffy seeds.
For now the pond and wetland are iced over except for the small area shown in the photo, but before long the ice will melt. Beavers are extra hungry in the spring, so the shopping center managers might want to start putting some stout wire fencing on their tree trunks now.
This photo of a happy beaver is from Wikipedia. Beavers in this area are very wary of man and I’ve never gotten a good photo of one.
In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences. ~Robert Green Ingersoll
Thanks for stopping in.
Very funny- they created an ideal beaver habitat, certainly not their intention. So goes the natural world!
Thay’ve learned something from nature, for sure!
Another very nice post, Allen…always informative. I rather admire that ice reflection photo with the bit of open water in the corner…. We have the mountain ash and juniper out here, as well…find quite a bit of the ash up in the canyons….
Mountain ash and juniper attract a lot of different birds, so that’s where I’d start if I were looking to get shots of them.
Too bad we can’t leave wetlands alone, isn’t it! I hope the beavers don’t get themselves into too much trouble!
Yes, I agree. I hope they don’t eat all the ornamentals, but if they do I think they would just be trapped and relocated. Since we have a healthy beaver population though, I can’t imagine where they would be relocated to.
Another interesting post, we had beavers move in behind us along the river a few years back. I don’t remember seeing them around when I was growing up.
The poplar sunburst lichen is very cool!
: )
Thanks Chris. If you have beavers close by I hope you don’t have too many ornamental trees. They took a flowering crab apple tree right off a fron lawn near here! I like that lichen too.
I loved the nature photographs but the story of beaver contra shopping centre has me intrigued. The beaver in the photograph seems to be saying something.
This story will probably have a second installment because those beavers aren’t going to just suddenly stop eating those trees unless someone intervenes. If the beaver in the photo is saying anything it’s probably “Excuse me-did you say pear trees?”
Those dang developers. And leave it to the beavers. Great job on their part. very nice post.
Thank you. I’m glad you liked it.
Would that be the Monadnock Marketplace? Where 9, 10, and 12 (and maybe 101) all come together to make a T? If so, I’ll have to stop there the next time I go through and look for the wetland.
Yes, that’s it! It’s essentially surrounded by wetland but if you drive in and stay to the right and follow the road until it runs into a large berm and then follow the berm to the left, you’ll come to a break in the berms. Walk to the right between the two berms and you’ll be where the beavers live. (And the trees don’t)
Excellent shots!!!
Thank you Rexlin!
“We have met the enemy, and he is us”
There’s a lot in your post, more than I can respond to in a comment, not that I disagree with you at all. But, if I were to get started on this subject, I’d go on until I hit the limit for how much can fit in a comment. So, I’ll just say thank you for a very thoughtful post.
You’re welcome Jerry. I laughed when I read your comment because I know what you mean. How about if we start by not building in wetlands!
Great post. I love the way living things, including humans, continually change the environment, making it less suitable or some and more suitable for others. This s a wonderful illustration of that.
Thanks Sue, I’m glad you enjoyed it. I have a feeling the beavers will be making a few more changes!
The alder tongue gall photo is quite fascinating. I’m googling right now to learn more about it.
(Your posts always provide good sspringboards for increasing my knowledge.)
Thank you for saying so-I’m glad to hear it!
Excellent! We have had beavers near our shopping complexes, too. I find it interesting that you managed to tell your story with nary a picture of the shopping center itself!
I thought about including the shopping center, but it’s just so ugly! Just picture a big square thing painted a horrid, unnatural shade of orange and you’ll have part of it!
Very interesting post. If the number of suitable trees is limited, I suppose the beavers will eventually eat all that is available and have to move on. Or is the site large enough to support the animals with natural regeneration keeping the balance?
That is assuming of course that pressure to keep the site as planted isn’t so strong that the beavers are “moved on” forcibly. In my experience most people prefer “pretty” to “natural”.
Berm is a new term for me; useful to know.
In my experience beavers seem to eat until they sense that supplies are running low and then move on for awhile, before returning later on. There are plenty of native trees in the area, but none of great size and they are farther from the pond than the pear trees are. Poplars are said to be their favorite tree, but I’m sure those Bradford pear trees are a nice sweet treat! There are probably 12-15 pear trees in that area and I’d bet that they eat them all if something isn’t done. I doubt that the shopping center people will harm the critters, but they might complain and have them trapped and moved. That happens here quite often, unfortunately. Yes, many people here prefer pretty to natural as well, but since this area is so well hidden behind berms I’m hoping natural will win out.
Enjoyed your very thoughtful post about man and nature (and the quote that you chose at the very end was spot on). Coexistence requires compromise and hopefully the developers recognize that reality and try to live at peace with the beavers (even if it means sacrificing some of the trees). Thanks too for sharing the spots of color in a winter landscape–I especially liked the sunburst lichen.
Thank you Mike. I too hope that the shopping center people will learn to co-exist with the beavers. I’m not sure they’ll like losing their trees though, so I’ll be going back later on to see how it goes.