this beaver had already dropped a good sized aspen onto the pedestrian bridge over the channel between sucker lake and vadnais lake. now he was working on an even bigger poplar, determined to dam the channel, and unaware that pretty much the entire Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Saint Paul Water Authority, and Ramsey County stood poised to undo his work the minute he succeeded. even if he knew ahead of time that his work was in vain, i don’t think he could have resisted the addictive feeling of scooping out that last couple of poplar shavings, right before the tree starts to waver, and then crackle, and fall.
beaver chipped poplar tree
sucker lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota
That’s what I love about Minnesotans. They are caring and so smart.
It’s interesting, I thought beavers were drawn only to aspen and birch type trees. Whoa! I’m imagining one taking down a Ponderosa pine! Haha.
Thank you for this post today.
This was actually a poplar. A very old poplar. It doesn’t look like one–probably because it was so mature. So you are right about the apsen/birch thing. :-)