Several years ago while teaching at a National Wildlife Federation Conservation Summit in New York State, I got the opportunity to visit some of the many beaver ponds in the Adirondack Mountain area. Everywhere I looked were signs of beaver activity - ponds formed from dammed-up streams, downed timber, and chewed tree stumps. After exploring a number of these beaver inhabited areas and seeing the explosion of wildlife populations resulting from their activity, I felt a bit saddened that beavers had been eliminated from most of our western North Carolina area many years ago.

A few months later, back home in the mountains of North Carolina, I was driving into a recreation area of Pisgah National Forest, just a couple of miles from my home. Down below the road in a low-lying area next to the river, I caught sight of a large Tulip Poplar which had just fallen. From a distance it looked as though someone had cut it down with an axe because there were lots of wood chips lying about. I stopped to take a look and could hardly believe my eyes, when upon closer inspection, I realized the axe marks were actually teeth marks. Beavers had moved into my valley! Since that day several years ago, I have often spent time exploring this beaver pond, admiring the handicraft of their dams, observing the trees they fell, and watching the beavers themselves as they leave their dens and begin to swim and forage just before dark. Watching and learning from the beavers has been very enjoyable and is a bit like stepping back in time.

Beavers were eliminated from most of our region over 100 years ago. Unregulated trapping and destruction of their habitat were the major causes for their decline. Beaver fur is extremely durable and beavers were pursued unmercifully by the early settlers. In fact, the quest for beaver pelts was one of the main reasons for the westward expansion of our country by the early pioneers. Along with the beaver, many other species of animals declined or disappeared in our area including the elk, bison, cougar, and wolf. A few remnant populations of beavers held on and these, along with some restocking efforts from existing populations, have now restored beavers to many areas.

During the past few years since I first noticed the beavers mentioned earlier, beavers have been making a dramatic comeback to the mountains of Western North Carolina. Evidently the beavers in our area have moved in naturally through the river drainage systems and are now busy reclaiming their ancestral homes. Personally, I am thrilled that they're back! To me these animals symbolize the great wilderness that was here many years ago and a time that we have lost sight of. But many people aren't as happy because of the beaver's often "destructive" lifestyle.

The beaver is actually an aquatic rodent which makes its living in still or slow-moving waters. Beavers will live in naturally occurring ponds or lakes but often dam up streams, small rivers, and other waterways to create a pond where they can easily swim and transport the sticks and branches they need for dam building and for food. Beavers often build their dams in places that cause problems for people. Man-made culverts are often stuffed full of sticks and other debris by beavers, backing up water and sometimes causing flooding over roadways and bridges. The beaver's habit of building dams for its uses often interferes with man's uses of the land when valuable timber is flooded or agricultural cropland suddenly winds up underwater. A beaver's main food supply is the inner bark layer of trees and shrubs called the cambium. Beavers cut down many trees and shrubs to get to this food supply as well as to supply themselves with construction materials for their dams. When beavers live close to people, they sometimes target valuable orchard or ornamental trees for their own use, much to the dismay of the human residents. From all this, it sounds like beavers are nothing but destructive pests but this is far from true. Beavers are, by nature's measuring stick, probably one of the most beneficial of all animals.

When beavers dam up waterways, forming ponds, they actually create some of nature's most productive habitats. Amphibians, especially frogs, breed in the still waters which results in a large food supply for many other animals. Most trees in and around a beaver pond cannot stand the constant flooding of their root systems. As these weaken and die they are attacked by various species of insects which in turn attract insect-eating birds and other animals. The constant chewing and pruning of the surrounding vegetation by the resident beaver colony produces succulent and nutritious browse in the form of sprouts, utilized by the beavers themselves and other herbivores such as deer and rabbits. Increased sunlight from the absence of large trees overhead create ideal conditions for new species of plants to grow and flourish in and along the water's edge. Waterfowl such as wood ducks find food, shelter, and escape cover in the beaver pond. Fish populations increase both in numbers and in size because of the increased food supply available to them in turn supplying food for other animals such as mink, otters, and great blue herons.

A beaver pond benefits just about all types of wildlife, large and small. Eventually after a period of years, the available food supply for beavers around their pond begins to dwindle and beavers will abandon it in search of greener pastures. Even when beavers leave, the results of their labors continue to benefit wildlife.

When beavers abandon their pond, their carefully tended dams begin to erode. The pond eventually begins to drain and the result is a small stream cutting through the middle of the pond, much like the original one, but with high-exposed banks of rich silt and mud which were formerly underwater. Soon succession begins on the exposed banks, first with grasses and wildflowers and later small woody plants. The result is a wet "beaver meadow" which is not only beautiful to gaze upon but offers fertile hunting grounds for birds of prey, plenty of succulent grazing for deer, and lots of wildflowers and herbaceous plants for butterflies and a myriad of other insects. Beaver meadows persist for a number of years until succession eventually returns the area to a forest, much like the beavers originally found it. The circle is completed.

As beaver populations continue to increase, beaver and man confrontations are also bound to increase. Since man has eliminated many of the natural controls on beaver populations such as the large predators which once roamed our forests, beaver populations wiH probably continue to grow. Beavers are often trapped to help control damage where it occurs to man's interests. Occasionally beavers are trapped to relocate them to other suitable habitats. But unoccupied suitable habitats for beavers are often in short supply. It is estimated that within the next 5 to 10 years, all available beaver habitat in our state will be saturated with beavers. Man will probably have to take an ever-increasing role as a predator to help control beaver populations in the future.

But in any case, I'm glad they're back. Beavers are one of the missing pieces of our natural history puzzle that has been replaced. I just wish that all the other pieces of the puzzle could also be restored.

The beavers I first discovered near my home are still thriving and have evidently produced new generations of beavers looking for new homes. About a year ago, beavers appeared in a small stream across the highway in front of my house which is down river from the original colony. This stream runs through several large cornfields from which the beavers have borrowed cornstalks for use in building their darns. They have also plugged up a culvert with mud and sticks resulting in flooding a section of the cornfield. The farmers who tend the fields have destroyed the dams but the beavers rebuild them as soon as possible. After all, these fertile fields next to the river were once wetlands many years ago, possibly due in part to beaver activity until man claimed and drained the lands for his own uses. At night I can often hear from my porch the alarm sounds made by beavers as they slap the surface of the water with their tails, alarmed by a passing deer or raccoon. What a thrill to watch and enjoy these industrious and beneficial creatures.

Welcome back!