Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1935-08-29
AMERICAN BEAVER
STAGING COMEBACK
Busy Fellow Proves Worth
as Natural Engineer.

Washington.-The American beaver
is staging a comeback Sharp-toothed
and industrious, the little fellow Is
proving his worth as natural engi-
neer. "Once sought by white men and
Indians alike for his skin, the nervous.
thick-tailed creature, measuring scant
three feet from chin whiskers to tail
tip was slaughtered ruthlessly. But
now, thanks to his enterprising nature,
he is more valuable alive than dead.
Hundreds of thousands of beaver
skins, warm and heavy, were shipped
from the New world during Colonial
times" says the National Geographic
society. "In one year the Hudson's
Bay Fur company exported 175.OO0
hides from what is now the United
States and Canada. AS early as 1863,
a gentleman was not in style without
his beaver hat A good one cost more
than four pounds.
Beaver pelts provided funds to build
the first parish church in Quebec and
its furnishings. In western United
States beaver pelts often served as
currency.
1.-THE Adirondack region was home
to at least a million beavers when the
white man came to New York, but by
1895 naturalists declared that if every
stream were searched, no more than
five to ten would be found. Vigorous
new stock has since been imported
from Yellowstone National park, how
ever, and under strictly enforced game
laws, rapid increase has taken place.
Beaver Ponds Put to Use.
I'm Minnesota's Itasca State park,
wherein lie the headwaters of the
Mississippi river beavers under pro-
lection are multiplying year by year.
In 1924 when the irrigation supply of
the Minnesota and North Fork valleys
ran low, the fruit crop was about to
be lost. Fourteen large beaver ponds
located above the head of the irriga-
ton canal were tapped and the water
carried down into the valleys to save
the orchards
Beavers have made it possible for
cattle to Craze on several ranges in
national forests of Colorado which once
were almost useless because of lack of
water. The busy creatures damned
/, up the streams, built ponds and con-
served the water, making it available
throughout long, dry months. In Gun
nison National forest, beaver ponds
have proved effective barriers in check
ing forest fires.
Zone of the most recent beaver prof
ects is in Lake county, Oregon, where
the active little fellows are getting
under way with an engineering job
which forestry officials aver will pre-
/, vent soil erosion, preserve timber sup
ply, and beautify landscape Live
beavers are captured in huge, basket
like traps and transported from places
where they are not needed, to depleted
areas There they are liberated to
build dams across mountain brooks
that dash down the hillsides in early
spring, washing away the top soil
Build a Dam, Then a House.
Beavers begin a dam at a site where
the streams bed is firm and the banks
surrounded by young trees. Working
from the upstream side, they carry
sticks and stones, sod and mud, laying
the debris across the brook until the
water piles up. More sticks are
brought to the, dam, pushed over the
top, and allowed to lie criss-cross
against the outer side. The ends of
the branches are bound into the struc-
ture with mud and stones until it is
strong enough to withstand the pres
sure of the water against it, and high
enough to make lake at least 6 feet
deep. AS the pond rises, the dam must
be extended in length to keep water
from running around the edges. Some
times completed dam is many times
the width of the stream. One built on
the Jefferson river near Three Forks,
Mont, was 2,140 feet long-over third
of a mile
mot all beaver-built dams are made
of mud and willows. In 1899 several
dams of coal were discovered in North
Dakota. Beavers had dug the hard
black substance from a nearby cliff.
Around beavers have grown up leg
end and fiction. Indians linked the
warm-coated animals with deity, and
some tribes carried beaver bundle
a sort of sacred medicine bag. One
yarn told by white men of the animals.
though long since dsproved, is that
beavers use their broad, fiat tails as
trowels in spreading mud; as stake
drivers; and as sleds on which to
transport sod and EARTH"