Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-12-17
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Mom1HSa.
Chapters From Canada's Jungle
Books - Beaver Masonry

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Books - Beaver Masonry
/ Fa.~.s.gBGksor. 5Eta Tonquin Valley.
EXPANSION appears to be
- the order. of the day. Nations,
tribes and people, made restless
! by.a number of causes apparently
beyond CONTROL are reaching out
forfnew lands to populate. Invad-
ed BY. insatiate man, the haunts of
all wild things are approaching
the stage when they will no longer
serve as protection, or as a habitat.
What about this place in the sun
that all things living craye?,-
o"And now" quoting Major Fred
Brewster, who has for more than
forty years roamed the Canadian
Rockies and knows the habits of
every living creature above and
below the timber line, sit has come
to a point where the beaver, super
! carpenter and builder among dwell
r in the animal kingdom, has
been driven from his woodland,
source 'of' the material from which
he fashions his home and takes
refuge from his enemies, finds it
necessary to use stone in the dams
he constructs to, control the water
supply essential to his existence"
I had Away thought that there.
was ample beaver cover in the val
leys8 iofiathe'1 Rockies, particularly
throughout the Jasper park reserve.
aii' Beavers Again Multiplying. !
7 s7''There would be if the beaver
could be controlled in the selection
of a home. Site. said the Major,
s'but it just can't be done. In such
matters he is an individualist, with
satrare genius for Uniting food and
water tosrsuiti his whims.a During
the old Hudson's Bay era, and later,
the Northwest company, afterward
combined, when trapping was gen
era1 throughout the country, hun
dre6s Of thousands of beaver were
taken for the market. With the in
sf1ux of civilization they were almost.
exterminateds In fact, when Jasper
park was. created in 1917. a beaver
was, a rarity. Today, under pro-
tectfve laws they are again multi
plying and threatening, if allowed
their OWE way, toaoverrun the sane
tuary. The wardens are kept busy
dispossessing beaver families that
have built dams which, unless Kept
-4belowra certain level rise and flood
the park trails. Keep always Gin
mind that the beaver, never salts
fed withya small estate, goes right
'onsbuildings elevatmg the water line,
increasing the building operations
until he has turned a pond into a
lake. In keeping the waters.l line sew
eral feet above the underwater en-
trance to his home, which rises
dome1ike, he is assured protection.
Economically regarded, the beaver
stands ina class by himself; sus7
tanned by the tender branches and.
sprouts Of the poplar land birch
trees which he turns into food and
gnaws into desired lengths for the
construction of his dams. Whatever
is too tough for diet is used in con-
'Fstructing the dam9and the residence,
Strengthened and united with mud,
"a by-product of riparian activities"
aAnimals Are Stone Masons.
s.s'TheT beaver census, then,o is ris7s
4nlIg edit OFT Elg9, nofss.
tssYes, tootrapidly, I'm afraid, for
the. beavers good, # allowed to
proceed inrestrained there would
soon be a thousand Beaver where
twenty years ago there was a pain.
AS is the lease in all walksnof life,
in both the human and animal world,
tauartersa AREA bit crowded, and
there is, nothing left but to, move on
Last summer along Meadow creek,
ia Tonquin valley, 6,50o'feet le1eva-
tion,' about half a mile above the
park Wardeh'sl cabin I came upon
thesscene of a rbeaver building oper:-,
alton that completely staggered me.
That beaver, wholly dependent upon
poplar, birch and willows for food
and wood in the scheme of self
preservation, should have selected
a!sitelalnost wholly lacking in these .
essentials, was more than i could
fathom. al g87alu sdI' cor
btfsfThe small supply of dwarf birch,
scrub and poplar and moose will
lows, finding only a thin soil for
rootage, meant hard Shedding for
the new squatters,, who, were not vis-
'ible[ati the time, although i found
3plentyA,of fresh evidence of their
.preeence in the neighborhood. In
fact, they had begun construction
of the dam, using sticks, twigs and.
wood refuse, none Of it exceeding
a1foot in length whereas in beaver
colonies below the timber, line six
foot logs,t8 inches in diameter, are
common. I could see, at, a glance,
that only the most heroic activity
would enable the builders to throw
up a dam that could impound suffi-
Client water to- protect a hut and it's
occupants bns sAol 5ilql gJ.
} *Upon further examination of the
u restraining wall i found, to my ut,
ter arrangement, that rocks, some
of them the size of my two fists,
had heen p1ched down +ha4 croo1,