I expect that this tree has around a week to live.
The bark on the tree with a week to live looks like willow. Beavers really like Willow’s inner bark. Maggie would jump in the canoe as soon as I put it down so I had to have it a least partially in the water when i set it down. Does Zoey do that?
OK, different place, different type tree, different height off water but maybe not some trees last and last after beaver abuse…………………
Lake Price, NC…………about elevation 3400ft.
As long as they are not ringed they can hold on. True many trees can sustain surprising damage, and still live. I have a beaver living in our farm pond. It has killed most of the willows like the one in Tom’s photo. It likes Loblolly Pine too, but seems to leave the Red Maple alone. They feed on the Cambium layer of growing tissue just under the bark. They don’t eat the bark or wood, but use the wood to build lodges and dams. They also borrow and dig canals, and are most active after dark. I have to keep it from damming the spill way when we have lots of rain. The sound of running water stimulates it to dam it up, and stop the sound.
@castoff said:
The bark on the tree with a week to live looks like willow. Beavers really like Willow’s inner bark. Maggie would jump in the canoe as soon as I put it down so I had to have it a least partially in the water when i set it down. Does Zoey do that?
Zoey does not do that. Zoey is a hound so she takes full advantage of being loose while I am distracted loading or unloading the boat, usually straying towards the nearest picnic table to look for anything interesting she can find. Her DNA analysis was clear, “they are hounds and given the chance they will run away”. So she’s good, for a coonhound.
Thanks for sharing some of your knowledge about beaver. The pic below is their beaver hotel which is within about ten feet of the tree in my pic. It was either totally submerged in early Spring or close to it. The river levels have only recently dropped near normal and there has been an explosion of beaver activity at this location. It’s really amazing to see the size of trees they are using! How can they manage the one shown in my pic, which will fall in the main channel of the St Joseph?! In previous years it seemed like they just reused the same place but it would appear that this year they may be trying to add some height to their home in case of future floods.
