Wildlife

BEAVER

It was in the early spring of 2006 when three beaver escaped holocaust finding refuge in our three quarter acre wild life pond.
In appearance they were young beaver looking somewhat bloated.
Two of the beaver seemed in fair condition the third having broken free from a trap or shot was dragging a paralyzed back leg. The cripple swam extremely slow and was reluctant to move when approached.

I immediately welcomed the homeless beaver by cutting aspen saplings and placing them in the pond. My offering of a new home and aspen were readily accepted. The beaver soon supplemented their diet by cutting unwanted willow and tag alter from the shoreline including small aspen located a short distance from the pond. I was forced to selective guard birch and spruce trees leaving the beaver only trees I had debated removing myself. To my knowledge beaver eat birch when other foods are unavailable and never eat spruce or pine. No attempt was made to make a feed bed or build a beaver house. These apparently were bank beaver making dens in the bank with underwater entrance. In late fall I found a dead beaver on the shore line possibly the cripple.

By fall there was no evidence of a feed bed but I noticed several bank dens. The beaver wintered under the ice surviving on cattail roots, pond lily roots, water weeds. Weekly I shoved fresh cut aspen under the ice. Paul Strong’s book titled “Beavers” states bark is not easy to digest so beaver prefer cattail, arrowhead, pond weed, smart weed, milfoil, pond lily, a variety of sedges, nettles, blackberry, gritty stems of bulrushes and large masses of algae or pond scum which they swim into and pull together with their front paws. When I fed the beaver aspen leaves were eaten first. By mid summer our pond was nearly free of unwanted weeds, cattail and pond lily which threaten to take over. Beaver are natures natural weed control.
Nature has played a great part in my life and I feel it’s time to give back. Our wild land acreage provides habitat for all wildlife be it bird, fish, amphibian, snake, or mammal.

The Mean Old Man

When I hear the term "Mean Old Man"

the finger usually points at me.

That old man's against all progress,

he'd have us crawl back in the sea.

The old man's seen many changes

of this we shall all agree,

his way of life robbed from him

his mind turns back to use to be.

He once knew every name and face

in the village and farms around,

shook hands and passed the time of day

with loving friends so true and sound.

Year after year the grim reaper

has taken toll upon his friends,

the few now left he seldom sees

lost in a crowd that has no end.

Seen the loss of natures creatures,

destruction of wildlife habitat,

plunder and waste of resources,

watched money weave its evil mat.

Did history not teach us a lesson

when we cut down all God's virgin pine?

Left the landscape cold and barren,

again trees cut with ease of mind.

The lake without a home or cabin

never again will it appear,

surrounded now by tiers of dwellings

weed filled, water no longer clear.

The small farm no longer lingers,

pickle barrel stores do not exist.

Mom and Pop's family grocery

have been crossed off today's list.

The past lies alone in memory,

left only his time capsule land.

He fears poison fangs of progress

will strike the deed from his aging hand.

The old man's new world is strange

it's way's he does not understand.

Waste and pollution run rampant

blessed by government command.

Yes! The old man's hurts are many

robbed by the progress band,

just what made the old man bitter

you may now understand.