Our Little Oasis

Not many people living in a city can claim to host a beaver dam in their backyard.

One of the reasons we bought our house was because of the green space behind it; declared a watershed by the county, no one can build on it. So it will always be a green space. Recently, though, the landscape has been transformed by a beaver. I didn’t believe Ben at first. Early this spring he and the boys ventured through the gate to go throw rocks in what used to be a small trickling stream. What they found, however, was an enormous pond, created by a dam on our little creek. Ben started looking around and found a bunch of trees chewed down by unmistakable beaver teeth. One cannot ignore this type of evidence:

Truth be told, we are thrilled and fascinated by our little beaver family. We checked books out at the library on beavers for the boys (and us too!), and learned that they are nocturnal (which explains why we never see them). And although we’ve had to protect some of the trees closer to our home, we’re happy to share this area with another family. In fact, it has created for us a really beautiful oasis in the the middle of the city. Two families of ducks now reside on the pond, so the boys get to feed them bread frequently. Our neighbor even set out a bench for us to sit in the evenings and enjoy the ambiance of the area. And Seth and Sam are in heaven, because they can now consistently throw rocks in the water—a true passion for them.

  

Ben breaks up the dam periodically to drain the pond; the beaver rebuilds every night.

Look closely: there’s a duck!