Beaver Dams & Dry Riverbed--Day 3
The South Fork of the Kern has never been dry here, at least not in the lifetime of the locals I have spoken to. Even in the drought of last year, the river continued to slowly flow over the many beaver dams that are strategically placed along the river. The walk down the river, direction south, has given us many a great walk in every season. From the blooming flowers of spring through winter ice, the river is always a great place to hike alongside. This past winter we enjoyed some cold early mornings as we were witness to ice forms from the watery flow ice over each of many dams. These are special events to us, the Minnesota natives.
This year however as the summer heat dragged on it was becoming clear that the flow in the river was becoming endangered. On July, 27, 2014 I was, nonetheless surprised to see the crackled bottom of the river. The big paw prints seemed to be that of a bear which I imagine had, not long ago, been looking for his evening drink.
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| Beaver Dam in Winter |
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| Beaver Dam Close-up |
With no rain in the recent past, it was to be expected the riverbed to be very dry the weekend of Luke’s visit. We had never yet ventured north up the river as there were no good trails aside the river that direction. It was thus decided to travel direction north, up the dry bed of South Fork of the Kern River, to see if any surprises may lay in await.
At this point I must take a slight journalistic side step, to give a little insight into what I think may now be my favorite animal, the lowly beaver. I have, in the past and on occasion, seen beavers and their handiwork and have always had some degree of admiration. It wasn’t until this past year I had become truly amazed. On one of the cable nature network channels we watched documentary. With amazing photography it showed with much detail how these animals create not only a dam, but a self-sufficient home, along with a whole new eco-system providing many benefits to may other species of plants and animals. Following is a link to this video. Well worth the 42 minutes, I was richer for it!
Off we were up the parched bottom of the South Fork of the Kern. I was surprised to feel the softness beneath my feet. I expected sun-hardened dirt to be akin to walking on concrete. But it was at least a eight inches of decomposing organic matter, giving us a soft walk.
It was less than a hundred yards when we came upon the first beaver dam.
It was exciting for me to witness the construction methods from the bottom up. It was as I was marveling the beavers’ handiwork, that I first recognized my deep concern about the beaver and the other animals who were now even more hard pressed to find water. I wondered where the beaver went, up stream or down as the river levels ebbed more and more. I assumed up, but no way to know.
As we ventured a little further we speculated that perhaps we had found the home of this builder. Also, there were several canals, constructed by this architect.
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| One of the Beaver Constructed Canals |
Another Beaver dam came into view and was much wider:
What concerns me now is will the beavers return? Will we enjoy the flows of winter, spring, summer and fall?
After a couple of hours of exploring elsewhere, we crossed the dry riverbed at a different location we came upon another find. Alas, the skull of a poor beaver. It was a sad sight, which I shall not describe. We left it where we found it. Will water come back? Will some other beaver move in to this well constructed place. I look forward to being able to report all is in the positive, but only time will tell.
But an SDS day nonetheless.
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