River Beavers

On a shore cleanup of the Speed River last evening I started to clean near a riverbend with a lot of treefall that captured a lot of debris: fishing tackle, floats, cigarette waste, plastic bottles.

A loud splash in the water nearby startled me.

The treefall was actually the lodge of two very active beavers and it trapped a significant amount of waste so it looked camouflaged as a garbage pile.

I slowly backed away from the area to give them room.

They went back to swimming happily and gnawing on branches (you could hear their distinct chewing all the way down the river).

Up and down the bank from the beaver lodge was an impressive amount of debris: one XL dog bed growing moss, a Croc, an industrial plastic drop sheet — about 12kg of debris in one short walk and 22 recyclables removed from the environment where they don’t belong. It’s impressive this area can sustain so much life (and garbage).