It's a dam, not a lodge. The beaver lodge is likely much further into the artificial lake the dam has created. It's very rare for beavers to have their lodges inside the dam.
Upper Michigan a train conductor made a map of beaver dam locations. 100 years later and there are still the same beaver family's in the marked location.
That’s funny because i had to stand in the rain for 10 minutes because as soon as i got here to make this video and train came by😂 i think train tracks have helped create a lot of wetlands
Railroad director and entrepreneur Lewis Henry Morgan goes exploring the upper peninsula of Michigan in the mid 1800’s. While looking for places to lay railroad, he comes across huge “beaver district” composed of 64 glorious beaver dams. Although he admittedly isn’t much of a nature guy, the sheer ingenuity of the beaver’s engineering compelled him to document the beaver district in a hand drawn map. Curious modern scientist stumbles across 1860’s map while serving as a post-doc, compares it to Google Earth style aerial images and discovers that 74% of original dams are still around. Beavers are stubborn and very resilient.
@@joshuamontgomery4992 You have made my night so insightful! I read your comment about Morgan and just spent several hours learning about beavers and their lasting impact on the productivity of North America. Cheers!
Yes they have a role in the ecosystem called the ecosystem engineers, these animals have the ability to transform the area they are living in, examples of this is beavers and elephants
@@lrajic8281, you can find how nature took back Yellowstone National Park after the release of wolves! It's taking some time ( depending on your view) but the grazing population was eating everything. Less grazers more grasslands, more bushes. Then the beavers had food and started their thing! They showed pics of before and after! Amazing transformations! Good day!
We used to call beavers "little people" because they were the only other animal than us who shaped the landscape. They do what he explained in the video and we would do things to cultivate wild foods, so like altering area surrounding a blueberry patch to encourage it to grow bigger or building weirs to catch fish. Plus they build lodges with a circular opening at the top, and in winter, you can see steam rising from the hole from their breathing, the way smoke rose from our wigwam. Beaver(s) or amik(wag) represent wisdom. Not only do they optimize the land around them to benefit themselves and other species, they know that they need to use their gift - iron teeth - to work together to support their community or they'll all die. Their teeth never stop growing. If they don't wear them down, the teeth will grow through their jaws and they will starve to death. That was a metaphor for us, why we need to find our gifts and use them to support our community, to ensure everyone thrives together. Beavers are actually playing a huge role in combating climate change right now. Westerners are finally seeing the wisdom of the beaver for themselves. Thankfully we still have beavers because they nearly wiped them out. But they're returning to their old lands and they are changing the landscape in ways that are buoying the populations of other species. Like they create bodies of water that survive year round and create habitats. We should all try to be more like beavers. That's only one seventh of the teaching though. You need humility, bravery, honesty, love, truth, and respect in balance as well. Those are wolves, bears, sabe/ravens, eagles, turtles and bison respectively. That's the key to a good life in my culture.
@@edwardzarnowski5558 We don’t have a god, we look at the universe as the sum of creation and it’s all part of the creator. The universe is god. We’re god. Instead of looking at it like a person is somewhere watching and planning, it’s looking at it like the creator used themselves to create everything, and thus they are not a thing, they’re everything. We’re everything. It’s like the creator is an ocean and it’s split into pools and droplets and spray. If you put it all back together, it’s the ocean, it’s just temporarily sectioned off. God isn’t watching you. You are a piece of the divine.
They also maintain a “garden” surrounding their dams! They are amazing for the landscape, not only for making bodies of water but are important factors in soil erosion control! They will fell trees in a pattern that holds back soil on hillsides or sloped areas! Very cool critters
ive been following u for some time now and i gotta say ur enthusiasm is incredible. You kindled my interest for Native American Plantlife even though im not even from the US. Anyway keep up the good work!
Beavers will improve your land right up until you no longer can use it.. LOL I been a Trapper 45 years.. A well maintained beaver population is a blessing on your land.. If you turn your back for a second they will flood your land... A mature Beaver pond with it's huts and dams is my church.. I'll sit on a hut for hours just watching and thanking God for these amazing creatures.. Love these educational videos
This has moved me to add a few things I remember from a New Yorker article on beavers which was published years (possibly decades) ago. First, in the drought-prone West, beavers lessen the effects of drought by dredging out deep channels leading to and from their dams. These retain some water when shallower channels have dried up. Second, beavers often run afoul of landowners, but the Canadian forest service has a “technology” to help with some of these conflicts, using PVC pipes with valves. I think that they could just leave them by the dam, and the beavers would insert them. Or maybe the people put them in the dam. In either case, when needed, they could just open a valve for a bit, letting some of the water drain. Better than destroying the dam and killing the beavers, in any case.
I don't humanity realises how intelligent beavers really are.. like we compare ourselves to apes yet beavers over here doing agriculture & engineering..
think about that...not only are beavers literal architects (look it up its freaking cool what they do) but they are cultivating and farming their lands. I love nature.
Love underwater “effect”. Very immersive! 🤭 I’m lucky enough to live next to a connected pond system that’s full of beavers. They started building a new dam in the smallest pond a few years ago and it’s been fun to see how they process the trees. They cut down one of the young birches that was /right/ next to the trail road, but thankfully it fell towards the pond instead. It’s so interesting how they’re smart enough to plan for and control the direction that the trees fall. Such neat little woodworkers. 🤎🦫🇨🇦
People don't understand that beavers aren't a keystone species, they are THE keystone species. The vast majority of plants and animals on the northern hemisphere evolved to adapt to the landscapes that the beavers have been created for the last 20 million years or so.
And they say beavers are bad when actually their ecosystem reengineerhiannon's for the better They naturally divert water to other places they don't have much which encourages growth Great stuff bro for showing us this
Beavers love willow trees! In fact, when you set a trap for beavers if you get a 2 foot long finger diameter willow branch and you whittle the bark off of it and shred it as you do then place it and the shavings as your bait in the trap, you will have a beaver in less than 24 hours.
I reckon they also flood the area because that makes a virtual mini pond for them to live in. They pretty much create a vast area from a stream in which they can roam and hide from predators
Beavers can create entire ecosystems for even more wildlife if you let them. Those trees will all be killed if you let the beavers do their thing. Over time that overgrown wetland/forested area will turn to a grassland. Nature has cycles and we will stop at nothing to interrupt it, it seems.
My buddy and I were on our grow in Michigans UP, and we had beavers starting to dam nearby and it was going to flood the property. Long story short, I saw a full grown one take 6 shots from a .357 to go down.
You're definitely in North Alabama. It's been a rainy couple of days here. Have you ever done work in Lauderdale County? Specifically Shoals Creek at Happy Hollow? Ducks and beavesr and forests and hills... I love my home state.
Fun fact: In the Netherlands they gave beavers Shit to build a dam because it was easier than to have go through paperwork and build an human made dam there
