SECTION OF DAM ON SIGFRIED CREEK. 

 Photo by D. v Lange. Minn. Forest Service. 



Beaver do flood some land where they build their dams, but 

 in wild regions the timber which they drown is practically 

 worthless. It generally consists of spruce, balsam, fir, tama- 

 rack and occasionally some cedar. In the Itasca park region 

 all the timber drowned in the beaver ponds if put up at auc- 

 tion would not bring a dollar. 



The principal food of the beaver consists of the brush and 

 bark of the common poplar, and a colony of beaver will some- 

 times make a regular clearing in a poplar thicket, cutting 

 down several hundred trees, but the same commercial consid- 

 eration applies to these poplars which applies to the timber 

 drowned in their ponds. In a wild country far away from any 

 market, poplar has no commercial value. The beaver prefer 



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