PROTECTION OF BEAVER IN WISCONSIN 



221 



brushes in his dam with pieces of tree branches that 

 often take root and grow, such as willow, birch and 

 alder. In time these form a hedge or timbered ridge. 

 Dams have been found that were a quarter of a mile long 



BEAVER DAM ON BEARSKIN CREEK, WISCONSIN 



As an engineer, the beaver wisely selects a narrow place on the stream for his dam, a site 

 with good banks. If the stream is very wide, he accepts the inevitable and curves his dam 

 upstream against the current. Dams a quarter of a mile long and seven feet high have 

 been found. 



and seven feet high, and beaver canals 

 have been excavated back into the woods 

 to a distance of 200 feet and with a 

 width of 3 feet and depth of from 18 

 inches to 2 feet. 



Like the settler in the West, the beaver 

 lives in a dug-out for the first year or two 

 after he settles in the country; that is, he 

 makes a burrow in the river bank. Then 

 he fells his timber and builds a house, 

 cutting his logs about 6 feet in length ; 

 and a wonderful house it is a wigwam 

 of logs and brush, cemented with mud 

 just before freezing weather begins, so 

 that it becomes impregnable to attack 

 from other animals. Its entrance is 

 through the floor and from the water. 

 Each family of from four to eight 

 beaver has its own house, and each indi- 

 vidual its own bed in a dry place at one 

 side of the room. In the center of the 

 room the beaver eats his food, brought up from the 

 water depths, carefully clearing away all refuse 

 afterward. 



As a lumberman he is admirable, for he prevents forest 

 fires, he leaves no high stumps, and he manages his tract 



so that the next beaver colony finds more timber and 



better conditions than did the first one. 



He prevents fires by lopping tops and branches, thus 



destroying his own slash, and also by creating a lake that 

 forms a barrier to fires and perhaps 

 by cleaning out the timber along the 

 canals that he digs, which extend up into 

 timbered areas. 



The beaver is a true conservationist. 

 The trees that he takes and cuts up to 

 store away for a winter food supply are 

 of only small or medium size, and are the 

 species that are of little value to man. 

 Moreover, the broad lake above his dam 

 is a great bowl that holds the soil washed 

 in, and ultimately becomes a level, fertile 

 tract, supporting a fine growth of timber. 

 So the beaver takes only the poorer 

 trees and near to the water. Wherever 

 he cuts his timber he must first make a 

 waterway by lake or canal, and wherever 

 he makes his waterway he is laying the 

 foundation for level, fertile valley and 

 fine forest. In fact, it has been found 

 that a large part of the fertile meadows 

 and bottom lands east of the Mississippi 

 are the result of his indefatigable 

 industry. 



And all of this work is merely inci- 

 dental to his making a living. He builds 

 the dam to make a lake, and thus secure a 

 safe depth of water over the entrance to 



A BEAVER HOUSE 



This is made of logs about six feet in length and of brush cemented with mud just before 

 freezing weather begins, so that it becomes impregnable to attack from other animals. Its 

 entrance is through the floor and from the water. 



his house. By means of the lake he transports the timber 

 for his house and for his food, and in the lake, which 

 must be deep so that there will be water below the ice in 

 winter, he stores his winter supply of food, sections of 

 trees from which he can strip and eat the bark. 



