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Show Just Rambling About Beavers BvW.D.MoArthur Long' pasl are the days of 'summer, the long evenings wilh the breezes cool and vet a. m enough to make it a joy to relax by the red eliffs of our land. The days get shorter and as the sun drops below the land a cold chill invades our small valley, either driving one indoors or forcing him to put on a warm outer-garment. The river rafts become less plentiful and fewer boats are seen. The trees have lost their greenery and the leaves are falling, making a crunch sound as they are stepped on. But the one joy I am going to miss in the evenings is the sight of the beavers making their evening swim across the river. The beavers have for years made a home for themselves near the dock where the Canyonland by Night boat is docked. Tourists to our town are welcomed by these beavers beav-ers as they seem to wait until the boat is filled with passengers before emerging from their hiding place under H- the bank to swim leisurely across to the other side, J allowing the current to carry y. them down. It is Dee Tranter )4- or Skinny Winn who point out J the animals as they begin to . take their nightly trip across, jf To some people beavers are a nuisance, a pest to be J trapped and destroyed and 4- the fur sold for what it will bring in money. The meat is J not eaten by these people who y. take life, but thrown away. It is true that trappers in the past have taken beaver from the river for the furs but beavers )f are becoming a scarce com-modity, com-modity, so scarce in fact that J they are being transplanted in . some areas, to build check Jf dams, so that sudden storms will not flood the lands below. We here in this town are 3- thinking of building check dams along Mill Creek that J will cost thousands of dollars but a few happy beavers in the right spots, if protected, could J and would build these dams 5. without charge. )f Now that winter is ap-J ap-J proaching and the days be-J be-J come shorter and the nights )f colder, the beaver are prepar-& prepar-& ing for the snow and ice to J come. My nightly trips up the boat dock to see them have ceased and Dee or Skinny will soon take their boat out of the water and, like the beaver, attempt to stay warm until spring. The beaver is and has been a valuable friend to mankind. He has with his dams preserved top soil and as his ponds filled with waste they gradually became meadows along with the heavy cutting he did in the nearby forest. He is also a friend to other animals, his ponds have made homes for fish, frogs, and waterfowl. Small fish called minnows in his ponds have eaten mosquito larvae; and he helped early settlers by making clearings preparatory to their arrival. He is a very friendly animal and sometimes will allow himself to be picked up and petted. Nature lakes trom 500 to a 1.00(1 years lo make just one inch of topsoil. Yet in one day it can be washed away by flood. More beavers could make this country greener and more lic.iuliful. |