For me it has sort of been the summer of the beaver. On our Karluk Lake dig earlier this summer we camped on Thumb Lake and had beavers swimming by and slapping their tails on a daily basis (
click here for post). Then Mike and I went on our hunting trip to a small lake that has been repeatedly impacted by beavers. The lake has been recently dammed by beavers and even in the few days we were there we watched the water levels creep higher. The first time I went to the same lake a beaver dam had recently burst and the lake level was about 2 meters lower with a wide 'bathtub ring' of nothing growing. Then a few years after that I went back and the water level was still low but the bathtub ring was growing new alders and grass. It seems there is a cycle of raising and lowering lake levels.
At Thumb Lake I noticed that the beavers had eaten most of the readily available willow near the shoreline and that it was mostly a grass meadow near the lake. And, yes, I have noticed that the beavers seem to prefer willow over alder and other types of trees. I bet in a few years they decide to move some place else with more willow and that the willow again takes over on the shoreline.
Mike and I saw this at a nearby lake to where we were camping. That lake and its beaver house were no longer active and the lake levels had dropped. You could see all the cleared vegetation and lack of brush near the shoreline (see top photo and below). It was all grassland around the lake and totally different environment compared to the lake we were currently camped beside.
From grassy marsh meadows with sundews growing to brush farms to brush ringed lakes. It seems in beaver country the landscape is always changing.
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