BEAVERS BACK WITH A BITE
Chewed trees mark rodents' return
Jerry Gervais was taking his newly acquired dog, a Manchester terrier rescue named Sam, on a familiarization walk through his West Windsor neighbourhood when the pair came across the telltale signs of something the senior said he had never seen before in his 70 years living in Olde Sandwich — trees targeted by beavers.
“I thought, `Holy cow!' ” he said of his discovery last week along the Detroit River waterfront in the 3200 block of Russell Street. A visit by a Star photographer to that spot uncovered a large number of other large trees being targeted by beavers.
In September, on the eastern side of Windsor, came evidence of beavers felling urban trees along the Little River watershed.
And in between those two city sites, along the Grand Marais Drain east of Howard Avenue, a string of large trees have been chewed into oblivion as well, with piles of fresh wood chips next to conical stumps, a number of trees toppled into the drainage stream.
“We're keeping an eye on them — it's a good-news story,” said city naturalist Karen Cedar. The biggest concern is safety, she added, making sure none of the toppled trees ends up degrading something the city's water streams are meant to do — provide natural drainage.
“It's but part of the ecosystem — we've got to learn to live with wildlife,” said Gervais, a self-described tree hugger who plants new ones in his yard and in his neighbourhood. It's nice to have beavers back in Windsor, he said, but, “I don't like them chewing the good trees.”
No big worries on that count. Like all beavers, the local large rodents target softer and more quickly regenerating trees like poplar, willow and cottonwood, said City of Windsor forester Paul Giroux.
“They're native trees, but they can be on the invasive side and they can take over — it's not necessarily a terrible thing if some of the poplar gets thinned out,” said Giroux, adding that parks staff are aware of the sudden uptick in urban beaver activity and are monitoring the situation.
There are some concerns, however, including around safety or when too many trees of any species come toppling down in a city Giroux said boasts “probably only five per cent natural area coverage.” Along a stretch of the multi-use recreational trail along the Grand Marais Drain east of Howard, most of the tall trees appear to have been recently targeted — either cut down or girdled with chew marks.
Giroux said one of the things parks staff can do to make more desirable larger trees unappetizing to the beavers is to wrap chicken wire around the trunks, and “they'll move on.”
And moving on is likely what these city visitors will do, said Cedar, adding: “This is not their ideal habitat.”
City-owned Peche Island, uninhabited by people, might be a comfy home for a more permanent presence, but Cedar said the beavers she expects could be roaming every city stream and drainage connected to the Detroit River are juveniles, “feeling their way. Most of our drains are great to visit, perfect for figuring out how to be a beaver — but you don't want to live there.”
It was only a little more than a decade ago that beavers started staging a true comeback in an area where they were last been seen in the 19th century. Cleaner water and efforts to slow habitat destruction and boost reforestation could be among the reasons for that recovery. Cedar said the trees being targeted by Windsor's beavers are fast-growing and, in a process of natural selection, being replaced by other native trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers.
While the evidence of their presence is spreading, they're not easy to spot.
“Good luck with that,” said Cedar. “They're very, very difficult to see — as all smart wildlife should be: it's one of the reasons they stay alive.”