Beaver in Lansing

Lansing has beavers

October 25, 2023

My wife and I took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday and took a walk in the woods. Our favorite trail is the Lansing Riverwalk along Sycamore Creek in Scott Woods. About a half mile south of Mt. Hope, we saw that a tree had fallen on the river bank and upon closer inspection, we saw that it had been felled by a beaver.

Another walker came by. She said she had been there the day before and showed me a picture on her phone of the tree still standing, but cut half way through.

I've never seen a beaver in Lansing, but I have seen signs. We live on the Grand River in northwest Lansing and a few years ago, several branches of a shrub near the river appeared to have been knawed off. When I mentioned this to my next door neighbor, he said a few of his saplings had been mysteriously cut down.

I'm wondering what the beaver is going to do with that tree. It is too big to drag down to the river. Maybe it will just use the branches.

We access this part of the trail by taking Clifton Street south of Mt. Hope. It dead ends at a very small playground and parking lot. Take the trail there east about a half mile until it runs in to the main trail. The tree is about one half mile north on the main trail.

November 16 update: We've been back a couple times, but took no pictures until today. The last time we were here, the limbs and the top of the tree had been cut (chewed) off. This is what it looks like now:

There was no sign of where the branches had gone. If a dam was being built, it was nowhere to be seen. Not only were the branches removed, the bark at the upper end had been stripped. Here is the view from the upper end:

The wood chips from severing the tree trunk were left where they dropped. But the chewed-off bark was nowhere to be seen. Do they eat it?

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