WNJ Swamp Sightings: Beavers hard at work along stream in Edison


Numerous trees were cut by beavers along the Bound Brook.
Photo credit: Krysti Sabins, WildNewJersey.tv

by David Wheeler

EDISON, NJ - At first glance, the wooded slopes of the Bound Brook appeared to be something from a Bram Stoker nightmare in the Carpathian Mountains.  Sharp-pointed wooden stakes jutted from the ground every few feet, like the handiwork of Vlad the Impaler.

Yet the cause of these stakes was something far more benign - the hard-working American beaver.  Beavers returned to the Bound Brook's headwaters here in the Dismal Swamp around a decade ago, after nearly a century away.  Industry's attack on water quality, combined with the endless push of development, rendered the watershed largely unsuitable for the beaver and many other water-dependent wildlife.


David Wheeler next to one of the trees cracked in half from beaver activity.

Once the beaver returned to the Dismal Swamp, they made up for lost time.  As in other natural areas, their handiwork creates habitat for other species.  Along the Bound Brook headwaters in Edison, Metuchen, and South Plainfield, a number of remote areas host beaver families.  Yet this stretch of the brook near the Triple C Ranch marked the first time I observed so many freshly cut trees in a single place.  I counted at least 26 cut trees in this short stretch, all felled or begun within the past week.

The follow-up question remains - where are these trees headed?  Only the next beaver dam will answer that question.







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Posted by WILDNEWJERSEY at 11/18/2010 2:52 PM
Categories: WNJ Swamp Sightings
Tags: beaver bound brook dismal swamp wildlife edison south plainfield Metuchen beaver dam
 

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