February 10

Damage at Maple Leaf beaver pond – beavers at risk?

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Maple Leaf’s Beaver Pond Natural Area has been in the news lately, but not because of the beavers.

We got 94 comments on our initial post about nearly 50 trees being vandalized in December.

Then the Seattle parks department and City Light posted notices that a number of trees in the beaver pond proper, at 8th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 105th Street, had been substantially damaged by the beavers and were “dying or standing dead.

“This created a situation of imminent danger and hazard to the public and a high probability of severe damages to nearby electrical infrastructure and private property from tree failure.”

Then came January’s snow and ice storm.

This week trucks and crews from City Light were at the pond. “We worked with parks and personnel from ecology and took down a number of trees girdled by the beavers,” said the utility’s Scott Thomsen.

Thomsen said a particular problem is very high-voltage transmission lines that carry 230 kilovolts from electrical substations. Those lines are on the pond’s western border, and were in reach of damaged trees. Update: Thomsen emails: “We have transmission and distribution lines in that area. The transmission line is 115 kilovolts. The distribution lines are 26 kilovolts.”

Many of the felled trees will be left in place to provide habitat, and the park department plans to plant replacement trees. “It is our goal to protect the wetland and leave as many snags and large woody debris in the wetland habitat as is feasible,” according to the posted notice.

Now the beavers might be in trouble.

“There is some concern about the welfare of our beavers,” emails Ruth Williams, neighborhood forest steward.

“Two were found dead at the Meadowbrook habitat (their carcasses have been taken for autopsy), and part of the dam system at the Beaver Pond Natural Area has been damaged by rushing water and not repaired.”

One beaver dam is shown at right last March, when Mayor Mike McGinn paid a visit. The one that’s damaged is further downstream, Williams said.

Other beavers at Meadowbrook Pond, at 35th Avenue Northeast between Northeast 105th Street and Northeast 110th Street, appear to be fine, and state officials say the deaths could be storm related.

We have a situation of urban beaver with limited foraging habitat and a demise during the winter lean period, shortly after a major snow/rain event with a period of the pond being frozen over. Also, they live in a stormwater facility that also functions as wildlife habitat secondarily.

Being in temperate WWA, these beaver are not acclimated to the harsh weather we had and I am certain it was a stressor at some level for them in foraging and going about their needs.

For more about the Meadowbrook beavers visit our sister site, Wedgwood View, or the Thornton Creek Alliance Facebook page.

Meadowbrook and Maple Leaf’s Beaver Pond are connected by Thornton Creek.

About the author 

Sara W

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  1. Today I found evidence that at least one beaver survives at Beaver Pond NA. It pulled up a willow stake and ate the bark off of it. The original dam has been damaged now, and the level of the pond remains low. The Hooded Mergansers are not in evidence, but a few Wood Ducks remain.

    Thanks to Parks for installing those 100’s of willow stakes that will either grow into trees or feed hungry beavers!

  2. The city did leave some snags and did leave a lot of large woody debris (that is good). I understand the trees that were cut lower (not leaving much of a snag) were cut that way for safety reasons. Let’s hope the beavers survive.

  3. I am shocked, shocked! Beavers kill trees.
    Leave the snags. Woodpeckers need dead trees. So do all the owls who nest in woodpecker holes.

  4. I took a video of one of the trees being felled. YouTube under Tree Felling Beaver Dam Natural Area.

    The trees were dead and rotting, due to beavers stripping the bark. Some otherwise healthy trees were taken down, too close to the big power lines on 8th.

    If you want to keep the beavers, the trees are gonna lose.

    Controlled felling is better than getting somebody killed.

  5. This story makes me want to throw up, it was the most amazing gem of a place and these photos make me sick. It’s like years of work to create a natural environment just destroyed. Trees can fall anytime, this seems pretty retaliatory to me. I am glad that I filmed the before, as we were planting trees there in October. Views of concrete are ugly everywhere in the world. They will be here, too.

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