Why a sighting of this dam-building creature is good news for the river.
On July 15, 2012, Rick Simek of the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Environmental Interpretive Center snapped a photo of a beaver in the Rouge River in Dearborn. Big deal, right? But what might seem like a normal occurrence could actually be a sign of the increasing water and habitat quality of the Rouge watershed. According to a piece written by Simek in the EIC's spring newsletter, beaver trapping led to the local extinction of the species in Metro Detroit in the 1830s, with "no traces of the species left by 1877." Though several other reports of beaver sightings and markings had been reported in recent years in the Rouge and other nearby rivers, Simek's photo is proof of the beaver's return to the area more than a century later. And …
Workers clearing away trees from power lines near Bloomer Park found evidence of beavers keeping busy in the area.
Did the beavers turn out the lights? A Rochester city official said this week that beavers living along the Clinton River on the city border are likely to blame for some recent power outages in the area. But don't rush to blame the river-dwelling mammals just yet: They're just trying to get by. Deputy City Manager Nik Banda said DTE-contracted crews working this week to clear tree limbs away from power lines have found evidence that beavers chewing cottonwood trees were likely responsible for downed lines. The work is happening near the Clinton River Trail off Letica Drive, on the edge of Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills. It's near JHP Pharmaceuticals, which has reported several power outages in the past year. Banda went out to the area to…
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Bloomer Park
345 John R Rd, Rochester Hills, MI
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lynda
3:05 pm on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
I have not seen them, but have seen their work in progress along the Paint Creek Trail. more ›