About the Beaver

**Meddle** · November-21-09, 04:01 AM

[[Get your mind out of the gutter)

Posted: Nov. 21, 2009

Beaver has company at power plant
Critter near power plant said to have family as Detroit River continues eco-comeback

BY JOHN GALLAGHER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

The beaver is back, and now it's got a family.

A beaver that built a lodge at Detroit Edison's Conners Creek power plant about a year ago, then evidently moved on during the summer, appears to have returned with a family.

Jason Cousino, a wildlife habitat coordinator for Detroit Edison, has set up a trail camera and caught video of two young beavers nibbling away at bark, leaves and twigs. The presence of the two young shows an adult male and female must be present, too.

"There's got to be a mating pair," Cousino said this week.

The presence of beaver is significant because wildlife experts say beaver were so thoroughly trapped by early settlers of Detroit that no beaver lodge had been found in the city for decades, perhaps as long as a century. The return of the beaver indicates that the Detroit River ecosystem is growing cleaner.

The video evidence isn't the only sign of the beavers at work. The lodge that a beaver constructed about a year ago along a canal on Edison's property now appears about twice the size that it was a few months ago. Perhaps it indicates that beaver, like humans, do home remodeling as the family grows.

Visiting the site this week, Cousino pointed to the new shoots branching off from the root system of trees that the beaver had chopped down earlier. "These are like little tender victuals for them," he said.

Given that the site is on Edison's private, fenced property, with plenty of trees to nibble on, there's no telling how long the beaver family will stay.

Contact JOHN GALLAGHER: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com

http://freep.com/article/20091121/NE...at-power-plant

**gnome** · November-21-09, 07:59 AM

I love the little beaver dance they do ... like Fedde Le Grand's Put your Hands Up For Detroit

Retroit · November-21-09, 10:29 AM

Now if only they'd build a dam across the Detroit River and flood the city, maybe we could receive some sympathy FEMA dollars from Washington.

**Bobl** · November-21-09, 11:11 AM

Nice to see small, incremental hints of recovery in the Detroit River ecosystem. Beavers, sturgeon, etc. Imagine what this fine river looked like before the Europeans arrived.
Not so nice to read that Asian Carp DNA has been found past the electric "fence" that was designed to impede their progress into the Great Lakes. The fear is that a monumental disaster is about to hit the Lakes.

Asian carp nears Lake Michigan

**Detroitej72** · November-21-09, 01:03 PM

Thanks Bobl, for bringing me down...

Back on topic. Seeing signs of wildlife like the beaver and, on the Eliza Howell thread, reading that deer are seen in the park, is very encouraging indeed. And lets not froget the coyote last year that was running around downtown.

**eno** · November-21-09, 01:42 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCdWf...eature=related

Sludgedaddy · November-21-09, 05:53 PM

Now that The Beaver is back, I hope he encourages some of his old pals to relocate in Detroit....Gilbert...Larry Mundello....Tooey....and maybe even "Whitey".

**Ed Golick** · November-21-09, 08:34 PM

The current city council is doing their best to keep Whitey out of Detroit.

**Bobl** · November-21-09, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitej72

Thanks Bobl, for bringing me down...

Back on topic. Seeing signs of wildlife like the beaver and, on the Eliza Howell thread, reading that deer are seen in the park, is very encouraging indeed. And lets not froget the coyote last year that was running around downtown.

Sorry!
I saw a red fox when I was taking my daily [[nightly, in this case.....worked late) walk a couple months ago. This was in St Clair Shores...