Beaver Dam Bursts Floods Moose River in Bwca
It is customary to think of the changes wrought on the landscape by wildlife as gradual impacts. For example, the browse line deer make on trees rimming a lake or game trails beaten into the soil and vegetation over decades of travel by hooved and pawed creatures. But sometimes wildlife induced changes can be immediate and dramatic. Such was the case August 11th on the Moose River in the BWCA when a beaver dam on a small tributary burst, releasing thousands of cubic feet of water into the Moose River and creating a flash flood of destructive proportions. The Google satellite photo taken before the dam burst shows the enormity of the beaver pond that drained into the Moose River. I came down the river the following day with a group of nine. Large trees were toppled a big cedar was split. A pile of sandy silt burying debris to … Continue reading