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Thousands of beavers live in the Adirondacks – cutting down trees and building dams and lodges within the many bodies of water the region has to offer.
The brown bundle of fur with the long flat tail was adopted as the state mammal in 1975 due to its natural and economic benefits to the state dating all the way back to the early 1600s.
According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the beaver played an important role in motivating French exploration in the New World and the establishment of Dutch and English trading posts.
In the early 1600s, fur traders settled near Albany to trade with the Indians to provide beaver pelts to European markets.
Beaver pelts were very much in demand in Europe for felt hats and fur trim on garments.
The high demand for fur and tree cutting resulted in a dramatic decline in beaver numbers from an estimated 60 million at one time to nearly none, according to the state DEC.
These factors left the beaver population, which could be found all over the state with the exception of Long Island, scarce in the Adirondacks by 1840.
However, the beaver population rebounded in the early 1900s, in conjunction with the replanting of trees and the return of lush forests.
Beavers were then reintroduced into the Adirondacks at the turn of the century and trapping was prohibited.
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CONTROLLING THE SPECIES
By the early 1940s, beavers started becoming a nuisance, according to the state DEC, causing around $5.5 million in property damage.
Flooding of land, homes and highways, along with cutting down trees and shrubs, are some of the biggest problems beavers caused.
In 1944, New York established a nuisance-focused beaver management policy – an approach that reduced population levels by long fur-trapping seasons.
During the 1980s, trapping seasons were regulated to control the growing population.
Article 11 of the New York State Environmental Conservation Law, also known as the “Fish and Wildlife Law,” further protects the beaver families through a number of measures, including restricting people from disturbing a beaver’s habitat without permission from the DEC first.
More than 50,000 beavers currently dwell within the Adirondack region. In 1993, there were about 17,500 active beaver colonies in New York – about 3,500 more than the statewide goal of 14,000 and an increase of 19 percent since 1990.
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SURVIVING THE ADIRONDACKS
Adult beavers, which are around three or four feet long and weigh between 30 to 60 pounds, rely heavily on the use of their long tail – which helps them swim and keep the animal balanced on land.
The loud slap of a beaver’s tail on the water — which helps them signal danger — is a sound that has become as synonymous with the Adirondack backcountry as the lonely wail of the Loon.
By using their tails, front paws and sharp teeth, the nocturnal mammals can build dams using sticks and mud in running bodies of water, these dames which all average about 100 to 200 feet in length and 5 to 7 feet in height.
Dams are built to create artificial ponds in which they construct their lodges. The enlarged water bodies that beavers create are also a boon to countless other creatures from fish to ducks and wading birds to other mammals like muskrat, deer and moose.”
When not building dams, beavers go out and feed on the nature around them, including aquatic vegetation and twigs and bark from trees.
BEAVER DAM
Beaver dams are dams built by beavers to provide ponds as protection against predators such as coyotes, wolves, and bears, and to provide easy access to food during winter.
Some of their favorite trees to munch on include poplar, aspen, birch, willow and maple.
All of these trees can be found in the Adirondack region, according to Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center.
Beavers stock up on bark, branches, twigs and plants during the fall season to make sure they’ll survive during the long North Country winters. These “feed piles” can often be seen near the entrance of the lodge in which they live, giving them a source of food throughout the winter when the pond becomes iced over, confining them almost entirely to the lodge.
Because of this, North America’s largest rodent exerts more influence on its habitat than any other creature except man.
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OTHER RECOGNIZED ANIMALS
Beaver isn’t the only animal recognized by the state.
The bluebird, brook trout, nine spotted lady beetle, snapping turtle, striped bass and eurypterids also represent the state’s many animal categories.
