busy beavers

The beavers are busy right now. As the wild gathering season starts with fiddleheads and violets, I'm heading into the woods more and more. Today, I gathered a small number of fiddleheads, checked on the Japanese knotweed, and ran across many, many beaver stumps.

I can't help but cheer on these spectacular animals. They get such a bad rap, with landowners constantly fighting against the beavers' efforts to create wetlands, but they are doing essential yeoman's work for our environment, and I always want them to win the land "battles."