Ecosystem engineers: Busy beavers are the topic of LGLC Discovery Hike

They have webbed feet on their hind legs, articulated fingers on their front paws, teeth that can bring down a tree and engineering skills that transform ecosystems. The beaver ponds of Amy’s Park, a track of marshes and forests in Bolton Landing above Lake George, were the objective of a Saturday morning hike led by Naturalist Rick Landry. The hike was one in a series of themed Discovery Hikes presented by the Lake George Land Conservancy and Up Yonda Environmental Education Center.

The air was cool this early autumn morning, hints of fall color just beginning to show in the trees, as a dozen hikers gathered at the preserve’s main parking lot where Laundry introduced the hike’s subject. While evidence of beaver activity surrounds the ponds of Amy’s Park, he couldn’t promise the group would see a live beaver, but he pulled a mounted beaver from his vehicle to point out the characteristics of the large rodent (they can grow to 50 or 60 pounds, says Landry, “about the size of a medium dog”) that make it well suited for its environment. The color of its fur provides perfect camouflage, the webbed feet facilitate movement through water, and its fingers can grasp the sticks they use to build their structures.

From his stash of learning materials, Laundry produced a sleek beaver pelt, which he got from a company that sells ethically sourced educational nature products. Laundry says when he first received the pelt, he had to air it out — “They smell terrible.” Beavers have an oil gland behind their ears, and they use their thumbs to spread the strongly scented oil over their coat, allowing them to shed water as they emerge from a pond. Underneath this raincoat-type covering, beavers have a layer of downy fur that keeps them warm.

“This pelt is the reason beavers almost went extinct back in the 17 and 1800s,” says Landry. When Europeans first came to North America, they needed to deal with the brutal winters. They discovered that coats and pants made of beaver pelts kept them warm and dry. Everyone wanted beaver coats and trappers profited, even shipping pelts to Europe, a trapping spree that threatened the beaver population and, in turn, the ecosystem.

The group hiked the Yellow Trail, an easy-rated trail (the young children in the group easily galloped ahead) that loops past the lower pond in Amy’s Park and over Indian Brook. Along the way, Laundry pointed out signs of beaver activity and used a model of a beaver’s jaw, pulled from his backpack, to demonstrate how a beaver drops a tree.

At the pond, the group stopped to examine a beaver dam that slows the rush of Indian Brook. This beaver-built structure creates ponds and marshes above Lake George, which is why naturalists call beavers “ecosystem engineers.” These wetlands are vital to the lake’s health, slowing and capturing sediment that washes down the mountainside, helping to keep the waters of Lake George clear.

Using several sets of binoculars, also pulled from Landry’s pack, the hikers scanned the water looking for beaver movement through the pond. Although they spotted no beavers that morning, Landry said the beavers are busy this time of year gathering saplings, much in the way squirrels gather nuts, and burying them underwater in the mud surrounding their lodge. This is their winter food supply; the tender bark and leaves will sustain them as they spend the winter in the lodge.

Landry also used the hike as an opportunity to teach these Leave No Trace Principles:

• Stay on the trail — While hiking side-by-side may seem more sociable, widening a trail, or wandering off the trail will damage trailside plants and create erosion issues. One narrow path along the Yellow Trail is flanked by a lush growth of deep green and feathery white mosses. If hikers failed to stay on the designated path, these delicate plants would die.

• Leave it as you find it — A blue jay feather resting lightly on a fallen log, a dried snake skin in the crevice of a rock, the hikers discovered these bits of nature on Saturday’s hike, and Landry urged the group to leave them behind so that future hikers could also discover them.

• Carry out your trash and any you may find — Laundry carries gallon-sized Ziplock freezer bags in his pack for this purpose. The take-out-what-you-bring-in principle includes your dog’s waste. Although it is biodegradable, it will contain elements foreign to the environment, so poop bags are necessary in the woods.

The LGLC Discovery Hike 2024 series concludes with the Changing Trees hike on Saturday, Oct. 12. The hikes are free. Advanced registration is required. The 2025 Discovery Series begins in February with a winter hike in Amy’s Park, on snowshoes if there is snow, to search for animal tracks and learn about how plants and animals survive the Adirondack winter.