Herb and I visited my trail cameras in Glen Canyon Regional Park on Saturday, February 6th. Of greatest interest to us was the progress being made on the cutting of the big cottonwood tree. While I have read that beavers are not able to control the direction in which a tree will fall, it seems that this beaver, whether by chance or intention, has it right. The first cutting was on the side of the tree toward the creek but the current batch of videos show all of the cutting now on the opposite (back side) and slightly higher. This is exactly the way an experienced woodsman would make his cuts, if he wanted the tree to fall into and across the creek. That puts this massive amount of food and building materials right where the beaver would want it. The work progresses slowly, the videos showing the beaver at work at the tree only at night and some nights only over a period of about 2 hours. Of course there is other work he must do, such as cutting smaller trees for food, dragging them, or parts of them, to the creek--and always being on the lookout for predators. My cameras at the big cottonwood have taken pictures of squirrels and raccoons but so far, not coyotes--which are said to be major predators on beavers. Mark has kindly combined a selection of the last series of video clips into another short movie: