I am sorry to report that the saga of beaver and the big cottonwood tree has come to a sudden end. At noon on February 24th, the big cottonwood was felled by a chainsaw. Apparently this was ordered by Regional Parks management, as the tree may have been considered a public hazard. I feel that the danger to the public was negligible, however, as the tree was not near any of the pathways in the park, it was on the creek bank and the way it was being cut by the beaver, it would have fallen toward the creek.

The first picture was taken on February 15th, and the next two on February 26th, two days after the tree was felled.

The beaver had begun the work of cutting this tree as early as sometime in November, when I first noticed it. He/or she had been working alone and only at night, as revealed by the cameras that I have had monitoring the work. In between times of working on the big tree he had to forage for food, as is evident by the many stumps of smaller trees cut by beaver in the immediate area. Most of those were dragged into the creek to be cut up for food and dam building. There are two dams in the area but neither of them raise the water level more than a couple of feet. As the shallow, rapidly flowing creek does not lend itself to creation of a major beaver pond, and in the absence of a beaver house, it appears that the beaver or beavers must be using a bank den, with entrance under water. This creek freezes over for a short time during some winters but this year it has remained open.

On our visit to the area on Friday, we found pictures of a raccoon and some deer

on a camera at another place on the creek, The three mule deer, a doe with two fawns following her were photographed as they crossed the creek. These are probably the fawns that were born in the park to this doe last June. They are now well grown but will not be of breeding age until the fall of 2017. The doe will be pregnant and expected to produce another pair of fawns early this summer, between late May and early July.