The Greenway Foundation
  • About Us
    • About Us >
      • Greenway Current (Annual Report)
      • Flood of 1965
      • Greenway Videos
    • River & Trail Info
    • Blog
    • Success Stories >
      • 1970s
      • 1980s
      • 1990s
      • 2000s
      • 2010-2014
      • 2015-Future
    • Volunteer
    • Employment
    • Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Search
  • Education
    • SPREE >
      • SPREE Home Page
      • Just for Kids!
      • Support SPREE
    • Virtual Field Trips
    • Field Trips >
      • Excursions By Grade >
        • ECE
        • Kindergarten
        • 1st Grade
        • 2nd Grade
        • 3rd Grade
        • 4th Grade
        • 5th Grade
      • Excursion Signup
      • Feedback
      • Excursion FAQ
    • Camp >
      • Summer Camp
      • School Break Camps
      • Leaders in Training
      • FAQ
    • Learning SPREE
    • After School
    • High School >
      • River Rangers >
        • School Internships
        • Summer Employment
        • Why Environmental Education?
      • Greenway Leadership Corps
  • Water Resources
    • The Water Connection >
      • About The Water Connection
      • TAP-IN Colorado
      • Clean Water Challenge
      • Nautilus Pilot
      • Gutter Bin Pilot
      • Minimum Stream Flow
  • Projects
    • River Vision Implementation Plan (RVIP) >
      • Johnson Habitat Park
      • Weir Gulch
    • Chatfield Storage Reallocation Project
    • USACE Feasibility Study
    • Clear Creek Greenway Design Effort
    • Cherry Creek Stewardship Partners
  • Events
    • Family Events >
      • Beaver Bonanza
      • Art on the River
      • Family Spring Stewardship Day
      • Family Fall Stewardship Day
      • Family Fishing Day
    • Spring South Platte Stewardship Day
    • Citizens for the River
    • Reception on the River
    • Rock the River >
      • Rock the River Catering
      • Rock the River Viewing Instructions
    • Gala on the Bridge
    • Bridge Party
    • Fall South Platte Stewardship Day
  • Donate
    • Colorado Gives Day
  • Email Sign Up

THe Greenway Foundation Blog

finding Beavers in Denver

4/7/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
Hoping to spot a beaver this International Beaver Day? Here are a few tips and tricks for searching in the Denver area!
​

Where do beavers like to live?
While beavers live both in and out of water, they greatly prefer to spend their time in the water. The South Platte River and its tributaries are great places to look for beavers!

What are some signs of beavers?
When looking for beavers, you’ll want to keep an eye out for some of the many markings they leave behind. A few of the most common ones to see are:

Picture
Beaver Chew: Beavers chew trees for food as well as to construct their dams and lodges. Beaver chew is one of the easiest ways to see if there’s a beaver around. Look for rough teeth marks in trees or stumps to figure out if a beaver has been nearby. Another way to tell is to look for beaver fences and beaver paint. Humans can prevent beavers from chomping down trees by erecting a short fence or by painting a mixture of mud and sand around the trunk of a tree.
​

Tracks: Beavers have two distinct sets of tracks: their hind tracks are 6-7 inches long and show webbed toes whereas the front tracks are 2-3 inches long and show claw marks. When searching for beaver tracks, beware! A beaver dragging its tail can often disturb the tracks it leaves behind. ​​

Picture
Scat: Look for beaver scat on the water's edge. It tends to be small, cylindrical, and about 1.5- to 2.5-inches long. Due to a beaver’s diet, dry scat should also have a sawdust-like appearance when you break it apart. 
​
Dams/Lodges: Beavers are some of nature’s most iconic engineers. Beavers build dams to slow or stop moving water so they can build their homes. Their homes (called lodges) are intricate structures that, from the outside, can simply look like a large pile of sticks. Keep an eye out in our waterways for these amazing structures!
Picture
Beaver dam
Picture
Beaver lodge
When can I see a beaver?
​Beavers are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk. Your best chance at seeing a beaver is to scope out a spot where you have found signs of a beaver and come very early in the morning or just when the sun is setting. Who knows, you may even spot Chompers!

1 Comment
Scott Hatfield
12/30/2019 11:22:24 am

Beavers are excellent tools for enhancing resiliency. Wetland restoration provides flooding and stormwater control, aquifer recharging, drought mitigation, biodiversity, fire resistance,ecological and riparian restoration, and more.
With all of Denver's current major problems with stormwater control and green spaces, it should not be difficult to financially justify an aggressive wetland restoration and enhancement policy for Denver. Grey infrastructure is much more expensive than green infrastructure. Beavers need to be seen as important providers of ecological services rather than pests. Beaver human interactions can be reasonably mitigated with tools such as levelers and culvert protectors with relocation due to population growth as a part of a larger strategy. Do you have info on the suitability of the Beaver Restoration Assessment Tool (BRAT) for Denver? Boulder had some issues with it.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives
    ​

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Previous Entries

    Categories

    All
    Archives
    Art
    Camp
    Campout
    Clean River Design Challenge
    DSISD
    Events
    Family Events
    Fish
    GLC
    History
    Holiday
    HQ
    Insects
    Rangers
    Special Agents
    SPREE
    Stewardship
    Water Engineering
    Water Quality

    RSS Feed

donate today!
(303) 455-7109 - Greenway
(303) 743-9720 - SPREE 
1800 Platte St
Denver, CO 80202
Staff Contact Info

FEIN: 51-0193575
sign up for our email list
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • About Us
    • About Us >
      • Greenway Current (Annual Report)
      • Flood of 1965
      • Greenway Videos
    • River & Trail Info
    • Blog
    • Success Stories >
      • 1970s
      • 1980s
      • 1990s
      • 2000s
      • 2010-2014
      • 2015-Future
    • Volunteer
    • Employment
    • Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Search
  • Education
    • SPREE >
      • SPREE Home Page
      • Just for Kids!
      • Support SPREE
    • Virtual Field Trips
    • Field Trips >
      • Excursions By Grade >
        • ECE
        • Kindergarten
        • 1st Grade
        • 2nd Grade
        • 3rd Grade
        • 4th Grade
        • 5th Grade
      • Excursion Signup
      • Feedback
      • Excursion FAQ
    • Camp >
      • Summer Camp
      • School Break Camps
      • Leaders in Training
      • FAQ
    • Learning SPREE
    • After School
    • High School >
      • River Rangers >
        • School Internships
        • Summer Employment
        • Why Environmental Education?
      • Greenway Leadership Corps
  • Water Resources
    • The Water Connection >
      • About The Water Connection
      • TAP-IN Colorado
      • Clean Water Challenge
      • Nautilus Pilot
      • Gutter Bin Pilot
      • Minimum Stream Flow
  • Projects
    • River Vision Implementation Plan (RVIP) >
      • Johnson Habitat Park
      • Weir Gulch
    • Chatfield Storage Reallocation Project
    • USACE Feasibility Study
    • Clear Creek Greenway Design Effort
    • Cherry Creek Stewardship Partners
  • Events
    • Family Events >
      • Beaver Bonanza
      • Art on the River
      • Family Spring Stewardship Day
      • Family Fall Stewardship Day
      • Family Fishing Day
    • Spring South Platte Stewardship Day
    • Citizens for the River
    • Reception on the River
    • Rock the River >
      • Rock the River Catering
      • Rock the River Viewing Instructions
    • Gala on the Bridge
    • Bridge Party
    • Fall South Platte Stewardship Day
  • Donate
    • Colorado Gives Day
  • Email Sign Up