Damage Control 2

It is an exceptional summer day with the temperature back down to about 80F, low humidity, and partly cloudy skies.

I put in at the bottom of Salmon Cove where it meets the Connecticut River. There are a few beaver lodges in this area and I wanted to see how the recent floods effected them. Six days ago, I was in the Mattabesset, which is several miles up the Connecticut River. The Mattabesset had backed up during the high water, so much so in fact, that it topped all of the beaver lodges in that section. The Mattabesset beaver colonies had all abandoned their lodges.

Today, I find the pickerel weed above the water surface, so although the water is still high, it is down to a somewhat "normal" high level. I paddle up about a 1/3 of a mile and pull in to the weeds where I know the lowest lodge to be. The silty residue on the vegetation suggests that the flood waters were about four feet higher than today's water level. 

The lodge is the brushy mound just right of the canoe's bow. It is about 30 feet away.

This first lodge has been significantly enlarged since I last saw it, to the point of being one of the more massive lodges that I have ever seen. Beaver sometimes enlarge their lodges. I once observed a familiar lodge that more than doubled in height and diameter in little more than ten days. On that occasion, I believe this was due to the adult pair starting a family. Lodges are built by piling sticks and mud and then hollowing out the living spaces from below. Lodges have two submerged entrances leading to a wet level, which connects to a dry level. There is a hidden vent hole in the top. Looking at the enlarged size of this first lodge, I assume that the living levels may have partially flooded, and instead of abandoning the lodge, the beaver added material to the outside and then hollowed out new living areas. Anyway, the Salmon Cove beaver were not flooded completely out of their lodges, but were able to adapt to the flood levels.

With the "science" done, I paddle off. There is a mature Bald Eagle hanging around the lower cove, plus a couple of Osprey. I head up the cove, then up the Salmon River as far as the Leesville Dam, which has a good amount of water coming over the top.

Where the Pine Brook wild rice should be

On the way back, I turn up Pine Brook. The bottom of the brook, where it meets the river, is about a hundred yards wide and normally has a large and dense stand of wild rice. I don't know much about the growth of wild rice, but apparently the flood waters came at the wrong time and this years crop of wild rice is nowhere to be seen. In fact, the water depth is about a foot and the bottom is bare sand and gravel.

The Moodus

The final side trip is the Moodus River. For the first time in about three years, I can ascend all the way up to Johnsonville. The high water made it possible to pass the blocking deadfalls. 

Fledling Common Mergansers in the Moodus