What Trees Do Beavers Prefer?

Popular trees on the beaver's menu

The passage about Teddy Roosevelt's "beavered-down" trees aroused my curiosity about beavers. I've read several dozen webpages this evening, trying to learn exactly what trees they prefer.

I've read about beavers chewing down white cedars and cherry trees in Washington D.C., elm, cottonwood, hackberry and maple in Tennessee, and willow, maple, birch, aspen, cottonwood, beech, poplar, and alder trees in New Hampshire. In Colorado, willow, aspen and cottonwood are mentioned again.

On several sites, I read that beavers prefer to cut down soft-wooded trees which enables harder-wooded species like oaks and hickories to get more sunshine and flourish. However, Bob Arnebeck provides images of oak trees taken down by beavers, so I wonder if that theory holds true.

American Wildlife and Plants by Martin, Zim, and Nelson (full citation at bottom of the page) cites the following trees as used by beaver in various parts of the U.S.:  poplar (cottonwoods and aspens), willow, birch, hazelnut, serviceberry, maple, alder, ash, sweetgum, pine, dogwood, oak, sycamore, redcedar, and Douglasfir.

According to Martin, et al, poplar trees are especially important to the beaver's diet in the Northeast U.S. and in the West, and sweetgum makes up a significant portion of their diet in the Southeast.

I can testify from personal knowledge and observation that beavers in the Nebraska Sandhills thrive in little streams with willows on the banks.

Why do beavers cut down trees? They eat the bark and wood, as well as using the branches in their dams and lodges.

Photo of the "beavered-down" tree courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Teddy Roosevelt as Logger

"Beavering down" trees

In Teddy Roosevelt's autobiography, he writes with great good humor about his various life adventures. The following quotation is from his tale of building a house from cottonwood logs on his North Dakota ranch:

The Elkhorn ranch house was built mainly by Sewall and Dow, who, like most men from the Maine woods, were mighty with the ax. I could chop fairly well for an amateur, but I could not do one-third the work they could. One day when we were cutting down the cottonwood trees, to begin our building operations, I heard some one ask Dow what the total cut had been, and Dow not realizing that I was within hearing, answered: "Well, Bill cut down fifty-three, I cut forty-nine, and the boss he beavered down seventeen." Those who have seen the stump of a tree which has been gnawed down by a beaver will understand the exact force of the comparison.
(Source)

The term, "beavered down," has now entered my vocabulary. I can relate. I've taken the ax and beavered down a few saplings myself, trying to get them out of the hedge where they've been let go too long. There's nothing like chopping down a tree to give you great respect for strength and stamina of the pioneers.

And as for the beavers -- well, I simply can't imagine chewing down a tree! I have a lot of respect for them too!

Related: Flickr photo set from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in southwestern North Dakota

Brew of the Kentucky Coffeetree's Beans

Not a recommended beverage

In The Kentucky Warbler, James Lane Allen writes an amusing anecdote about a young man, ignorant of nature, who ventured into a Kentucky forest. He was unable to identify most of the trees, but he was sure he would recognize a Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioica).

There was one tree he curiously looked around for, positive that he should not be blind to it if fortunate enough to set his eyes on one —the coffee tree.

That is, he felt sure he'd recognize it if it yielded coffee ready to drink. of which never in his life had they given him enough. Not once throughout his long troubled experience as to being fed had he been allowed аз much coffee as he craved.

Once, when younger, he had heard some one say that the only tree in all the American forests that bore the name of Kentucky was the Kentucky coffee tree, and he had instantly conceived a desire to pay a visit in secret to that corner of the woods. To take his cup and a few lumps of sugar and sit under the boughs and catch the coffee as it dripped down . . . No one to hold him back ... as much as be wanted at last . . . The Kentucky coffee tree — his favorite in Nature!

Source: The Kentucky Warbler (p.126-127) by James Lane Allen

This young fellow (had he been a real person instead of a fictional character) should have looked for a tree with large, heavy, purplish or reddish-brown pods. Inside a big pod from a coffeetree, he might have found up to 6 or 7 flat beans, as large as a quarter in size.

When dry, the coffeetree's beans take on a greenish-brown color. Perhaps the brownish color is what made the early settlers think that the beans -- roasted, ground, and brewed -- might yield a coffee-like beverage.

It seems that the coffeetree beverage was abandoned as soon as possible. In 1869, John Claudius Loudon wrote, "The seeds were, at one time, roasted and ground as a substitute for coffee in Kentucky and Tennessee; but their use in this way has been long since discontinued." (Source: An Encyclopaedia of Trees and Shrubs, p. 255)

Julia Ellen Rogers, writing in 1905, was a little more descriptive. "The pioneers of Kentucky made out of the seeds a beverage to take the place of coffee. We may well wonder how they ever ground these adamantine beans, and how they ever drank a beverage as bitter as it must have been." (Source: The Tree Book, p. 338)

The native Americans roasted the beans and used them as food. Roasting the beans seems to be an essential preparation before consuming them. Cystisine, a toxin found in the beans, is probably broken down by the heat during the roasting process.

Sprouts, leaves, pods, and beans of the Kentucky coffeetree are poisonous to livestock, and cystisine is suspected to be the toxic agent. If a pasture contains a Kentucky coffeetree, it is wise to place a fence around it. The tree is rare, so it should not be destroyed, but livestock, pets, and people should be prevented from consuming any part of the tree.

A good image of a Kentucky coffeetree pod
A good image of Kentucky coffeetree beans

Dogwood: Beautiful In Winter

A great ornamental tree, even in January

Dogwood in January, Christian County, KY

Even in winter, the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is a beautiful tree. Its branching pattern is attractive. A typical dogwood is somewhat flat on top with several tiers of branches that stretch out horizontally. The tips of the twigs are turned up to the sunshine.

The dogwood's bark is gray with a segmented pattern. It looks as if it were made up of many small rounded or squarish tiles fitted together. The distinctive bark is a good clue of the tree's identity anytime, but especially so when the tree has no leaves.

The pattern and color of a tree's bark, the angle of the twigs, and the arrangement of branches may seem like insignificant details. However, when winter reduces a tree to its essence, the tree's framework is its prominent feature.

In January, it's a joy to see a graceful dogwood tree silhouetted against the winter sky.

In late autumn and early winter, this little tree was covered with red berries. They're all gone now -- eaten by birds and other wildlife. Dogwood berries are a great favorite of wild creatures.

And of course, the tree will put on new leaves next spring, followed immediately by its showy and distinctive blossoms.

I must add a few words of caution, though. In nature, the dogwood is an understory tree in the forest. For the dogwood to survive in an open, sunny setting, like my neighbor's pretty little tree in the photo above, it needs water during dry spells. He does have it planted in a well-drained spot -- that's good.

The dogwood doesn't like compacted soil. This tree seems to be doing all right along a ditch beside a rural blacktop road, but dogwoods aren't recommended if the ground has suffered a lot of heavy traffic. They also don't like heavily polluted air or constant bright light at night.

A large dogwood tree may be 40 to 50 feet tall and about as wide as it is tall. When choosing a planting site, it's important to allow plenty of room for the tree to widen as it grows.

Photo of the dogwood bark: W.D. Brush @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

Sweetgum Seedballs

Sweetgum trees are messy.

I probably wouldn't have identified a winter-bare sweetgum tree on a street corner today, if it hadn't been for the seedballs. The lawn and sidewalk beneath the tree's wide canopy were covered with them. Car tires had thrown many more seedballs against a concrete median in the street (photo above).

Sweetgum balls are woody, so they don't disintegrate quickly. A homeowner who wants a well-groomed lawn will need to rake up the prickly seedballs. They fall throughout winter, so they might have to be raked several times. Any seedballs left in the grass will be an unpleasant surprise for summer's barefoot strollers.

In an urban setting, the seeds from the spiny balls may be eaten by birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. In the wild, sweetgums often grow in swampy areas, and there, the seeds are also enjoyed by beavers.

Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is a tall native tree of the southeastern U.S. In Kentucky, we are in the northern part of the sweetgum's natural range, though it is also found in southern Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, near and within the Ohio River valley.

Sweetgum trees are noteworthy for their foliage. Their leaves are star-shaped, and their fall color may be orange, bright red or purple. The beauty of the leaves helps make up for the messiness of the tree's seed dispersal process.