Busy Beavers In The Park?

by Marlene Berlin

Someone’s cutting down trees in Rock Creek Park. But I don’t think the Park Police should haul in the culprits.

One of my favorite places to walk is through the Soapstone Valley east to the West Ridge Trail. At the trail entrance at Soapstone, I have been noticing signs of trees being chopped down.

I thought at first someone was using an ax, but that didn’t seem to make sense. Until now, I had only seen the straight cuts of a chainsaw used only in clearing a path through felled trees. I could not figure out why these trees had been chosen, though one had been marked with an orange tag, but not the other. Then, a few days ago, I saw new marks on a tree that looked like gnawing. I thought of beavers. Do we have beavers in the park?

Here’s a video I found of one in action:

And my own photographic evidence is below. What do you think?