It was another beautiful, fun-filled day for our 2nd Citizen Science Beaver Survey. We collectively walked over two miles of the Salinas River, searching out active dams and active chews in the area. I personally was amazed by the amount of water in the section of the river that our group walked in. We had a very brave group of folks, walking up to our arm-pits in water!
At the end of the day, we found only one active dam in all of Paso Robles. We did find many signs of older dams and bank dens, so lots of potential places for beavers to inhabit.
We did again find signs of Phragmites in the area (see photo below), unfortunately.
One curious feature of this area of the river is that the water is almost entirely covered by this yellow floating primrose plant.
It was very difficult to wade through – thick mats of this plant covered the waist-deep water, except in the area of the beaver pond. It’s curious that we don’t have any of this in other areas of the Salinas that I have visited.
Another great find, we did see some fresh beaver scat. And judging from the size of it, it looks like a young beaver!
Our next Beaver Survey will be on August 13th. Come on out and join the fun, sign up here!