On a recent walk to Carpenter Lake, the special bog behind Gordon Elementary School, we were pleasantly surprised to see that there was some urban renewal going on.

Well, what I really mean is that we saw a bunch of trees had been downed and rearranged. Also, there were some areas with standing water that had just been damp before.

We quickly realized that we were seeing the work of beavers.

Beavers are nocturnal animals and are the largest rodents in our area (the only larger rodent is the capybara of South America). Wild beavers typically live about 10-12 years. They can be up to 3-feet long, including a flat tail that can itself be a foot long.

They have an important relationship with water and are considered the natural water engineers of watershed, modifying water ways to create homes and places to shelter, feed and raise young.

They can stay submerged under water for up to 15 minutes. To be so comfortable in the water, their noses and ears have valves that keep water out. They also have two layers of fur and produce an oily substance called castoreum, which they comb through their fur as a waterproofing. They forage for food and do their construction of dams and lodges at night, much of it underwater.

Here are some amazing facts about beavers. They have fur-lined lips that close and seal behind their teeth so they can peal bark and carry branches underwater. They use very strong teeth for gnawing trees, and other work with wood. Their teeth grow continuously through their lives and contain a large amount of iron, giving them strength and an orange color. They use these teeth to cut down trees for making structures they live in and for areas to store food.

While they don’t eat the trees cut down, they do strip and eat bark and consume smaller branches. They have colonies of microorganisms in their guts that allow them to digest cellulose.

Beavers are vegetarians, eating bark, clover, water plant tubers, leaves and even apples. While they are food themselves for coyotes, weasels, eagles and domestic dogs, one of their important defenses is their lifestyle — living in and on the water. They are called natural water engineers because they build structures that hold water on the landscape so that the entrances to the dens/lodges are hidden from predators.

You can see the affect they are having in the area around Carpenter Lake. If you take the short walk that starts in the Gordon Elementary parking lot behind the portable buildings and down the marked trail in the woods behind the school, you will encounter — just as you reach the boardwalk area — sections with standing water.

Look to your left and you will see tree stumps with that characteristic whittled shape that shows beavers have chopped them down. When you look to your right farther on, you will see a beaver dam keeping the water level a bit higher than it had been before. This kind of engineering gives beavers homes, but it also is beneficial along creeks because it increases shallow water habitat for young salmon.

So, consider taking a trip to Carpenter Lake if it’s been a while since you have been — or if you have never been. It is a rare sphagnum bog with a kettle hole lake in the middle located in our Carpenter Creek watershed. It is a wonderful place to view birds, specialized bog plants like sun dews (carnivorous plants) and Labrador Tea — and now, to see the signs of industrious beavers.

— Contact Betsy Cooper at betsycooper1@gmail.com.