Spring floods have left behind several artifacts of human activity in the woods that fringe the Sudbury river. I have encountered a rusting auto engine, a tattered trash can now embedded in bullbriars, and the occasional broken bucket or plastic toy. These leavings are so weathered they have one foot in the natural world.
At one time, the hubris of the human race brought about an excited plan to build a community right along the river's edge. To that end, Shore Drive was surveyed, lots were sold, and foundations laid. The river put a forceful end to that scheme. Now those foundations are as weathered as the other artifacts, remnants of vacation dreams.
There are also signs of beaver life. Around one of the decaying house foundations I found several felled trees, ranging in size from sapling to substantial. The tree pictured above is about six inches in diameter. The large tooth marks indicate enviably strong choppers. The intention to build a substantial lodge or dam is clear. But where is it? Where are the furry citizens who planned to live there? Have they vanished in the same way as the human settlement, vanquished by the flood? Or did the humans, unable to sustain their own development, destroy the beavers' new home, causing the beavers to move away? I'd like to think instead that the beavers who took down these trees were scouts in a logging party out looking for lumber to swim back down the river to a beaver community deeper in the wetland.
Following are three more views of the Sudbury river flood plain after this winter's first, light snow.
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| Photos by Roy Barnacle. |
