Beavers

The park that we frequently ride in has beavers. We've seen them in the past, swimming down the Patapsco River. We also see their 'work' and progress, and their mud slides into the river. They can really put a hurting on a tree. Sometimes girdling, sometimes taking it down outright. Their teeth-mark patterns look like ax work.

We have some trees in fields #1 and #2. A few years ago we cut down all the cherry trees in the pastures. Cherry trees are pretty in the spring, but the dying leaves are toxic, fatal, to horses if ingested. We had a weather event that knocked down some trees, too. We wanted to keep a few 'good' trees in those fields for shade. The grass benefits from shade, along with a nice place for the horses to hang out.

We've never had a problem with the horses gnawing on the trees. Until we got the Blacks, and not until very recently. Their field continues to be covered in snow, too. The trees are getting the exposed roots scraped and I don't want to lose any more trees in those fields.

We've thought a lot about how we are going to stop this behavior. We came up with the best or easiest solution: Snow Fencing

The formation of the 'little woods' makes it impractical to fence the whole area in - it would take yards and yards of fencing. Even wrapping the trees is difficult because the roots are above ground. If we don't do anything, the trees will not survive.