Cedar Creek Beaver Ponds

April 27, 2024

It's been nearly a month since my last post. I'll try and catch up with logging some of my adventures over the next couple days, I'll probably end up combining many of them into a few posts because much of what I have been noticing is very similar from day to day.

On April 6th I made my way to the beaver dams on cedar creek (I think that the ponds might actual be on the beaver or palisade creek) just north of Bean and Bear Lakes. I had been to the north facing cliff and talus slope there early in the fall and seen some amazing lichens and plants. This trip I focused on the beaver ponds and surrounding area. This whole area has got to be one of the best biodiversity hotspots on the North Shore: the surrounding forest is dominated by red oaks and maples; on top of the cliff it is white spruces, firs, and white pines; there is a nearby section of logged forest with aspens popping up; add in the magic of a huge north facing cliff; and along the river there were signs of very recent activity and also areas that have been beaver free for a while. I plan on coming back many times at varying seasons to try and capture more of the diversity in all these unique habitats.

One of the beaver dams

As I was walking along the road I stopped off along cedar creek for a while. While exploring, I marveled at some really old white cedars. Shortly after I stumbled upon a decent patch of white rattlesnake root (Nabalus albus, say that 10 times fast!). I've been searching for the gall wasp Aulacidea nabili which is found right at the crown of the plant. I didn't find any galls, but did find some agromyzid fly pupa (which belong to the genus Melanagromyza) in the stems.

Melanagromyza sp. in white rattlesnake root (Nabalus albus)

I continued on towards the the beaver ponds, but didn't make it far before my next stop at the logged forest. It must have been cut recently, all the quakings aspens were the same size, about 5 feet above my head. There were hundreds of galls from the aphid Pachypappa sacculi. Usually I've only seen 10 or less in an area.

Pachypappa sacculi on quaking aspen

Continuing on I made it to the coniferous forest atop the cliff. I saw a few lichenicolous fungi, these too were in higher concentrations than usual.

Abrothallus microspermus on common greenshield lichen (Flavoparmelia caperata)

Homostegia piggotii on a shield lichen (Parmelia sp.)

Finally I made it to the beaver ponds. It amazing how large some of these dams were and they kept going for what felt like miles. I may have fallen in a few times trying to jump across the channels, or walk where the snow was too shallow. These beaver medows would be fun to explore in the spring and summer when more of the plants are easily identifiable. But there were lots of willows, alders, goldenrods, wild lettuce, and a variety of grasses and sedges. Also lots of galls and lichen. My favorite find of the day was alder stickpins lichen (Stenocybe pullatula) which was my first sighting of this genus ever. It is one of the smaller calicioids I've seen so far.