Talk:Al Sabo Preserve

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Hi -

Clawson has removed a mention of beavers in the Al Sabo Preserve article I wrote. While I don't have citations from external sources to bolster that mention in the original article, I have the personal experience of taking a canoe upstream into the Al Sabo Preserve from nearby Atwater Millpond every spring for 12 years.

While rare, beaver have been found in Kalamazoo County - see [1]

During many of those trips, I did one or two short portages over constructed dams (at 42°13'52.89"N 85°39'42.60"W and 42°13'20.73"N 85°40'46.22"W) that were clogging the outflow of the west branch of Portage Creek. These dams were surrounded by the gnawed stumps of toppled saplings - with characteristic pointed tops. The dams themselves ranged in width from 15' to 30', and were quite sturdy enough for me to stand on, portage a canoe over, etc. The saplings and branches making up the dams also had the characteristic pointed ends.

This waterway is remarkably untravelled. There are only a dozen or fewer houses on Atwater Millpond, and only two families had canoes. There is no public access to Atwater Millpond, and a series of culvert gratings, shallow marshes, etc. isolate the waterway from upstream traffic in the boy scout camp.

If there were to be a spot for beavers in southern Michigan, this would be it.

While I haven't seen the beaver that created the dams, my wife (a board-certified veterinary pathologist and birdwatcher) have seen deer, muskrats, and a mink swimming from our shore to the island in the middle of the lake. We've also seen coyotes and red fox on the winter ice, and have found the carcass of a deer eaten by coyotes within a couple hundred yards of our house.--[User:Sfjohnso|Steve Johnson]]

Thanks for the cite, Steve. I've been hiking there for the last 20 years or so and I've never seen any gnawed stumps, but now I'm curious. Might have to hang out there next spring and keep a sharp eye out.--chris.lawson 04:24, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Chris - I've found them in two places in Al Sabo; just off the half-submerged boardwalk across the trail from Overlook at the border of Rota-Kiwan, waaaay back in the swamp. The other is literally within throwing distance of Atwater Millpond, probably half-way between the powerlines and the emergence of Portage Creek into the lake. You might actually be able to get to that one off of the other boardwalk, which is on the long loop trail alongside the creek, that loops back within site of the Birchwood Hills neighborhood, off Glen Harbor Drive. Careful of broken boards on that boardwalk!

Unless you're out walking the ice in February after a long cold snap, be careful walking to the dams from Atwater Millpond - the ice is very thin over the flowing water of Portage Creek, and the muck is deep. In February, though, you can make your way along the edge of the lake through the rushes, along the coyote and deer trails.--[User:Sfjohnso|Steve Johnson]]