Beaver Dam - Sherborn MA
The beavers came to Rocky Narrows two years ago and plugged up Sewall Brook. The beavers don’t care that Rocky Narrows is the first and premier property of the Trustees of Reservations; don’t care that their dam has made a muddy mess of the trails leading to King Phillip’s Overlook, a magnificent view of the Charles River named for the Wampanoag Indian chief who unsuccessfully confronted the English colonists; and don’t care that the brook they dammed was named for Samuel Sewall, the infamous Salem witch trial judge. The beavers are there to chew down trees and saplings, make their dam, and flood the place.
The resulting landscape is surprising with its dying trees and bright green mud. A swamp quickly replaced the forest, followed by wood ducks, red-winged blackbirds, and mosquitos. This place smells more like the underside of a rotting log than the sweet scent of pine trees. The quiet is broken by the sounds of startled ducks and woodpeckers rummaging for food. Neither the place nor my photographs are conventionally pretty. But this is my place, which I pass each day when I walk my dog.
