Beaver Beech Bonsai

Tags

animal artist, beaver, beech, Bonsai, collect, yamadori

Triple B!

“What the heck is beaver beech bonsai?” you ask. It’s the tree I collected this morning!

That tangle of gray branches in the center of the image, above, is an American beech tree, Fagus grandifolia, that has been prepared for me by the friendly neighborhood beaver. At some point a number of years ago, beaver cut down a young beech tree, and that tree sent out new shoots in all directions. By the looks of it, the beaver have returned a few times to do some maintenance pruning. Wait til you get a better look!

You can already see, in the photo at top, the ring I cut around the tree. When I am unable to cut through with my shovel, I dig around with a big root hook to remove stones and expose large roots that need to be cut with loppers.

In all, it didn’t take very long to remove this tree, no doubt because part of the circumference — the part facing the water — was already free.

Back at home, I prepared a box that would hold the root mass, cleaned off the native soil, and got it secured in the box with a fast draining soil mix.

Not a bad design, considering it was designed by a rodent!

I will do nothing to this but encourage recovery and growth for at least a year. I am excited to see what I can make of it in the future!