CASTOR REDUX 2010
Gulf of St. Lawrence
The beaver has returned to urban waterways in Calgary, Chicago and the Bronx building dams and lodges and creating wetland ponds. Once ubiquitous across North America, the beaver population declined drastically due to the successful fur trade, with numbers currently around 10% of an estimated 100 to 200 million in the 1800s. Montreal played a strategic role as a fur trading post and the western terminus of the Lachine Canal is a national historic site commemorating this founding resource. This proposal engages history, ecology, and bio-engineering in the design for a beaver lodge and habitat at the eastern terminus of the Lachine Canal. While providing habitat for a native species along an urban waterway, the pioneer tree and shrub species are also known phytoremediators for typical pollutants found in industrial sites.
Great Lakes
r ve
c
en
.
St
wr La
i eR
Island of Montréal
A YEAR IN THE LIFE
Peel Basin Beaver Lodge
of Castor canadensis: one beaver family [2 adults, 2-3 pups] from spring to spring
MARCH
shoreline tree barges installed along basin tree and shrub plantings at wetland pond and basin ► construct dam for wetland pond ► ►
l
na
The Fur Trade at Lachine National Historic Site
in
ch
La
a eC
Lachine Rapids
aspen, birch, cottonwood canopy
View northwest to downtown skyline from edge of Peel Basin
willow, sumac, dogwood understory
shorelin removeable
JUNE
length) e unit (30m e tree barg
beaver family moves in ► intensive foraging season (1 beaver fells 200 saplings / year) ► lodge building at end of summer (2m height x 5m diameter) ►
SEPTEMBER
Beaver Lodge for 1 family (2 adults, 2-3 pups)
►
JANUARY
► ► ►
mating season 100 day gestation period beavers do not hibernate
MARCH
► ► ►
(2 m height x 5 m diameter) birth of new pups second generation pups move out relocation of shoreline barges, tree planters, and beaver family
Rue de
Aquatic species (water lilies, cat tails)
winter preparations of lodge (mud packing and insulaton) build up under water food cache
►
Mulched surface with trees in large planters (birch, poplar, alder)
Shoreline tree barge edge (willows, aspen, dogwood)
nn Bre Rue
mmu n
e
an
LACHINE CANAL Beaver Lodge
la C o
Wetland Pond with phytoremdiator species (aspens, willows, alders, poplars)
Beaver Dam