Chattanooga beavers are especially eager this year to acquire building materials for their dams from Ross’s Landing, where the city’s Parks and Outdoors Department is taking unusual measures to manage the damage to the trees along the riverfront.
The parks team recently planted new trees along the riverfront at Ross’s Landing, and team members chose to plant bald cypress trees because beavers usually leave those alone. But the trees repeatedly were being damaged or taken down completely, sometimes within 24 hours of planting, city of Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors Communications and Marketing Director Brian Smith said in an email.
The beavers’ chewing can damage or kill the trees and cause them to fall onto the nearby playground and path, making them a safety hazard, he said.
The parks team tried several methods to deter the beavers from gnawing on the trees. Team members put fences around them, but the beavers climbed the fences and continued to chew. Then they put hot sauce on the trees, which kept the beavers from chewing them, but the sauce washed off in the rain.