Basic HTML Version
October-November
1970
pond for water. Trout and bass find the
beaver pond a home with abundant
food. Grasses spring up green and lush
for hundreds of yards on either side of
tbe pond, due to sub-irrigation of the
land. Even the trees killed by the
backed-up waters serve as an insect
haven and thereby supply food for
woodpeckers. Th is helps increase the
woodpecker population for better pro–
tection of living trees. Also, when the
trees are downed, sunlight can filter
through to aid grass and algae growth.
Idaho Fish and Game Commission
Information officer Bill Cunningham
commented to us about the effects of
beaver ponds on fish: "... of course,
they de.finitely bene!it fish, because in
many instances they create areas of
water which ... are deep enough to
remain cool enough to support fish life."
Other benefits of beaver ponds on
ecology are noted by Gary Harper of
the Sawtooth National Forest, Ketchum,
Idaho: "We can definitely see advan–
tages in st ream control, water control,
continued flows of water as well as per–
haps settling out of si ltation at times in
the spring and periods of high water, as
well as recreational benefits t hat beaver
dams do provide in the line of fishing."
Nature welcomes the beaver pond.
Unfortunately, due to gross misunder–
standing of its purpose, man nearly
destroyed the beaver, which once popu·
Jatcd every mountain and hill stream
from Washington to Maine, and from
Alaska throughout Canada and cven into
the southern parts of the United States
almost to the Gulf Coast. Once there
were
60,000,000
beavers on the North
American continent. Today estimates
run less than
10,000,000
and the major–
ity of those are in Canada, where larger
wilderncss areas are still available.
I ntelligent W orks, But Where
From
But did you ever wonder just
fl'here
the beaver learned to build dams? Man
goes to school for years, studies th ick
textbooks, receives degrees in engineer–
ing and fi nally is able to design and
construct huge daros which serve a tem–
porary purpose. These daros make pos–
sible certain benefits as viewed through
the eyeglass of "technological" progress.
However, from a total-effect viewpoint,
The
PLAIN TRUTH
they undeniably intrude into the natural
ecological balance.
The beaver has no textbooks, no
schools, no degrees of higher learning.
Yet it is the beaver who is able to con–
struct the "perfect" dam - the dam
that
frts
into the overaJI ecological pat–
tern and even builds land and stores
water for man. The bene6ts are
long
last ing.
Where did
th<:
beaver get his
"intelligence" to build with such
perfection?
One author put it this way:
"Despite their purely automatic and
apparently mechanistic activities, and
their lack of practica( forethought,
bea–
vers appear
to
drmu upon so11rces of
illformation that ttre beyond o11r ken."
(Living l\1ammals of the JVorld,
by
Ivan
T.
Sanderson, Doubleday :.:nd
Company Inc., N.
Y., 1965,
p.
118).
Nature the Master Builder
Man must still acknowledge that the
creatures and plants he finds in naturc
are
SUPERIOR
in certain
imtinctual
abili–
ties, although they cannot invent and
Jhot~ghtfully
plan
as
man can. To tap
thc reservoir of knowledge to be gained
by studying the miraculous abilities of
animals such as the beaver, a whole new
science, caBed bionics, has arisen.
The idea
of
bionics is to go to nature
to find answers to problems. One such
group in a recent meeting of the Insti–
tute of Environmental Soences made
these shocking admissions:
"The engineer and scientist today is
facing a 'new world' a world that has
had good answers to engineering prob–
lems for thousands of years - if only
we engineers, with our scientist and
mathematician friends,
co11ld knou•
111here to look .
"No Jess a source than the 'Scrip–
tures,' in the book of Job, chapter
12,
verses 7 and 8, should have
JNDICATED
A ROUTE
of rescarch years ago. Job
... said, 'but ask now the beasts, and
they shall teach thee, and the fowls
of the air, and they shall tell thee: or
speak to the earth (plants, trees, and
'crceping' things], and it shall teach
thee: and the fishes of the sea shall
declare unto thee.'
"Most modern experimenters in 'bio–
engineering' eventually face the humility
27
of reality - their accomplishments are
very meager
compared to designs in
nature - in birds, animals, fish, plants,
reptiles and insects. The engineer knows
now that to come any closer to matching
sorne of nature's fantastic feats, he must
have the help of the biologist and
nature observers. Nature
IS STJLL THE
MASTER BUILDER"
(The Future of Bio–
Engilleering in Om· Daily Lives,
p.
3).
Man considcrs himself much more
intelligent than any creature. But if the
beaver as other animals draws upon
sources beyond our ken, must there not
be sorne power - sorne being of greater
intelligence than man - who created
the beaver. Is it not reasonable to ask if
there is sorne Supreme Intelligence
which imparted this superior ability of
dam construction to beavers? And to
impart it in such a way that the beaver
takes its place in a superbly balanced
and closely knit ecological system?
The beaver does not really need to
build dams to survive. This is proved by
the fact that sorne beavers become bank
dwellers. In other words, the benefits
which the beaver bestows on man are
NOT
due to any behavior patterns
essential to the beaver's survival. There–
fore, the "need" for evolving dam–
building characteristics disappears. With
it disappears the unproved theory that
beavers are a product of an evolutionary
process.
Does it really make sense that the
beaver's intelligent construction ability
- planned for the benefit of all, both
now and for the future - could have
cvolved without need or direction?
That is rather an insult to intelli–
gence.
Then what is the answer?
The Creator God designed the beaver,
and programmcd into its mind the
instinct to build dams - perfect dams
- which have a puipose in the overall
balance of nature.
You can prove the existence of your
Creator and the purpose for His cre–
ation. Write for a free copy of the
booklet,
Does God Exist?
It gives the
scientific proof you need. AJso, request
the
FREE
booklet,
Om· Poll11Jed PlaneJ.
It explains how we are destroying the
intricate balance of our earth systems -
and the dire consequences we are
producing. O