In just a few weeks, this lake will be frozen, and the beavers won’t be able to cut and move trees, but they will be able to swim right under the ice to feed from this underwater larder. 

 

Moose also eat twigs and branches and often try to take advantage of the beavers’ hard labor. This young male is getting a little too close to the beavers’ larder.

 

Autumn is not a time for sharing. 

 

It is mid-September. As the sun drops further in the sky, the aspens, cottonwoods and maples start shutting down for the winter. They now digest the green pigments in their leaves to claw back what nutrients they can into the trunks and roots. What’s left behind makes the colors of autumn.