November 2023 • Nebraskaland 27
and not fl owing between dams, and I
saw no fresh sign. The middle reach
was dry. The lower end, however,
was brimming. The infl uence of
groundwater was obviously stronger in
some reaches than others. The beavers
had fi gured this out. The dams they
built in the wet reaches, once low lines
of tangled sticks, were now several
feet high and covered with mud, from
which trees and other vegetation grew.
One in the lower
end was actually
keeping the water
deeper in a pool
on its downstream
side. That pond was deeper than I was
prepared to explore in my boots. I saw
no minnows in the upper ponds, but I
did see a few small bluegill, bass and
pickerel, as well as snails. How they
got into these pools that were dry a
year earlier is testament to nature.
Perennial wildfl owers, rushes and
sedges were fi lling the marshes.
On rich, moist soils, cottonwoods
and willows were now head-high.
Wildfl owers and grasses were
becoming more established on the
higher and drier, sandy soils.
The ebbs and fl ows of water, and
the life in it, will likely continue at Red
Wing. Will the river stay in its new
channel? The next fl ood could easily
send water rushing through a low spot
in the upper end of the old channel.
Will it be enough that the still-wild
Elkhorn will change its mind again?
Or will it remain on its new course,
which is actually its old course from a
century ago, something that continues
to amaze me.
Only time will tell.
N
LEFT: Water pools behind one of many beaver dams built
across the old channel to hold back fl ows fed by groundwater.
TOP RIGHT: Allegheny Monkey-fl ower blooms in the moist soils
of the old channel.
