GAITHERSBURG, MARYLAND — We caught up with recently displaced beaver Dirk Drainage and his longtime mate, Penelope Pond. "I don't know what happened" Drainage said, retelling the way he was caught in a nearly submerged trap placed by the City of Gaithersburg and later transported to Seneca Creek state park. "I thought I was going to lose him" wailed Pond, "and I still don't know where Jordan and Peterson are?" which are the names of her two juvenile kits who, as of today, she assumes are still in the Kentlands.

Drainage and Pond had spent an inordinate amount of time and effort in the planning and construction phases of building their lodge, according to Kentlands and Lakelands neighbors close to the project.

For the 6 months prior to building in the Kentlands, Drainage, who is 5 years old, has visited hundreds of other lodges and drawn up detailed and extensive blueprints. He has researched topics ranging from advanced dome acoustics to the near-extinction of the North American beaver in the early 20th century, and incorporated much of his research into his design.

"There are two primary schools of thought on lodge building: the instinctive school and the adaptive school," Drainage said, studying the water's current. "I'm more of an integration-minded postmodernist. I don't believe that form should follow function, like most of my colleagues do. On the other hand, a lodge is a celebration of beaver culture, and that is what it should reflect."

"It's a lot to think about," Drainage continued, "But please, please don't call it a dam, it's where we raise our kits. It's our home. You give a damn when you build a lodge, there is a difference. "

Despite time constraints dictated by the changing seasons, Drainage had spent nearly 400 beaver-hours stripping logs of their bark and foliage, and more than two weeks scouting locations up and down the Kentlands. "I just want everything to be perfect," he said, "I picked the best trees and materials, at the time I was so happy that the community was so welcoming and left the best trees un-wrapped for me to use."

Longtime friend and fellow Beaver Lodge No. 672 brother Terry Fastpaw, who lives on Izaak Walton land in his own completed lodge, took a more pragmatic approach to construction. "Work-work-work. Gnaw-gnaw-gnaw. Build-build-build. Must hurry," he said.

Drainage reflected on his first design when he was 3 years old as "aesthetically dysfunctional," being built out of cottonwood, which he called "a mistake." But, according to Drainage, the latter experience got him thinking about different woods in ways he had never considered.

"What woods are the sturdiest, or the most visually pleasing?" Drainage said. "What does a birch lodge say about the beaver colony who made it? Everyone seems to love sugar maple, but it's such an overfamiliar scrub tree. Would I be making a stronger statement with the Bradford Pear tree? Those were invented by the University of Maryland but are now considered almost an invasive species, maybe nobody would mind if I used them."

"What do I have to say—as a beaver and as an artist?" he added.

But today Drainage is scrambling to help his mate, Penelope Pond build a new Lodge before she gives birth. "Don't the Kentlands residents know that Penelope is due in May?!? That's about 30 days from now, I have to scramble to make her something workable, it's nothing like the Beaverham Palace I had built in the Kentlands. "

Pond rejected the criticism of the humans in the Kentlands. "Not everyone in this area cares or is even aware of how lodge building enhances an ecosystem," Pond said. "But I am, and, yes, I do wonder what kind of impact our lodge will have on the environment. How can we make this the most positive experience possible, while still minimizing adverse impact on the wetlands? What kind of beaver would I be if I didn't take erosion science into consideration?" To that end, Drainage and Pond have reached out to the local otter, fish, and waterfowl communities, and incorporated their input into their original design which is is now destroyed by Gaithersburg City staff.

Despite frustration with his efforts, Drainage professed faith in the process.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm just treading water," he said. "Then I remember the kind lady who visited me daily with her dogs and the other humans in the Kentlands whom I got to know. Not everyone hates us and someday soon, I hope I can return and be part of the community. I want to build something that everyone can be proud of. I plan to come back next season."

This marks the third consecutive spring in which Drainage has sought to build the perfect lodge only to get his hopes destroyed. Many in the area believe that Drainage will resort to burrowing a hole in the muddy ground where he will spend the rest of this season with Pond, as they has done the past three years.

If you want to help Dirk Drainage and Penelope Pond, sign and share their petition