Beaver Chews Through Michigan Utility Pole

A beaver in Michigan's Upper Peninsula has bitten off more than he can chew.

Cloverland Electric Cooperative shared news of a rodent vandal on Facebook. A beaver nearly chewed through an entire utility pole in DeTour Village in the eastern U.P.

Cloverland's Director of Operations says he has never seen this happen in over 30 years in the U.P., while a Traverse City-area electric company employee shared that they once had a similar issue.

Cloverland Electric Cooperative says the pole was treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) to prevent this type of problem, but this beaver had a mind of its own. CCA is a wood preservative that has been used to treat timber since the 1930s. CCA is a mix of chromium, copper and arsenic that gives a greenish color to timber.