For some reason, North Dakota is surprisingly pragmatic about beavers. Even though Minnesota to the East and Wyoming to the west and Sascatchewan to the North and South Dakota right below them are all abysmal examples of beaver management, North Dakota is that rare glimpse of management with stewardship and understanding. I don’t really understand it. I just like it.
“Probably the most economical way of dealing with beaver is wrapping the trees, probably a couple three feet up as high as a beaver can stand off the ground, with chicken wire or some kind of wire mesh to keep the beavers in, they’ll leave it alone.” says Doug Leier with North Dakota Game and Fish.
Please explain to me why we get an answer like that from NDGF and can’t get a glimmer of hope out of California? I long to know, what Collier-reading nature-lovin’ wise ranger is lurking in the background or history of the department. This makes me weirdly happy, since if we are able to get a few states to pass the word we can seep beaver good news all around the country.
Nevertheless, I can’t help but think about something that was suggested to me recently and I wonder if it is more than just a coincidence given all this doomsday stuff: Are beavers plotting to take over the world? You may recall that a few weeks ago I was stumped for a column idea, so I posted a plea on Facebook. The beaver question was posted by my brother, and I think this is a fine time to explore it.
I mean, really. What is UP with beavers? They are SO busy!
Really? That’s your article? What’s up with beavers and all that chewing? No investigative query that demands your discerning attention other that that? Hey maybe it could be a whole series! What’s up with blackbirds and all that flying!? What’s up with Rabbits and all that hopping? What’s up with gophers and all that digging? You get the idea.
What’s up with columnists. They are SO lazy!
It’s not really the tree loss that might make one think this industrious mammal has a secret plan to take over the world – it’s the darned dams. Beavers are prolific builders. Some say the sound of trickling water stimulates their urge to build, and we all know there is a lot of trickling water in this world.
Oh, indeed, these busy critters have demonstrated time and again their affinity for creating their own infrastructure and disrupting ours. Their dams flood properties and wash out roads. They create disruption and stress.
What IS their end game, anyway?
Sheesh. Sometimes the parody just writes itself. Sometimes you don’t need my familiar sarcasm because the story sounds so ridiculous I can hear you coming up with your own. So I’ll just stand back and let the goodness flow.
I mean, once they obliterate the countryside and move into the cities, what is the point? Are they suddenly going to reveal themselves as ferocious carnivores that only ate foliage as a clever front?
Humans have fought back, for sure. Beavers have been eliminated from large parts of their original range thanks to trapping in the early 19th century. In fact, the quest for beaver pelts is credited for much of the early exploration of this continent. Arguably, if Europeans hadn’t had a love for beaver hats, the little rodent might have taken over this continent by now.
It is a humbling thought. What a watery world it might have been!
Aw, I’m just joshin’. I like beavers and I don’t think we are in imminent peril from them, although those teeth look kind of nasty and I know there was a story in this paper a few months back about a local guy bitten by a beaver.
Oh you big kidder! What a card! I like columnists too! Looking over the article about the man getting bitten by beavers I see that it was some walking beavers on the road that were beset by him and his friends dogs, and when he tried to protect the dogs, he got bitten. Funny thing, when animals are terrified for their lives and far away from safety, they can defend themselves. Look it up.
This article can only make sense with this picture.
Did I hear that right? Does the state of Maryland actually consider that beavers chewing trees to be a “rather unusual case?”. Hmm. Maybe there are some more “anomalies” you might want to look into. Dogs chasing cats? Birds emerging from eggs? And snakes born with absolutely no fur!
Sheesh.
Nice to see that the good citizens of Salisbury took the time to learn their customary lines for the annual beaver pageant. Do you remember when we did ours hear in Martinez lo these many years ago?
“Move them to a different location where they will be more at home,” Parks said. There are others, however, that believe the beavers should be left alone as they are only doing what comes natural to them. “They need somewhere to live. This is the place where they find trees and resources so I really don’t see too much of a problem with it,” said Salisbury resident Jam’al Washington. “Unless the park wanted to help them out, they can always do that. But if they don’t, then a beaver is going to do what beavers do.”
Will someone please explain to the state that beavers chewing trees is not unusual? And that trees can be protected by wire-wrapping or painting with sand? Apparently the state of “Manly deeds, womanly words” needs a lesson or two in animal husbandry.
This will be the first in a series of three or four postings on the beavers that are inhabitant the detention pond under the powerlines in Centennial Woods. I’ve got some videos from a game cam as well as other information on how they prepare for and deal with the transition into winter.
This lovely post comes to us from Burlington, VT from the website Wild Burlington, run by the good folks at Crow’s path. The author is keeping a close watch on the freezing beaver pond there and noting how they are breaking up the ice to keep access open. Apparently the beavers are slated for trapping at the moment, and the author wonders how to help.
The “dam” is really just an outlet flow structure for the detention pond. You can see the open water channel running on the upper left corner where the beavers move back and forth from their lodge to the dam to do maintenance work. They maintain holes throughout the winter, or at least try to. I’m not sure the exact reason, but I would assume it has something to do with keeping an escape route in a dire emergence and also having access to land if their food cache runs low mid-winter. It might also allow them to access early spring vegetation even if their pond hasn’t frozen over.
There are lots of reasons for leaving holes in the ice. Here are a few:
Beavers breathe air like us and need oxygen!
Once the pond freezes solid it gets thicker and harder to break.
Food caches only last so long and they will try to eat reachable food as long as possible.
Beavers do not hibernate. The family needs to feed all winter long.
Depending on the depth of the pond it could freeze solid and they could be trapped.
They may need to make repairs to their dam if something happens to it during the freeze.
There is nothing that delights me more than observant folks watching local beaver behavior and thinking about what’s going on. Being outdoors encourages awareness of Nature and our place in it. Watching beavers near her home during her illness distracted and strengthened the famous Dorothy Richards. Enos Mills said wondering about beavers made children think. I seem to remember a lot of folk in Martinez that used to do that regularly. Including one woman I dimly remember who saw her life completely transformed by it.
All I can say to the author is “Watch out!” It could be you next slipping down the steep slope of curiosity into the dark forest of research and through the golden halls of fascination straight onto the brutal plains of advocacy! Because we are expecting The Hobbit any day now I am reminded of the warnings of a certain Mr. Baggins .
“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Oh here’s some light entertainment from this mornings Huffington Post. I think it may happen soon to this child.
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