Across state lines…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beaver-themed merchandise, City Reports, Who's blaming beavers now? August 21, 2015

Slightly better article from Fargo, I’m still wary of these beaver saving efforts.

Activists to again voice opposition to killing beavers in Fargo parks

FARGO — Residents concerned with a plan to kill beavers along the Red River will gather at a Fargo Park Board meeting next week to show support for using non-lethal methods to curb the rodents, which park officials say have been chewing through valuable trees.

Kathleen Keene, a member of a local group of animal advocates, said killing beavers is not a sustainable solution because the dead beavers will be replaced by new ones coming in.

The Park Board in April approved an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cull beavers, citing thousands of dollars worth of damage to trees, particularly in Lemke and Trefoil parks.

The USDA’s John Paulson said culling methods include a lethal body-gripping trap and another trap that grabs the beaver and pulls it underwater so it drowns.

Such methods are cruel, Keene said.

“Just think about if your dog was in a trap like that,” she said. “A beaver’s not much different than any other animal.”

Well, yes. They are cruel. But it’s worse than your dog, Kathleen. Because your dog would drown pretty quickly and it will take a beaver upwards of 15 minutes of suffering to die. Kathleen started the online petition that garnered 58,000 signatures. Remarkable enough that Fargo slowed its grinding wheels of beaver killing.

I’m still a little uneasy with this HS advocate.

Dave Pauli, a senior director for wildlife response at the Humane Society of the U.S., is expected to give a presentation to the Park Board at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at 701 Main Ave. on ways to control beaver populations. Keene said she and like-minded people plan to attend the meeting.

In an interview, Pauli said non-lethal methods are more sustainable than lethal ones.

“The Red River is a challenge because no matter what happens to the beavers, there’s gonna be more beavers,” he said. “It’s a flashing vacancy sign if they just remove beavers constantly.”

Non-lethal methods include protecting trees with fences and special paint, or by regulating noise and water factors. There is also beaver birth control.

To be honest, way back in 2007, we spent a great deal of time on the subcommittee worrying about the issue of birth control. The Humane Society recommended immuno-contraception and that charming harrigan that advised city staff recommended killing the father so that the mother would be forced to wait until her sons grew up to breed. The looming population explosion was much on my mind during those days.

But the truth we found was, population growth was NEVER an issue.

Since beavers leave to seek their own territory at 2 we’ve only had the one family. And in 8 years with 24 beavers born in our creek, our resident population has never exceeded 9. Not to mention that out of 24 live births, we’ve had 12 deaths over the years. That’s 50% mortality not counting mom. Someone tell that to Mr. Pauli before he starts handing out beaver condoms, okay?

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Another escaped beaver, this time in Kentucky. Makes me wonder if he saw the story of little Choppa making a break for it. You know, a copy-cat beaver crime?

Henderson wildlife rehabilitators looking for missing beaver

HENDERSON, KY (WFIE) -Wildlife rehabilitators in Henderson are now offering a reward for information about a missing animal.

Tyler the beaver from Misfit Island Wildlife Rescue Center disappeared.

The couple who runs the rescue say with help from donations, they’re now offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to her return.

Another $250 will be given for her safe return.

Hmm, who do we know in Kentucky? Ian was on summer vacation, but I’m sure he wouldn’t take a beaver with him back to Cal Arts, right?

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Beaver fever: Unique collection may set world record

55d69b45d9a29.image — Bill and Shirley Niese are pictured with a portion of Bill’s beaver-related item collection. More than 700 pieces of the collection will be counted at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Farm and Home Building at the Decatur County Fairgrounds during Greensburg’s annual Power of the Past antique farm machinery show. The Nieses believe the collection is the largest of its kind in the world.

Bill started collecting beavers after his Silver Beaver Award from the boy scouts. They just kept coming. Now they’re couple is off to the Indianna county fairgrounds for an official counting to see it their collection of beaver items can qualify in the Guinness book of World Records.

To which I say good luck and, um, just 700?

With friends like these…

heidi08 Beaver Chewing, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's blaming beavers now? August 20, 2015

Humane Society to offer advice on Fargo beaver problem

FARGO (KFGO-AM) — The Fargo Park District will get some advice from the Humane Society of the United States on handling beavers chewing away at trees at city parks along the Red River.

The park district caused an uproar last spring among animal lovers when it announced plans to hire the USDA to trap and kill the beavers, which have caused thousands of dollars in damage to trees.

The society’s Dave Pauli says he has been working on similar problems for 30 years and may have some options when he comes to Fargo next week.

He says a solution is “always complicated”

Always complicated? The HUMANE society says that wrapping trees is always complicated? How complicated can it be? You cut the wire and wrap it loosely around the tree and close it up with a bread tie or something. Then you walk to the next tree and repeat the whole process.

Or go to home depot, buy a gallon of paint and a few lbs of mason sand. And throw a pizza party for all the boyscouts in Fargo if they spend half the morning painting trees. It’s not rocket science.

Honestly, maybe this is what progress in North Dakota looks like, but shouldn’t the representative from the HUMANE SOCIETY sound a little more hopeful? “You could try neutering your dog, but that’s pretty hard, and then he won’t have balls.”

I think I need to know what Mr. Pauli gets paid, because even in North Dakota they might do better.

I suppose it’s always possible that he was misquoted by some doubting reporter. Maybe he said “It’s never complicated” and they didn’t believe him? Of course the AP picked this story in all the world of beaver news to pick up so I’m seeing it run everywhere including the SF Gate. I guess it’s national news that it’s complicated protecting trees with wire. I’m sure it wasn’t national news when it worked all those times.

Hrmph.

Here’s a story to calm us down after all that excitement. It’s a sweet reflection on a half chewed beaver tree. Enjoy.

Radio Diaries: Beaver Tree

Blame the beaver – (Swedish version)

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Who's blaming beavers now? August 19, 2015

Swedish beaver knocks out power for thousands

A spokesman for Sweden’s state-owned energy provider has revealed the identity of the vandal behind a blackout which saw 15,000 Swedish homes left without power.

The households were without power for around an hour and 15 minutes on Monday evening after a beaver chewed through a tree which fell and took down an electricity wire in the Södertälje area – about 30 kilometres south-west of Stockholm.

“The little rascal. It is really something that should not be able to happen,” Peter Stedt, a spokesperson for Swedish energy giant Vattenfall, told The Local when the source of the problem was revealed on Wednesday.

“Yes, but he felled in the wrong direction, so we’re going to have to have a word with him,” joked Stedt.

Ahh the Swedes. Even their episode of ‘blame the beaver’ is smarter than ours. Very droll, Stedt. Good to know their media isn’t much smarter. It runs through the usual litany of beaver assaults on civilization, and mentions nothing about their importance to wetlands or wildlife. But still, fairly cute article on a ~~gnarly~~ gnawly topic!

Here’s some actual footage of an actual beaver chewing an actual tree in America, taken by our good friend Rusty Cohn in Napatopia recently. The beaver was determined and the photographer was patient.

Apparently I was on KGO this morning, just got the word from a friend. They called yesterday about the unexplained deaths and we did a phone interview. (A kind of strange phone interview when they asked questions and continued talking even while I was answering them?) But hopefully it wasn’t too confusing. Jon just did the morning sweep and no dead beavers today. A happy looking live beaver chewing on his supper at ward street with a green heron standing guard. Something like this.

Desperate times – Desperate Measures

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? August 18, 2015

No new deaths, but we continue to know nothing. All we know is what it isn’t. Not disease. Not Infection. Not toxoplasmosis. Not antifreeze. Not any toxic we have looked at, and we’re running our of beaver tissue to look at. I had a long conversation with the vet at CDFW yesterday and discussed the possibility of maybe doing a blood sample of one of the living beavers but she was very clear that this would only be useful if we knew what we were looking for.

And we don’t.

She said it was not worth traumatizing a beaver for very little information. And I was so relieved. Jon and I hated the thought anyway. One thing she did say is that the recently recovered beaver had apple in its stomach with a store bought label on it, and did we think anyone was feeding them? Or deliberately poisoning them?

Feeding, yes. Poisoning, who knows? So all we can do for now is keep a very close eye out and ask folks not to feed. The people who care about our beavers will stop, and the people who keep feeding will become suspects I guess.

Nuts for Scottish Beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? August 23, 2015

11913903_920262254682244_6973812627803513536_n — Rhona Forrester

So ITV is the Un-BBC in the UK with slightly more hip programming. “Nature nuts” stars a famous gay (they say ‘camp’) comedian traipsing about the country looking for and learning about wildlife. In the most recent episode he went to Scotland and visited Bob Smith of the Free Tay Beaver group. Bob brought him by canoe out to the beavers he’s been following, and the host brought along a camera man from David Attenborough to catch the first signs of the kits. Here they are discussing strategy. The host is on the stump throne, and Bob is seated with the canoe paddle.Of course I wanted to watch it right away, but the cruelty of nationality forbade me. It’s online there but it tells you you need to be in the UK to partake. Sigh. I knocked desperately on a few doors and begged as heartily as I could and was kindly sent a copy by a fairy godmother who warned me against sharing. I thanked my lucky stars and settled down for the treat. And what a treat! Beautiful photography, fun interactions and a beaver setting to envy. Of course the camerman captured the new kit and of COURSE I wept to see him swimming peacefully along in such pristine habitat. I assume this will be available outside the UK eventually and I will make sure to post it here, because you need to see it!

11903716_920261854682284_3042440587892140657_n — Rhona Forrester

Some of the folks from the free Tay beaver group turned out for the shoot, you can see Paul Ramsay in the middle there. Everyone was excited by the final episode, which you can see by looking at the Save the Free Beavers of the River Tay facebook page.

The habitat is so different from ours I was gripped with envy I can’t fully describe. A huge traditional lodge of sticks and a hanging forest to forage. No trash or homeless. And a beautiful pond to canoe across and see the beavers from their element.

11219724_920261531348983_4739336096757531898_n — Rhona Forrester

I’m so proud of what Scotland has accomplished this last decade. They overturned centuries of beaver ignorance and pushed their ecosystem value onto center stage. Both with the formal trial and the informal wild beavers. They generated interest and appreciation for a species that hadn’t been seen since the 1600’s. It has helped beavers not just in the UK but in every country by changing, informing and enriching the ecological conversation.

I’m especially honored to have met Paul and Louise and played a very small part in helping them coordinate support and generate media attention. I just read this morning that Paul is currently working on a book, which I, for one, cannot WAIT to read! Their beaver work is truly and EPIC TAIL.