We’ve enjoyed pretty good spate of beaver news with accolades to their many benefits, and appreciation for their labors. But America is a big place, and ignorance and fear persist despite all our efforts. Here’s some reminders, the first in response to the toddler swiping by that gaitor in Florida.
Alligator attacks: How to avoid the reptiles, stay safe around the water
The horrific death of Lane Graves, a 2-year-old Nebraska boy snatched off a Disney World beach by an alligator, has raised questions about safety around the water.
In Alabama, alligators are mostly found in the coastal and inland waters of the Mobile Delta but have been reported as far north as the Tennessee and Elk Rivers. In 1995, as many as 50 American alligators were released in the Alabama portion of the Tennessee River in an effort to keep the beaver population under control.
Be careful what you wish for? Apparently they brought in alligators to kill the beavers and then they ate all their cats. Sad face. I always suspected beavers had something to do with the arrival of alligators. Although beavers do thrive in gaitor habitat, so maybe someone someday could explain to me how that happens?
Well, so much for Alabama and beavers. I got excited when I saw this quote from Texas.
“Just as snakes and insects, beavers are also important for our county ecology.“
I’m not going to tell you why though, I’m just going to tell you how to kill them.
Agrilife: Controlling Beaver Damage
According to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension information, most of the damage caused by beavers is the result of bank burrowing, dam building, tree cutting or flooding. Levees or pond dams weakened by beaver burrows may collapse during periods of high water. If creeks, drainage ditches, culverts and spillways become blocked by beaver dams, adjacent pasture land, timberland and roadways can be damaged by flooding and erosion. Beavers can damage boat docks and fishing piers by building their lodges underneath them. Beavers also can cause extensive damage to agricultural crops such as corn or sugar cane, although their damage is more commonly inflicted on trees along rivers, streams and lakes. In urban areas, beavers damage fruit trees, gardens and ornamental trees Beaver control is best accomplished as soon as there is evidence of beaver damage.
Once beaver colonies become established over a large area, controlling them can be difficult and costly. Fencing of culverts, drain pipes or other structures can sometimes prevent damage; however, beavers often simply incorporate the fence into their dam. Fencing lakes and ponds to exclude beavers is generally not practical. Barriers of sheet metal or hardware cloth placed around the bases of valuable trees may help prevent damage. The barrier should extend from ground level to a height of about 4 feet. A variety of traps and trapping methods is effective in controlling beavers. Live traps, leghold traps, conibear traps and snares can be used. The effectiveness of any trap is determined by a person’s knowledge of beaver habits, as well as proper trap selection and placement. Beavers are classified as furbearers in Texas, but it is legal to trap them. Under state law, a person may trap a furbearing animal at any time if it is causing damage; however, the pelt can be sold only during furbearer season and with the proper licenses.
That’s right, beavers, like snakes and fire ants, have a mysterious ecological role to play. You won’t read about it here though, during the floods or doing the drought that’s coming next. I’m a vet and not an ecologist so I have NO idea how flow devices worked. And we’re sure relieved to learn that beavers are considered fur-bearers in Texas. Sometimes you guys ain’t all that bright, and I thought you might have catagorized them as amphibians!
Lets end with a lovely photo of the first family enjoying the outdoors in Yosemite.
I was especially struck by this quote he delivered in the park, can you spot what is clearly an obvious typo?
“The first time i saw a bear and her cub. That changes you. You’re not the same after that. And I want to make sure every kid feels that.” –President Obama
Bob Paine, an ecologist who conducted seminal experiments along the coast of Washington state in the 1960s, pulling starfish from the rocks and tossing them back into the ocean to demonstrate the consequences of disrupting an ecosystem with the removal of a single “keystone” species, died June 13 at a hospital in Seattle. He was 83. 
His concept of “keystone” species, named after the stone at the apex of an arch that supports the other blocks in the structure, refers most strictly to predators such as sea otters, wolves and lions with outsize influence on their communities. A groundbreaking idea when Dr. Paine introduced it in the late 1960s, the “keystone” species is today a fundamental of ecology textbooks.
