Do we think of Montana as a beaver-saving hotspot? Looking at this article I’m thinking maybe we should. Check this out:
Guest view: Recreational trapping of beavers should be banned
Wetlands are among the most critically threatened habitats that provide for high species diversity and storage of water we all depend on. Beavers create life-sustaining wetlands. Yet, Montana’s recreational trappers kill an unlimited number of beavers every year for fur and recreation.
One million animal and plant species are at imminent risk of extinction.
We need leadership now. The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks could immediately suspend recreational trapping of Montana’s wildlife because the governmental agency realizes that it is urgent to start preserving wild animals. FWP administers its trapping program strictly for recreation. In Montana alone, trappers brutally kill tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of wild animals caught in leghold traps, conibears and snares, every trapping season. If these animals were allowed to survive, they would hopefully enjoy their lives, including raising a family and by doing so, fulfill important ecological functions crucial to ecosystem resilience.
Whoa! Banning recreational trapping in Montana because beavers make life-sustaining wetlands. I’m rubbing my eyes. Is this a dream? Of course that wouldn’t work here. Here in California you could ban ALL recreational trapping and fur trapping of any kind and 3000 beavers a year would still be on the hit list. We’re civilized.
California, of course, kills beavers because they’re “inconvenient” not because its fun.
In the era of climate change and accelerating extinction crisis caused by humans, the massive recreational trapping of wild animals becomes not only appallingly ludicrous but dangerous for all of us. Sir Robert Watson, IBPES chair, noted that exploitive human activity is “eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”
Montana provides headwaters for the entire continent, but trapping has caused a steep decline of beavers (and other wild animals), which has dried up streams and wetlands for beavers to inhabit. However, there are still suitable places for reintroduced beavers to thrive — but only if traps are off the landscape.
Now this is a SMART letter. ‘Montana provides headwaters for the entire continent” is my very favorite sentence. Beavers protect and maintain those headwaters. Don’t stop trapping because it’s cruel, or icky (even thought it is). Stop killing the things that save your water. The things that could save US from climate change. This writer knows what she’s doing.
No environmental impact statement has ever been conducted to assess the major ecological impacts of removing tens of thousands of animals from their habitats by Montana trappers every year. Such a scientific assessment would likely show damaging shock waves to ecosystems. Indiscriminate trapping unravels a strong network of stability in ecosystems we depend on.
Wow! You are my new favorite human in Montana Anja! She’s a postdoctoral fellow at UM and the executive director of Footloose Montana. So she know a thing a two about her audience. I sent her the info about Mitch Wagner’s signature case arguing that beaver removal should require an EIR and let Mitch know about the article as well, but who knows, maybe they’re already best friends?
Now for some great photos from that beaver rescue i told you about yesterday in Ottawa parliament. Donna Debreuil sent them last night, and they’re excellent. i don’t know why they didn’t make it to the article but enjoy!
