Month: January 2020

WHEN ALL OUR RIVERS LOST THEIR SPEED BUMPS

heidi08 Beavers and Flooding January 16, 2020

Can speed bumps actually slow traffic?

I mean will the busy flow of uncontrollable cars actually slow itself down based on a tiny obstruction in the roadway repeated over and over again>? Why does no one ever ask that question and why does the other one get poised repeatedly?

Cumbria’s Eden Valley to see reintroduction of beavers

Beavers are to be reintroduced to Cumbria’s Eden Valley to see if they can thrive in upland environments.

The animals, which were hunted to extinction in the UK in the 16th Century, will be introduced to the Lake District for the first time in a trial. Efforts to return the species to other parts of the UK, including Yorkshire and Somerset, are also under way.

The government-approved trial will look at how beavers restore small farmland streams and can aid flood prevention.

Oooh ooh, call on me! I know this one!

It is hoped the beavers will deliver benefits such as carbon storage, flood mitigation and an increase in other wildlife.

Conservationists support the return of beavers to Britain’s rivers for the benefits they can provide in preventing flooding, by damming streams and slowing the flow of water, as well as boosting water quality.

I don’t know. Do you think the repeated observations of science and gravity will apply in another region? Do you think speed bumps will slow traffic? That’s a real head scratcher. I guess we’ll find out.

The funny thing is that just last night I was reading about the great flood of 1862, and thinking about the timing of this massive event. Obviously all those humans mining for all that gold had some effect. But given the fact that the entire beaver population was wiped out about 20 years earlier and their decaying dams would just about be completely gone – one has to wonder.

The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest ever recorded in Oregon, Nevada and California’s history. The flooding occurred from December of 1861 until January of 1862, drowning the state in water and leaving much of the Northern Valley unlivable until the summer months of 1862.

The flood created a lake down the center of the state that was 300 miles long and 20 miles wide. It’s estimated that thousands of people were killed in Northern California during the event.

Entire cities were under water and many people were killed.

The foothills of the Sierra Nevada were seeing tremendous flooding activity during this time. The American River near Auburn rose 35 feet and some of the small mining towns were completely submerged. On the Stanislaus River near Knight’s Ferry, two major bridges washed down the river and anything within 40 miles was completely destroyed.

The year before had extra heavy snow so the melt didn’t help matters. But don’t you think all those missing speed bumps might have had something to do with the calamity?

John Carr wrote about his riverboat trip up the river during the peak of the flood:

“I was a passenger on the old steamer Gem, from Sacramento to Red Bluff. The only way the pilot could tell where the channel of the river was, was by the cottonwood trees on each side of the river. The boat had to stop several times and take men out of the tops of trees and off the roofs of houses. In our trip up the river we met property of every description floating down—dead horses and cattle, sheep, hogs, houses, haystacks, household furniture, and everything imaginable was on its way for the ocean. Arriving at Red Bluff, there was water everywhere as far as the eye could reach, and what few bridges there had been in the country were all swept away.”

It’s a terrifying story of our history that I knew nothing about before. When Stanford was inaugurated governor of California he had to row his way to the capital.

I bet a lot of those beaver hats got floated away too, Ironic, huh?

IDAHO BOASTS OF ITS GAME OF MUSICAL BEAVERS

I’m sure you played musical chairs as a child. It was as ubiquitous as dodgeball and no one escaped its wrath. You march around an increasingly shrinking circle of chairs while some horrifically cheerful music blares in the background and when the music STOPS you grab a seat, Except there’s always one less chair than there are children.

Who ever doesn’t get a seat is ‘out’. That unhappy child takes a chair and leaves the game and the torture continues with its hardened ring of increasingly wary children. Until there are two left. WIth one chair between them. And the ‘ring’ they march has two sides: one where victory is possible and one where it is not. If the controller of the music has any sense of fairness at all they close their eyes so that they don’t see who is where.

Well, Idaho apparently likes to play a similar game with beavers. Only the last ones that can’t find a pond are killed. And they play it over and over. Doesn’t that sound fun?

Beaver squad: Fish and Game relocates pesky city beavers to backcountry fixer-upper habitats

Beavers are generally hardworking, industrious and helpful critters when they’re in the right location. But when they set up shop in the wrong location — say in the city — it can be disastrous.

Take the Target department store parking lot in Idaho Falls for example.

The fury aquatic rodents have been known to saunter across the store parking lot and chew down ornamental trees in the parking lot medians. Oddly, beavers show up regularly at the nearby waterway next to the store attracted by plenty to eat, ready-made dens and water. Each year, beavers have to be escorted out of town.

So rather than help Target use the fencing sold by the garden department to wrap its special trees, they bring in a retired expert from Idaho fish and game to save the day.

In a million years you will never guess what his name is,.

Their point man is retired volunteer Roy Leavitt, 79. Leavitt, always on the go, enjoys keeping up with busy beavers. “Capturing the problem beavers has been my job for the last three years,” Leavitt said.

LEAVITT moves BEAVERS. The comedy rights itself,

James Brower, Fish and Game regional communications manager, said the – relocates 15 to 20 beavers each year. In 2019, 16 beavers were relocated. In 2018, 18 were evicted.

Leavitt said there are two beavers living in the waterway next to Target right now that “I’ll need to get to this spring.”

Fish and Game says there are two types of beavers that come to test out the city life. One type is looking to set up a permanent home and the other are referred to as “canal beavers.”

“The canal beavers are often transient,” Brower said. “They don’t set up shop. They come, chew up some people’s decorative trees along the ditch banks and people want us to come and get them out. But a lot of times it’s a munch-and-run situation. They usually don’t stick around too long, especially in those canal systems.”

Well, sure. Those canal beavers with their Venetian influence. What do you expect. Of course since the shopping mall is on the beaver highway as it were, getting rid of one will always always mean you make space for another. But I’m sure you knew that, right?

“Sometimes the county will call us or a cattle company or landowner that have a road or culvert that they use to irrigate or water cows and the beaver have come and stopped it up or they have flooded the road, causing damage of some sort,” Brower said. “We get a lot in the Ririe area, too. The beaver are coming up and gnawing on people’s decorative trees and shrubs.”

Rather than a death sentence, Fish and Game prefers to redirect the industrious critter’s energy elsewhere, inviting them to move into a fixer-upper. The Upper Snake Beaver Cooperative has identified several backcountry locations in eastern Idaho that historically had beaver but don’t any longer.

Okay. I guess its a millimeter better than killing them. Although depending on how the relocation goes it might be killing them slowly. I’ll give you credit for knowing beavers are valuable and more use alive than dead. And for setting up a beaver patrol at Fish and Game in the first place.

But honestly. Learn to wrap a tree and install a flow device will you?

“We would like to see them introduced because they’re habitat kings,” Brower said. “They just sit there and work and build dams and build ponds and improve streams, make straight channels flow year-round opposed to some that are perennial and stop certain times of the year. We do it in the name of habitat restoration.”

Now that’s worth boasting about.

“WE KEEP KILLING BEAVERS, BUT IT’S STILL FLOODING!”

heidi08 Beavers and Flooding, Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 14, 2020

Anyone who’s ever made an offer to a two year old knows this rule.

You want them to FEEL like they have a choice and get to call all the shots. But because you happen to be the adult and know better you want to actually put your thumb on the scale and determine which option they are going to pick. It’s called stacking the deck, Like “Would you like to wear a sweater or your snow gear to play at Martin’s house?”

They win. You winner. It’s a perfect system.

Which bring us to Lyme Connecticut, the state still trying to solve its beaver problem.

82-Year-Old Old Lyme Resident Faces Loss of Home as Local Officials Consider Response to Flooding

OLD LYME — For more than a year David Berggren’s house has been sinking, and Black Hall Pond has been steadily rising due to beaver activity downstream, flooding his lawn, and dock, causing his plumbing to fail and mold to grow, and shifting the foundation underneath his home on Boughton Road.

“I trapped three beavers on town property near Whippoorwill Road,” said Robert Comtois, the trapper hired by the town, “but they may not have been the suspects. I did try to get back into the opposite bank of Black Hall Pond, but it was so thickly grown-in, I was having a tough time even with my kayak.”

So there can be a drowning 82 year old man or there can be beavers. Which one do you think we should save? We first read about this problem back in June. So you can see they’re tacking this issue with lightening speed. It’s funny because you’d think that was if your property was under a little bit of water in the summer it would be under a LOT of water by January.

I remember it because of the disease. That must be fun to explain to tourists.

Despite the efforts of Machnik, town officials, members of the Open Space Commission and the Old Lyme Land Trust have for months denied knowing either location of the beaver activity responsible for flooding the property of Berggren and his neighbors, or ownership of the land.

“All we know is it’s not on our property,” said Amanda Blair at a December 13 meeting of Old Lyme’s Open Space Commission. “To the best of our knowledge, there is no beaver dam located on the Jericho Preserve,” said Michael Kiernan, president of the Old Lyme Land Trust, in a December phone call with CT Examiner. “We worked with the DEEP expert in 2017 to determine this. At that time, it was determined that the dam was located on one of the private properties to the north of the preserve.”

Two years later, Berggren, Machnik, Comtois and several Black Hall Pond area residents maintain that the dam is clearly located downstream on Bucky Brook, deep in the Jericho Preserve.

Kiernan said an investigation is ongoing.

So they don’t KNOW where the dam is that’s causing the problem but they just keep randomly killing every beaver they see because they hope it will help. That’s like not knowing who robbed the bank but just jailing every person you meet on that street until the atm’s fill up again.

Gosh. Connecticut really is – um – challenged when it comes to beavers.

On December 16, newly-elected First Selectman Tim Griswold said the town would look into using a drone to locate the beaver dam and to determine the responsibility for the flooding.

Two weeks into January, there has been no apparent progress toward resolving the issue.

In multiple conversations with town officials, it has been assumed that only the property owner may authorize the trapping or managing of beavers — in this instance, it appears, the Old Lyme Land Trust. According to both Machnik, and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, as a matter of law that is not the case.

You know what state Connecticut borders? Massachusetts. The town of Lyme is about 75 miles away from Mike Callahan at beaver solutions. He could tell which – if any – beaver dams is causing the property to flood, And fix it for you without killing beavers or complaining to the press for 6 months.

But that would be too easy, right? Better to keep killing beavers and sinking lower into the mire.

IN WHICH CONNECTICUT LOSES ITS MIND OVER BEAVERS

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 13, 2020

Is it me or is 2o2o suddenly looking like a very busy year.

I have all these deadlines that I think, oh I don’t have to worry about that until January and then it’s JANUARY 13th!!!! Practically half way through the month and I have SO much to do. The presentation for beaverCon and the application for the community foundation grant and good LORD then all the begging for donations to the auction,

I’ll never, never be done in time. Let’s stop thinking about it and go to Connecticut.

Beaver trapping season underway; some CT residents don’t like it

NORFOLK — Roger Johnson and his wife were hiking near Haystack Mountain State Park when they came upon a young beaver caught in a steel trap near a small pond and instinctively went to investigate.

They freed the animal.

“Something didn’t look quite right and it was because one of the yearlings was caught in a steel jaw leg hold trap, splashing around trying to free itself,” Johnson said, describing what occurred Dec. 28 as the couple walk across the south dam between Barbour Woods and Haystack Mountain and observed beavers swimming below.

A hero! Is the town throwing a parade? Did the mayor give him the keys the city. Did they dedicate December 28 as national Roger Johnson day?

Of course not.

Johnson was charged with springing the trap and the incident prompted him to plan to petition the legislature to change the types of traps allowed in the state, a local lawmaker to investigate the issue further and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to affirm trapping as necessary in the state.

Of course he was charged. No good deed goes unpunished they say. Especially no beaver good deed. Interesting quote from the department of Environmental Protection.

“Trapping is a gruesome activity, but the traps are designed to kill the animal quickly,” he said. “I don’t know what pond (Johnson) was referring to but it was probably legal to trap there. He was very lucky he didn’t get injured releasing the beaver. Those traps will take your hand right off. Or, the beaver can bite you, or they’ll wack you with their tail. That can cause some damage too.”

Williams said hasn’t heard of many people releasing a beaver as Johnson did.

“It’s rare that a person is able to free a beaver,” he said. “As for finding traps, the trapping community itself tries to stay out of the limelight. You rarely hear about trappers in Connecticut, because they know it’s a hot topic. People don’t like to see it. It’s in the best interest of the trapper to keep a low profile. And people rarely fool around with someone else’s traps.”

I agree with you whole-heartedly, sir. Trapping is a gruesome activity. And by your own rules this trap obviously failed because a beaver was NOT killed instantly and somebody rescued it. What on EARTH does killing beavers have to do with protecting the environment, anyway? Putting Deep in charge of regulating traps is like putting Exxon in charge of counting oiled birds. It’s like putting your drunk cousin in charge of controlling the liquor cabinet. It’s like putting your randma in charge of sexting memes.

When the couple found the beaver that day at the end of December, Johnson said, the trap was strong and had the animal in its grip.

“It was just a vise, with two sides, and the beaver was in it,” he said. “It wasn’t like an old-school bear trap with teeth, but it was metal and very strong. It broke a stick in half.”

The couple said the neighboring property owners near the pond were watching the scene, and came out to investigate. “The neighbors we talked to were furious,” Johnson said. “They also have dogs, and one of them swims in that pond … they said ‘That could easily have been our dog.’”

Johnson and Hannelová waited with the little beaver until it was dark, and then put it in some tall grass near the water’s edge. When they returned the next day, the beaver was gone.

“We saw a little blood trail in the grass leading to the pond, so maybe it went back in the water … we didn’t see it anywhere,” Johnson said.

Wait, they left the beaver? After all that they just left him there? They didn’t bring him to animal rehab. Or put him in a box by the stove? Let me see what wildlife rescue was the closest. Two counties over in Granby or Sharon. Either one would take a little beaver. The state’s the size of a postage stamp so it would be a half hour in either direction.

But sure, I guess. You took a photo with your camera and started a petition. And sat with the bleeding little beaver for a while. Yeah?

We saw a little blood trail in the grass leading to the pond, so maybe it went back in the water … we didn’t see it anywhere,” Johnson said.

He called the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to let them know what happened, “and to check if these traps were legally set,” he said. “The next morning, an environmental officer named Ed Norton returned my phone call to inform me that my actions were illegal. I was charged with criminal mischief for removing the beaver and disabling the steel traps.”

The officer told Johnson that, when a person finds an animal in a trap, they are not allowed to touch it or move it, and they should contact the state’s wildlife division if they have questions.

Points for follow up. You picked up the phone and turned yourself in. That’s something, Maybe you really weren’t sure what to do. That’s okay. The people in charge aren’t either.

Lawmakers

Rep. Maria Horn said she has received a number of calls about beaver trapping, and the types of traps that are being used.

“I’ve taken some calls from people in the last few days, and we have investigated a law banning these kinds of traps,” she said. “We got a lot of pushback, so we’ve put it off for another day.

“In the interim, I need to do research on the traps themselves. Massachusetts has banned these types of traps in favor of another type, and they are used under water, so they’re not a danger to dogs. That’s something I’m going to look into,” she said.

Horn’s biggest concern is safety for everyone. “My concern is that trapping is done in an appropriate location,” she said. “Are there other alternatives for the kinds of traps that are used, is another concern. And obviously, there’s a concern about the humanity of trapping. If a representative from the DEEP is out there, doing their job to explain what’s permissible and what isn’t, then that will make a difference. But the location is important.”

Hey, I have an idea! How about the NO TRAPPING idea? You know the one where you actually SOLVE the problem instead of killing it. I’m just thinking out loud here but maybe you could give a flow device a try before you bring in the guillotine?

Sen. Craig Miner, R-30, is a longtime outdoorsman who has discussed the issue of trapping animals before.

“We’ve had legislation proposed on trapping and the types of traps, and last year, we had a very long public hearing about it,” he said. “We concluded that it would be difficult for humans and wildlife to live together if the beaver population increased. That includes nuisance wildlife in particular, and beavers could fall into that category.”

Funny thing senator. There are a finite number of places for a beaver to live in a postage stamp state like yours. And beavers are territorial so they will keep out anyone who there isn’t space for. When your trap-happy buddies take a family of beavers OUT space for a new family opens up. Like those vending machines that drop cokes when you put in your money.

By trapping out families you actually make more space for new families to come – Increasing the number of beavers in Connecticut in a constant vending machine of take and replace.

And since your state is surrounded with other postage stamps they have lots of choices about how to get there. Four states share a border with Connecticut. And beavers don’t need passports. Take out the Jones and the Smith family will just swim on over. Take out the Smith’s and the Lincoln’s will be on standby. And so on. And so on.

But HEY, if you put in a flow device and actually SOLVED the problem instead of making a hole in it, the next family that tried to move in would get discouraged and have to keep looking for the unoccupied space of their dreams. Actually making a stable population instead of a constantly refilling one. Gosh.

“Every time I see a beaver (dead) on the side of the road, I think, ‘Oh my God, how awful that must have been,’” he said. “But if I see one in a trap, I don’t feel that way. Trapping seems to be the most logical tool; it seems to be the most well-thought out process so far. And there are always advancements in the mechanisms that people use. The steel trap is a much quicker piece of equipment (to eliminate beavers) but it doesn’t work in all settings, which is why there are a number of different (traps). People who know what they’re doing will use the proper mechanism.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hardly know where to begin. I have started this sentence a thousand different ways with a hundred different profane insults. You feel sad when you see a beaver hit by a car but NOT when you see a beaver killed in a trap?

Of course you know they both result in death and are probably not that different for the beaver. A metal thing comes out of nowhere making a big noise and then you die. I’m pretty sure that’s how a beaver sees it. I’m not sure there’s any real distinction. Well, your lungs don’t burst when you’re hit by a car I guess. But other than that…

But HEY I know one big difference and correct me if I’m wrong on this. You’ve actually SEEN beavers hit by cars on your way to the capital, senator. But you’ve never actually SEEN a beaver dangling lifelessly in a conibear. Because those things happen out of sight. And you know what they say. Out of sight. Out of mind.

Please never leave me alone in an elevator with this man. It’s not safe for him.

“I understand why people feel the way they do about trapping, but the state does everything it can to make it work and to control the number of beavers,” he said. “It’s all done for a reason, and it’s not as comforting for some people. But without trapping, there would be many more.”

Oh can you understand? You sympathetic hypocritical double talker. You understand NOTHING. Even the reporter had to go all the way back to 2014 to find a positive article about beavers.

In another story reported by CBC Canada radio, “Beavers are dam important to the ecosystem,” beaver habitats prevent water temperatures from rising, which protects fish like salmon and trout, restores river systems, and over time protect the impact of evaporating water on farmland and open space.

I had no idea this was going to be such a marathon article when it started. This reporter needs a copy of Ben’s book, stat!

Trapping is the best way to manage beavers, the DEEP said. “In situations when the presence of beavers cannot be tolerated, or the landowner wishes to control the number of beavers on his property, trapping during the regulated winter trapping season is the most effective solution,” the DEEP said. “Licensed trappers will often voluntarily assist landowners by harvesting beaver during the trapping season.”

Who is the sympathetic figure in this story? No, seriously. I’m asking. It’s not the guy who freed the beaver so it could die slowly. And it’s not the senator who hates seeing dead beavers on the road but loves to see them in traps. Or the DEEP officer who thinks beavers have infinite powers and must be stopped. I’m not even sure its the reporter. who read something nice about them in 2014. Maybe I wouldn’t like people in Connecticut that much. I mean honestly even the state park is paying to trap beavers on public lands. What’s up with that?

IS JANUARY THE SEASON FOR TREES?

heidi08 Beaver Chewing January 12, 2020

After maintaining this website for a decade and writing about the cascade of beaver news around the country, you start to realize certain things.

September is the month for sudden worries about beaver dams causing flooding, October seems to be the for writing about roads washing out because of failed dams and December is the sweetly wistful month where whimsical columnists write stories of beavers asleep beneath the ice like cozy children.

January, however, is the month for complaining about beavers chewing trees.

Hungry beavers make mess in LaSalle, town moves quickly to prevent clogged drain

Busy beavers have been keeping LaSalle tree trimmers just as busy. The semiaquatic rodent has been chewing through some trees along Turkey Creek near Malden Road. The town is moving fast to clear a path, ensuring the drain doesn’t get clogged.

“There were some trees taken down by beavers in that area, so we’ve sort of moved it to the front of our list,” said Mark Beggs, LaSalle’s manager of roads and parks.

The Turkey Creek drain doesn’t provide beavers enough trees to make permanent lodges or dams, according to Cedar. She assumes they must just be practicing their lumberjack skills.

“A lot of young beavers … have to figure out what trees they are able to remove,” Cedar said. “Can they cut down this tree on their own? Is that too big? Is that too small?”

Cedar said there has been similar beaver activity near drains within city limits as well.

Hmm. Windsor is pretty far away from Martinez. 4000 miles to be precise. But gosh darn if we didn’t find the same thing in our creek this January. Coincidence? This report is from Montana.

Park board hears more on beavers in Beaver Creek Park

Hill County Park Board met Monday and discussed beaver management options and beaver trapping reports, as well as park usage.

Fran Buell of Gildford provided a beaver damage control report for the board. The document said, “At the December 2019 Montana Trappers Association Board of Directors meeting, the funding of beaver damage control on Beaver Creek Park was discussed. It was agreed that the Montana Trappers Association would continue funding to a Montana Trappers Association member to assist in beaver damage control until it will be discussed again at their May 2020 board meeting. Again, beaver damage control will be under the supervision of the Beaver Creek Park superintendent.”

Buell said the trapper has not been actively trapping since the first part of December due to the warm weather because he would like to have sufficient ice on the ponds to safely and efficiently set traps.

Bring in the traps! Who needs another ice-skating rink anyway? Here’s a letter of support from Pennsylvania,

LTE: Let the beavers of Cobalt Ridge and Quincy Hollow be

Residents of Cobalt Ridge and Quincy Hollow have been observing the activities of beavers in the greenbelt between the two sections. The beavers have been repeatedly building a small dam at the expense of some trees in the immediate area. Initially someone attempted to discourage the beavers by destroying the dam only to see reconstruction start immediately.

Rain events also tended to damage the beaver work efforts. It now appears that more drastic measures are being taken. At least one beaver has been killed by trappers who claim to have been hired by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The trapping activity continues since the beaver construction activity has not been deterred.

The dam has never been large enough to jeopardize storm water drainage lines entering the creek. It did create a pool of water that improved fishing as youngsters were observed enjoying this activity for the first time in years.

Mark Bogdan

We might look up Mark. There are a few clues in this letter that he might have an environmental background. “Greenbelt” and “Rain events” to mention two. We could always use another beaver defender Plus he has a pretty unusual name and that’s always easier to google.

Here’s what I wonder. Is there some biological imperative that leads to beaver chewing in January? A sudden tooth growth spurt or a preparation for bleaker days ahead? Is there some ancient evolutionary memory that reminds beavers – even in places like Martinez where they’ll never be frozen in- reminds them to eat some cambium? These trees often aren’t felled. Just nibbled.

Why?