Month: August 2021

USING TURTLES TO GET RID OF BEAVERS

There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING, that city officials like MORE than appearing to fix one environmental problem by wiping out another entirely. It’s like making bees fight in a jar: Either way it ends you still win. Plus it has the added benefit of making it sound like you actually give a crap about any living thing in your borders besides the ones with dollar bills.

Remember the official in Roseville who said he had to kill beavers because they threatened “vernal pools?” Or the power grid worker in Owens Valley who said beavers had to be killed because they destroyed “Nesting habitat for herons?”

Burocratic jiu jitsu. It’s like getting one half of the hydra to bite off its other head all by itself.

Plan to ‘trap and kill’ beavers divides local beach town

A move to protect turtles in a Lake Huron community has led to a backlash against a flood-control plan some say needlessly condemns area beavers.

Port Franks residents say a metal grate system installed to keep beavers out of a culvert on Outer Drive Road at L Lake was removed in recent years to let turtles pass.

But with the cage gone and beavers back in action – plugging the culvert – a proposal to “trap and kill” the rodents is the wrong way to go, said Janice Cuckovic, who lives on the lake.

“I understand that the turtles are important,” she said. “I just don’t understand why the beaver is expendable . . . I think what it boils down to is dollars and cents because it’s just easier to kill the beaver than to think of another solution.”

Did you follow that? The beaver deceiver had to be removed to let the turtles pass. And since it was removed the beavers are plugging the culvert and therefore must be killed. See how perfectly that works out? You don’t sound like such a meanie if you’re just trying to save turtles.

“My biggest issue is, it doesn’t feel like we’ve looked at options other than killing the beaver,“ she said. “If we kill the dam, we get another beaver and then the next beaver is killed, too.”

Yup. That’s the idea. Kill the next beaver by saying it’s blocking habitat for frogs. And then next one by saying it’s drowning baby deer. What ever it takes to wipe out one nuisance with another. Never mind that both Mike Callahan and Skip Lisle regularly install culvert protection with a wildlife passage and that’s it’s easy to do if you have any problem solving skills at all.

That’s not the point. The point is using turtles to get rid of beavers.

HOOSIER BEAVERS NEED A HAND

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers August 20, 2021

Someone in Indiana needs some beaver education. Stat.

Leave It To Beaver – 2021

As the sun set behind the tree line one recent evening, I noticed some larger than usual ripples in the pond. Too big for fish, my eyes scanned for the apex of the V and had to blink a couple of times. Grabbing my binoculars I focused in on the movement maker.

At first I thought it was another muskrat, those underminers of the pond dam. But this furry head was much bigger.

A river otter? But we are nine miles from any river and the creeks have not been running with any significant water of late. I was a bit panicked because river otters are swift swimmers and can easily devour my bluegill and bass population.

As I eased my way toward the pond trying to keep the critter in focus and not trip, the swimmer looked my way, spotted me and quickly dove underwater with a loud slap of its tail.

A beaver. In the hills and hollers of northwest Jackson County? Beavers like slow moving waters where they can build stick and mud dams to increase the water level to their liking. Our acre-plus pond has no slow moving water and is 19’ at its deepest.

Yes, thank goodness it wasn’t an otter or a muskrat. You won the pond lottery, Mr. Kovener. God has granted you a beaver. Now are you man enough to deserve it?

Concerned about what kind of problem Lone Beaver could become sent me to the computer for research.

I was relieved to learn that they build dams, they don’t breech them.

And they are herbivores eating pond weeds (We got plenty of them), small brush (plenty of that, too) and small saplings (yep, got that checkmarked as well).

Since flowing water and flooding is not an issues in the hills and hollers, we figure Lone Beaver might be a youngster just looking for a place to call home.

You were relieved to learn they build dams not ruin them? Are you kidding me? Were you just kicked by a horse? Of course beavers BUILD DAMS and don’t blow them up.

You’re getting mixed up with your brother Earl.

As we took a late afternoon Gator ride to inspect the property, when we popped up onto the dam, we surprised the beaver and he surprised us with a loud tail smack as he went below the surface.

Very, very early that next morning, Emma the Great Pyrinees decided she needed to go out. So with her on a leash due to a leg injury, I put on some shoes and stumbled along waiting for her to find just the right spot to relieve herself. It was pitch dark and apparently we disturbed Lone Beaver again for there was an unexpected loud ker-splash.

And so now we have yet another amazing wilderness experience to tell.

I feel like an archeologist trying to pick through ancient broken clues for this passage. I’m assuming a ‘gaitor ride‘ means he went out in an airboat. And when he says he ‘popped onto the dam I’m not sure whether he means dam or lodge but It’s easier to imagine getting an airboat onto a dam than a lodge. I’m sure he doesn’t know the difference. Maybe since it was late afternoon the beaver was starting work and that’s why he was startled.

Curt, I’m hoping our friend Rachel Siegel who is doing so much for beavers in your neighbor state will send some information your way.

And Rachel, if I were you I’d hurry.

PLACER NEVER MISSES A CHANCE TO RUIN A GOOD THING

heidi08 Beavers August 19, 2021

This is what happens when beautiful beaver habitat is built in Rocklin and some greedy developers rip out the dams in the summer. The beavers will try to rebuild, but the water is long gone.

More on this soon…Beavers have a Rotary meeting in Sonoma this morning.

GRUMPY OLD MEN AND BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beaver ecological impact August 18, 2021

Well time has not been kind to the beavers of Lyme CT who are still hated as much as they ever were. Even the department of Energy and the environment think their dams block fish and ruin things for native plants. Connecticut has a lot to learn about beavers.

Old Lyme man blames beavers for dam activity that continues to plague him

Old Lyme — A Boughton Road resident is pointing to his soggy waterfront property and mold-infested home as evidence that beavers are still contributing to high water levels in Black Hall Pond, but not everyone agrees.

Dave Berggren says the beaver activity is occurring in the Black Hall River, commonly known as Bucky Brook, on the Old Lyme Land Trust’s Jericho Preserve. He alleged the industrious rodents have caused water levels to go up more than 2 feet since he first saw water encroaching on his property six years ago, though it has receded some since its high point in 2019 and early 2020.

He said it would still be at its high point if he hadn’t been “tearing dams out for years” on the land trust’s property.

Good lord. This old guy? Didn’t we write about him a million times already?I’m glad to see he’s bravely continuing in his effort to NOT LEARN A DAM thing about beavers.

Local Inland Wetlands regulations specify a permit is required to breach a dam in wetlands and watercourses. Land use coordinator Dan Bourret said the broad definition of regulated activity prohibits the removal of “any obstruction” without a permit.

Berggren said the beavers — and what he described as the refusal of the land trust and two successive first selectmen to stop their destruction — have “in essence destroyed my life.”

“My septic system is compromised. I can flush the toilet once a day. Washing machine? Got to be real careful. One small load maybe once every other week,” he said. “I told them I’m sick of living like a goddamn refugee, for chrissakes.”

He blamed moisture in the ground for rendering unstable an addition to his house, which had already been constructed when he bought the place in 1964. He pointed to a sagging entrance built on piers and the resulting gap in the storm door. Because the walls of his home are now being bent due to a shifting foundation, he said fissures created in the damp walls allow mold to flourish.

The article at LEAST quotes the beaver institute saying beavers do good things for the environment but it doesn’t say anything at all about beaver problems being solved by people who have more sense than Mr. Berggren.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said beaver dams can negatively affect natural resources by serving as barriers to migrating fish and choking out rare plant and animal habitats. It cites lethal trapping as the most effective option for dealing with beavers.

Who on EARTH would make a single department that was tasked with regulating energy AND protecting the environment. anyway? That’s like putting some in charge of the chickens and the fox population.

And they wrong. Unless alewives thrive on drought, frozen ponds and nothing to eat whatsoever, beaver ponds help them.

Berggren recounted that Bucky Brook used to teem with alewife — commonly referred to as Buckies — until the fish were blocked out by dams. According to the Long Island Sound Study, the once-plentiful river herring would migrate from the tributaries and rivers, through Long Island Sound to the Atlantic Ocean. But their numbers have severely declined amid overfishing, pollution and loss of access to their freshwater spawning grounds because of dams and culverts.

Berggren said environmental advocates who focus on beavers as such a beneficial part of the ecosystem ignore realities like the disappearing alewife.

“These jerks, they can’t see the forest because all the trees are in the way,” he said.

Yes these beaver loving jerks. Of which I am one. Did you know alewives have a let hole in their head that allows the sunlight to beam into their brains? And they need it to survive? Gee they must REALLY hate when beavers eat trees and take a way their shade, huh?

She said the land trust last year used a trapper to remove some beavers once it was determined that beaver deceiver devices would not have worked in the location of the then-existing dam.

Great. You should ALWAYS ask trappers if flow devices might work. And ask burglars if alarm systems are any use. And believe what they tell you. Because of course they wouldn’t be protecting their own interest right?

The first selectman reiterated the land trust statement that the organization hasn’t been aware of any beaver activity for a year. He said volunteers resolved the problem and kept the water flowing, though he acknowledged levels are still higher than Berggren thinks they should be.

“So, case closed,” Griswold said. “Now, if new activity occurs and the water levels increase and so forth, that’s a new situation. But I haven’t been alerted that there is a new problem.”

For Berggren, it’s not a new problem but an ongoing one. And he blamed Griswold for not standing up for taxpayers that the frustrated resident said have fewer rights than beavers.

“His duty is to oversee the town and the people of the town,” Berggren said. “Here’s an obvious big problem and he turns his back on it and says it ain’t there, when it obviously is.”

Yes that’s the problem exACTLY! Too many rights for beavers. I can’t tell you a day hardly goes by when I’m reading about beavers and their dam rights.

Sheesh!

12th Martinez Beaver Festival 2019. Photo by Cheryl Reynolds 6/29/19.

BEAVER-SENSITIVE DOCUMENTS REDACTED

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now? August 17, 2021

I have to admit, that in my day I’ve seen my fair share of bureaucratic sputtering and hand-wringing over efforts to protect one team member from having to face the weight of public reaction from their horrificly inept or insensitive remark at one time or another, but this might take the proverbial cake. Seems one flow device was installed at Coats marsh during the punic wars and they want another one, but they don’t want to release the report about why it’s necessary until it’s been “Redacted” for sensitive material.

What do you want to bet that the sentive material is the magistrate referring to those “Goddamn rodents:? Or directly said, “How do we get rid of these rats once and for all?”

Few details on impact installation of pond leveller at Coats Marsh could have

The Regional District of Nanaimo intends to install a second pond leveller at Coats Marsh Regional Park sometime this fall, but some Gabriolans feel there’s a lack of information that demonstrates the need for it.

Nick Doe has been visiting the shallow-water wetland of Coats Marsh and surrounding forest for 10 years and has been making field observations and taking measurements, including water flow through to Coats Creek, for Gabriola Streamkeepers since 2015. Doe, an electronics engineer by trade, likes the solitude in the sensitive ecosystem, home to frogs, bats and waterfowl, and has witnessed the work of beavers as they have built two dams in the roughly metre-deep wetland and the way the overall ecology has adjusted to their homebuilding efforts.

Uh oh. Officials definitely get nervous when free-lance biologists start walking around their habitat and making observations of the habitat over several years. They hate that.

Years ago the beavers’ labour raised the level of the marsh and increased the overall surface area, expanding the habitat for ducks and insects including multiple species of dragonflies.

The RDN plans to install the second pond leveller at Coats Marsh “following recommendations” from a weir assessment report completed in May 2020 by mechanical engineering firm SRM Projects. Since last summer parks quarterly reports have mentioned the intention to do so.

Doe has been “anxiously awaiting” to read the report of the consultant, with whom Doe and others shared observations and historical information about the weir and marsh.

“I’m not sure what problem it’s solving,” Doe said of a second leveller, adding he wants to know what consideration has been given to how it might affect the overall ecology of the wetland.

“Since 2015 the beavers have been increasing the height of the dam,” Doe said. “That stabilized a couple of years ago. In the last three years there has been no increase in the height of the dam – the beavers are quite satisfied with the level they have.”

Oh I can tell you exactly what problem a second flow device would solve. The Frickin’ Beaver problem. They want to lower the water enough that the rodents are forced to leave the ex-marsh entirely. Does that sound right to you?

Upon requesting a copy of the report, an RDN spokesperson told the Sounder that it contains “sensitive information” and could not be shared unless redacted. The Sounder was later told the report had to be shared with the board of directors first. Yann Gagnon, RDN manager of parks, later clarified that consultant reports “can contain private personal information as well as information from third parties” and are not shared with the general public.

You know how beaver documents are… with all that “SENSITIVE” four letter words that need redacting. It’s a full time job, really, talking smack about beavers, doing bad things and covering them up. 24/7.

Gagnon provided the Sounder with a short list of “priority actions” noted in the 2020 weir assessment report, which include “lowering the greater Coats Marsh pond level to the ‘design’ weir spill level” by installing a Clemson pond leveller through the beaver dam as well as removing the beaver debris and vegetation buildup in front of the weir and footbridge. RDN staff did not respond as of press time about what impact, if any, that work would have on the beavers and overall conditions of the wetland.

Apparently they also would like to travel BACK IN TIME to the 90’s when people actually used clemson pond levelers. Good luck with that.

Madrone Environmental Services Ltd. has been contracted to install the second pond leveller. The parks report from July 2020 notes that an environmental management plan will be prepared to support the installation of a second pond leveller; however, staff did not say if that plan has been developed yet. An RDN spokesperson said the timeline of installation or total cost will not be known until mid-August “as they are currently working on the best solution for the environment.”

Why just a second? Why not a third pond leveler? Why not a fourth? Why not an actual sump pump or vacuum cleaner that can get rid of the water entirely? Come to think of it why is their a pond at all? It’s just a bunch of mud that’s going to need cleaning up eventually. Why not make my job easier once and for all?

Doe, who humbly acknowledges he’s “not an expert,” just wants to see the report and is frustrated to not have results shared given the amount of background information and data he and other volunteers provide the RDN that is then used to develop plans.

“I think we deserve some feedback.”

I’m so old that I can remember when our own city council member wanted to REDACT their own child’s beaver drawingbecause they were sure that it only reflected the conflict in his newly divorcing family. He was so concerned about it that he sent another council member came to ask me in person not to share the artwork with the paper or the website. Ahh the good old days.

Good luck with all that redacting.