Background: The DAMS for Beavers Act would establish a five year ($3M/year) federal grant program for projects that use non-lethal coexistence measures to reduce property damage caused by beavers and maintain or enhance habitat for beavers and other wildlife. I have attached the bill text, which has undergone a few changes since the last Congress, for your reference. 

 Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA-01) will once again be leading the House version, and we are excited to share that Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) will be leading the Senate version.

The bill will be reintroduced in the first week of December. We hope you will consider endorsing it once again!

Sure the timing of this us laughably impossible because Trump’s congress will be too busy ripping up the constitution into tiny pieces to shoot into their veins with heroin BUT beavers are getting closer.

Someday.

Don’t for one minute tell me that things are better for beavers. Because  some parts of this world are clinging to their ignorance as dearly as a drowning man clings to a sinking ship. Take Michigan for instance where they say they need to kill more beavers to protect trout.

Too many beavers harm Michigan’s trout streams, conservationists warn

LANSING, MI – Beavers are considered ecological architects, but certain conservationists are worried there can be too many in some areas of Michigan.

State wildlife and fisheries managers recently heard from multiple trout fishery advocates raising concerns about what they argue is an overabundance of beavers living in Michigan’s wilderness. The trouble is that trout species require cold, swiftly moving waters to thrive, but too many beaver dams in a stream may slow the water and raise its temperatures, driving the trout away.

Got that? The beaver dams are slowing the water and making it hotter. You know how they do. Driving the trout away. This according to the conservationists and fishermen in Michigan who unlike the fishermen in 47 other states think that that beaver dams make water HOTTER.

Michigan doesn’t believe about hyporheic exchange.

Interest in hunting has waned in recent years, but the number of fur trappers plummeted. It means animals like beaver have largely flourished in Northern Lower Michigan, where there are no wolves – their primary predator – to keep them in check.

Now officials at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources are being asked to change regulations to make it easier for trout conservationists to trap beaver in the places where the large rodents proliferated so successfully that they’ve negatively impacted trout streams.

More killing! That’s what Michigan needs for its streams! Make it easier to trap!

State officials in recent years updated internal beaver policies, one for agencies like road commissions, and a second for when beaver abundance runs loggerheads with trout habitat.

Beavers can now more easily be killed because of nuisance problems, but greater scrutiny for issues in trout streams to be addressed, said angling advocate Bryan Burroughs, executive director of nonprofit Michigan Trout Unlimited.

It makes dealing with the problem even more challenging, he said, especially since recreational trapping diminished from past decades and beaver-made dams have been stacking up on Up North rivers.

As examples, advocates recently explained to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission that as many as 16 beaver dams built up over the years in a single four-mile stretch of the Upper main branch of the Black River in Cheboygan County. Nine were counted in a one mile stretch of the North Branch of the Manistee River in Kalkaska County.

Sometimes if you are very lucky and eat your vegetables you get exactly what you want. This week I was emailed by a kindly gentleman whose home abuts the segment of Walnut Creek where beavers moved in. It turns out there is no public access in the area and he loves being able to see the wildlife that shows up there. He even has a trail came set up.

Maybe the God’s felt sorry for me after you-know-what.

Remember how I was a little concerned by only seeing one adult beaver on the bank in that group of five? Well obviously there’s a pair in residence.

Check out this video. The first seconds show one adult beaver waiting in line behind another adult beaver.

And this that shows a adult leading the way for this youngster.

So remember next time you’re stuck in traffic on 680 or making an illegal right turn at a red light  on Monument Blvd, there are beavers in our midst.

Everywhere.

‘Exceptionally Rare’ Footage: Wolf Hunts Beaver on Trail Cam

A trail camera caught “exceptionally rare” footage of a wolf hunting a beaver in the greater Voyageurs National Park area of northern Minnesota. The Voyageurs Wolf Project operates trail cameras in this area and frequently shares interesting footage of wolves and other animals native to Voyageurs. In this case, a wolf stalked and killed a beaver—a scene the nonprofit says has only ever been captured on camera “a handful of times ever.”

Another beaver snack at Voyagers. This one is described as “Exceptionally rare” which I find hard to believe. Beavers are eaten by wolves so much at voyageurs that it’s a meme. Around here it’s a punnchline. And if wolves held potluck dinners all the wolf-wives would show up with the same thing. (I guess since it’s Minnesota they would be covered in Tater-tots)

Apparently they say  that THIS is rare because it was entire caught on film.

Love the helpful sign explaining that the animal with a big tail in the wolf’s mouth ks a beaver.

Did we think it was an otter?