The town of Knox is a postage stamp with a population of 3000 in Albany county NY located about 100 miles west of Beaver Solutions, I offer that as context for the very perplexed state in which they find themselves. See if you can spot the problem in their reasoning.

Beavers in the park

Beavers in the town park are wreaking havoc with the recently revamped bridges, according to Ray Weiler, the park maintenance manager.

“I’ve raised everything,” he said and also put in stone to control erosion. “We’re going to be back to square one in the spring,” he said.

Weiler estimated there are currently 40 or 50 beavers in the park.

Wow that’s a lot of beavers. How big is the park? Is it the size of Yosemite? The park is located behind the town hall and has a childrens play yard and a nature walk.

Pokorny, who described himself as a “tree hugger,” said he’d gotten an offer from Gary Salisbury to trap the beavers at a cost of $150 for each location and $100 for each animal caught.

On the other hand, Pokorny reported that Lou Saddlemire said “trapping is a bad idea because it’s indiscriminate.” Saddlemire would get a permit to “shoot the big ones,” he said, and charge $15 per hour.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Oh sweet sunny stupid Knox! You have started my year in the most genuinely funny way! Here I was starting to think that people had all gotten wise about beavers and there was no need for my sardonic services anymore in this brave new beaver world.

Honestly I don’t know what is funnier. That you call yourself a tree hugger or that you think that shooting only the big ones is somehow better.

On shooting, Weiler said, “This place is packed with people.” The venue has become a favorite of bird-watchers.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Gee I wonder if those 50 beavers have anything to do with that exploding bird population? Maybe not shooting then. Best not to scare old Mrs Kettlebaum with her field glasses again.

Weiler reported that, when he had called the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, after a hole was ripped in the dam, “you have to jump through hoops to legally remove a dam” and also that trappers have to be licensed.

“What we need is to protect our park,” said Weiler.

Those darn desk jockeys telling US what to do. They are acting like beaver dams are GOOD for the environment of something! We know what’s good for OUR city!

Springer, citing property owned elsewhere by her husband’s family, said, if a beaver dam goes unchecked, “It becomes a mandatory wetland with unbelievable regulations.”

Come on. You’re putting me on. This is an April Fools joke in January. Somebody is making this stuff up right to cheer me up. No one really says that OUTLOUD do they?

Pritchard said that the area in question at the town park “was a hay field at one time.”

“As a farmer,” said Saddlemire, “I’m probably the biggest conservationist out there. I’m not an environmentalist.”

He added, “We don’t want to eliminate the beavers; we have to control them.”

You big sweetie conservationist farmer! What would happen if you didn’t control them? Would they reproduce like mice and make MORE places where hay fields used to be?

Good Grief.

Schanz advised finding out how many traps Salisbury would set and how long it would take to catch the beavers. Pokorny responded that he would get more details.

Pritchard indicated that time was of the essence, staying of beavers, “They kick their young out,”which causes more damming upstream and hence more flooded areas.

You know how beavers are. Always KICKING their youngsters our of the family so they can spread out and wreak more havoc on the landscape.

They are ruthless.

Weiler noted that $11,000 had been spent on revamping the three bridges, after which Spring made a motion that the town hire Salisbury to trap beavers for an amount not to exceed $5,000.

The motion passed unanimously.

Of course it did.

You know for 5000 you could put in a couple flow devices and completely solve your problem. Assuming you actually have a problem, you never said what it was exactly.

Well, thanks town of hard Knox for beavers. You gave me a delightful memory of what things used to be like right here in Martinez.

Who says you can’t go home again?

About a million beaver festivals ago. when we were still at the scruffy park and before we had published our papers in the CDFW I met Rich Cimino He introduced himself in a friendly way and mentioned his involvement with a group out of UOP that was interested in the historical information about beavers. He said maybe someday I would come up that way and talk to the group.

Flash forward 15 years and Rich is now president of that group who publishes a journal called Castor Canadensis, He recently wrote and asked if I remembered him and was still interested in presenting on beavers because there was so much buzz about them lately.

Of course I said yes. He originally suggested the end of the month but now has bumped the time up for next week so I’m bustling about trying to get ready for a pretty informed group of members from all over the country.

Here’s a few amazing facts about the man from their very informative website:

In 1826 Jed became the first American to enter California overland from the East.
In 1827 he became the first non-native American to cross the Sierra Nevada near Ebbetts Pass (State Route 4 today).
In 1827 he became the first American to trek across the Great Basin, located between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains.
From 1826 to1828, he became the first known person to traverse the West Coast by land from San Diego to the Columbia River.

He trapped many beavers of course from one side of the country to the other. His journals are rich with histoiric detail and his short life still celebrated to this day. But Jeb but did not get much richer off beaver in California. Why not? Were there no beavers here?

I’ll be addressing that and other mysteries soon. Wish me luck.