Beavers are getting a very deep bench indeed:
Protecting beavers
I appreciated Gary Ott’s letter regarding the importance of beavers to our watersheds and the early history of their trapping to near extinction in North America. There’s more to that story in Washington. It is important today.
It does not seem well known, but there are no limits on “recreational” killing of beavers. They can be killed anywhere from November through March. This even includes trapping and killing them in areas where they have recently been relocated in the hopes of improving our vital wetlands, a costly operation. That truly makes no sense.
I suspect it’s even less well-known that trappers can kill beavers in a particularly gruesome way. They use underwater traps that catch them and keep them underwater until they drown. This can take a half hour or more.
However beavers are killed, it wreaks havoc on their social, family groups. And we humans are also the losers. We could be encouraging beavers to help us in reducing the effects of years of drought. Protecting beavers in Washington is long overdue.
Incidentally, I had a “problem” beaver near my own house. It took some work, but I was able to limit further damage without harming the beaver. Please do that if you have a problem with a beaver, rather than having it killed.
Randy Brook
Twisp
