Look what’s in this Oklahoma paper this morning!
Beavers are a Keystone species whose dams make significant habitat for wildlife and act as natural filters improving water quality. Flooding problems can be controlled using modern flow devices and culvert fences, described here.
Your own Ned Bruha (Skunk Whisperer) has been trained in their use and could help save your city save hundreds of tax-payer dollars in trapping costs which will need to be repeated again every year.
It’s unfortunate that your beavers need to use trash for their restorative work. Wouldn’t it be nice if public works spent time removing the trash instead of removing the dams? It is true that beavers can carry Giardiasis and other diseases. They do not cause them. If your beavers are infected it’s because your water is infected and that should generally be a concern to your city. Contrary to Ms. Haye’s alarm about mosquitoes research has shown that dams actually decrease harmful mosquito larvae
It would be wonderful if the city of Sand Springs, starved for water much of the year, could learn to manage the presence of these remarkable hydrological engineers.
Any city smarter than a beaver can keep a beaver.
Heidi Perryman, Ph.D. President & Founder Worth A DamIf you don’t remember the Sand Springs story, click on this week’s “whose killing beavers now” for the full story. Or partial story. I didn’t realize at the time I wrote this that Oklahoma uses USDA to kill thousands of beavers, more than any other state in the vicinity. This means that this state, which is arguably the most noisily against government spending, relies almost exclusively on massive federal funds to kill beavers. In fact, comparing Oklahoma to other states in terms of federal moneys paid versus federal taxes received, they are the 15th in the entire country. (CA is the 43rd – meaning we give more federal taxes and receive far less in return.) Oklahoma not only kills more beavers than we do, they do it almost exlusively on the government dollar.
Ned called it beaver-killing wellfare.
