There hasn’t been much beaver news for the past few days, but this story from New Jersey made me steamy enough to write about. I think it will catch your eye too.

“Arrogant” and “selfish” beavers are gnawing away at Chris Ritter’s peace of mind.

While North America’s largest rodent is generally considered to be one of earth’s master architects, building whole aquatic ecosystems from felled trees, the beaver is the destroyer of Ritter’s world, particularly the swampy backyard beyond his pool and hot tub in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.

“That’s not a pond, that’s my lawn,” Ritter said on a recent February afternoon.

Ritter owns 30 acres of land in New Egypt, Ocean County, and a small creek, Jumping Brook, meanders through his property. His land is adjacent to a preserve that’s dotted with old, defunct cranberry bogs. Those man-made bogs are ideal for beavers to dam and flood, making safe, swimmable ponds that coyotes, their only natural predator in New Jersey, can’t get to.

First of all, if you are too lazy to wrap your own trees to prevent chewing that’s on you. And the idea that beavers are SELFISH makes me blow up like a puffer fish; Making water savings bank where animals can thrive, fish and raise families, THAT’s selfish:?

“Beavers are just doing what beavers do, realistically. It’s hardwired into them to create this perfect atmosphere for themselves,” said Adam Burnett, executive director of the Beaver Institute, a nonprofit that aims to resolve “beaver-human conflicts in a science-based manner.” — Jason Nark

When beaver kits get old enough, they set off on their own, leaving their lodges to go find their own land to flood, somewhere downstream. That’s led them to Ritter’s property over the years, damming up the brook that curls through his yard.

“I was usually able to fend them off. They’ll build a dam out here, this will flood up, and then I’ll bust it open a couple times and then they cut more trees and build it again,” he said, overlooking a small beaver dam behind his home. “It’s just nuts, man.”

Those selfish bastards, trying to feed their families and make wetlands for fish and wildlife. Just who in the hell do you think they are?

The Beaver Institute recommends “pond-leveling pipes” to keep water flowing between flooded areas and fences to protect trees over the alternative: trapping. The institute will even financially assist landowners with their problems as long as they commit to allowing beavers to remain on their property.

On a walk around the old bogs near Ritter’s home, most waterfront trees were gone and had their bark chewed off, their stumps sticking up like sharpened pencils. Some trees were only half-chewed and dead.

In the distance, a massive beaver lodge rose from the water.

Chris Ritter looks at a large beaver nest to his left, located in a reservoir near his home in New Egypt, N.J.

Beaver ponds can improve water quality, biologists say, along with providing ecosystems for frogs, fish, turtles, and waterfowl. In the Pinelands, they can act as buffers against wildfires that sweep

through the forests in summer.

Oh sure, don’t try to fill this mans head with pretty facts. His mind is made up. They are arrogant and selfish. And no he’s NOT projecting. Stop saying that.

‘There’s beaver everywhere’

“Rodents do not get to control the forest!” Ritter wrote back.

Samuel Moore, a seventh-generation cranberry farmer in Tabernacle, Burlington County, also has a low opinion of beavers and tangles with them every year in his bogs. By flooding the land, Moore said beavers even destroy the trees they don’t cut down, like the dwindling Atlantic white cedar.

“An old cranberry grower once told me that ‘people either want beaver around or Atlantic white cedar, but they can’t have both, there’s no in between,’ ” Moore said.

Moore allows licensed fur trappers to take beavers off his land every year. He said beavers are “dumb.”

Trapping enthusiasts believe there are not enough permits issued and noted that in 2020, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have “removed statutory limitations” on the number of beaver that could be taken in the state.

There are too many beavers and more need killin’. It’s,as simple as that. Arrogant selfish bastards. You know the more I write about this charmer the more it sounds familiar. Let’s just use the search bar and see if i wrote about him before.

AHA! as I wrote at the time…

February 2024 “We tried doing the right thing but it was hard”

Can we just stop for a moment and consider what a fine specimen of humanity this man is? With his MAN CAVE and STUFFED beaver. I’m sure there is nothing small or mishapen about his wide-ranging ecological understanding, his deep compassion or his own genitals.

Aren’t you?

Oh yeah he sure got my attention. not clear why this story has to be reprinted every six months. Maybe its contractual or the story he’s proudest of.

Now you want to talk arrogant and selfish riparian players you must mean OTTERS. They never think about anything but themselves.

4 comments on “ARROGANT PHILANTHROPISTS”

Monica

August 17, 2024 at 4:22 pm

Thank you Hiedi so much for writing about this especially after the Inquire picked up this story and actually gave this man attention . I am local to the area and advocate for our piney beavers. Protecting and educating folks about these animals and how amazing they are inspired me to focus my work as a naturalist on their local ecology and even earn a degree in Environmental Science. Most people in the pines love our wildlife and have a desire to coexist with our beloved wild inhabitants. Thanks again for supporting our piney beavers.

heidi08

August 18, 2024 at 6:28 am

great to hear from you! and great to know their are advocates out there. What’s a piney beaver?

Mónica Cahill

August 19, 2024 at 3:58 am

Beavers that live in the Jersey Pine Barrens! It’s what I call them here. I’ve been making observations about diet and habits and how they have adapted to life in this unique ecosystem. Not everything can l successfully thrive here but they seem to be doing great besides the run ins with humans.