You’ll be happy to read this next successful chapter following up on the Ohio beavers by Julie Zickefoose. The girl done good. The headline alone makes us proud.
To Save a Beaver Pond
Sunday morning, June 14, 2020, as I rested in a chaise longue with a song sparrow on my shoulder and a fine cur-dog by my side, I got a call from the county wildlife officer, with whom I’ve been working to try to head off any more beaver killing or dam destruction. Through conversations with my area contacts, I had sleuthed the perpetrator’s address and phone number, even gotten directions to his house. Wildlife Officer Donnelly used this information, stopping by the house and finding no one home, then following up with a call that morning. He told this man that he had taken a few calls concerning the beaver dam and his destruction of it. The gaswell tender admitted to hiring a backhoe contractor to take the dam out. This man claims to have a right of way to lay a gas pipeline through private property. He said that the first couple of times he destroyed the beaver dam (and the beavers, too), he failed to “get it dry enough” to lay the pipe. So he killed the beavers and ruined the habitat for nothing, but that didn’t keep him from doing it twice.
Ugh. A gas pipeline? Is that even legal? This must be Ohio because we never had to contend with anything like that. Good thing she found a friend.
So you see why, when I found the pond refilled in the spring of 2020, in my view it was not if the beavers would be killed again, and their dam destroyed. It was merely a question of when. I was putting my money on September of 2020 for another attack, as much as I hated the thought. I’d seen and photographed this man’s patterns. I’d labeled and saved the photos, calling them up again for this post, in a bit of guerilla environmental journalism that I’m proud to be able to write. Documentation is important! Without these dates and photos, these destructive acts never happened.
Over the years, I had raged and wept over this person’s rampant disregard for the law and the landowner’s rights. He was taking advantage of a person who couldn’t police her own land. But I’d never gotten anywhere trying to enlist the help of the county wildlife officer who preceded Ryan Donnelly. Each time I broached the subject with him, I got the stock answer: “If I don’t see him do it, I can’t do anything about it.” This is the perennial law enforcement dodge for any crime that might happen in the future. And for doing nothing at all to prevent it. You say this to make the complainant go away, to relieve you of the burden of having to bestir yourself. You say this, knowing that you’ll never catch the person at it. He’s free to do whatever he wants, and nobody can walk up to you and make it your problem.
I love the part about guerilla environmental photojournalism. That is EXACTLY what we did in Martinez, and what made all the difference. Good for you!
In Officer Donnelly, I had finally found an ally. Here was someone who was willing to stick his neck out to try to protect this habitat. He listened to me, and made the pre-emptive strike that the beavers so desperately needed him to execute. My pounding on the well-tender’s door would get me nowhere fast. Who am I? Some beaver-lovin’ crackpot. Well. This beaver-hugger finally had the ear of someone with law enforcement authority.
In their conversation, Officer Donnelly reminded the well operator of something he surely knew but had chosen to ignore: that any activity conducted on someone else’s land has to have express permission from the landowner. Having a pipeline right of way does not grant him tacit permission to shoot or trap animals, much less destroy an entire wetland habitat. In a face-to-face conversation with the landowner, also facilitated by this beaver-lover, Officer Donnelly had established that the well operator never obtained permission to destroy the habitat in the two previous incidents. Now, it has become clear to the welltender that multiple people are watching and reporting his activity; law enforcement is watching; the landowner is upset, and the beavers are not to be killed nor their dam destroyed again. All that should make it a bit harder for him to just go ahead and do his thing come fall. He’ll get a knock on his door if he does. He’d better hope it’s not me.
OFFICER DONNELLY! Three hands for the glorious turn of events. There have been a rash of heroic acts by fish and wildlife officers lately. First that amazing one who went undercover to catch the villian in the act of blowing up a dam in Michagan. Then Officer Donnelly in Ohio. And some recent good news I’m not permitting myself to share yet. A tide is turning.
It’s about bloody time.
Now, he told Officer Donnelly, he “doesn’t have time to monkey with it” and intends to leave it be.
I cannot express how happy I was to hear this. I could hear the smile in Officer Donnelly’s voice as he related their conversation. I was so happy I’d done the legwork, helped the wildlife officer do a pre-emptive strike, and finally had a county wildlife officer who cared enough to step in and do something about it. Finally, after agonizing over the fate of this habitat since 2014, I had some reassurance that, the next time I walk down Dean’s Fork, there will be water, and wood ducks whistling, maybe a green heron or a kingfisher or two. And two beavers gliding back and forth across a big, deep pond of their own making. Perhaps it might have stayed that way without my asking, sleuthing, and making a pest of myself. But then again, perhaps not.
Perhaps wasn’t good enough for me.
Ohhh we LOVE this story! Finding allies is the very best way to change the rules of the game, and if the friend has a position of authority that’s even better. Let’s hope those beavers decorate the landscape for any years to come.
Nice work Julie!
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