You shouldn’t be thinking, just because there have been several glorious days of beaver reporting, you shouldn’t be thinking that public opinion against them has finally tipped and it’s smooth sailing from here in.

You shouldn’t think that because it isn’t true. Beavers still face plenty of hardship and for every good story I am lucky enough to review here, there are a dozen of these. Maybe more.

Today we’re balance the scales a bit.

Gloomy fate for Bear Creek beavers

While the Sodalis Nature Preserve is best known for its bat population, a wide assortment of wildlife actually calls the almost 200-acre park home. That list of animals shrank recently after three beavers were trapped and destroyed after damaging or bringing down several trees along the shore of Bear Creek.

Andy Dorian, director of the Hannibal Parks and Recreation Department, said that live trapping the rodents and relocating them “would be the hope” of the city. However, he added that such decisions would be left up to the Missouri Department of Conservation, whom he contacted for help.

“Whatever their normal protocol is,” said Dorian. “We don’t have any ability to trap beavers at the Parks Department, so we have to rely on their expertise.”

According to Don Clever, Jr., conservation agent, live trapping wasn’t a viable option.“Relocation just doesn’t work,” he said. “Live traps aren’t accessible. We don’t have very many of them throughout the state. “It’s more efficient when we go in and use kill traps. That’s why they’re set under water, where nothing can get into them other than water mammals.” Trapping beaver can be a chore.

Beaver territory .This was not the first time beavers have taken up residence along Bear Creek.

“Ever since I’ve been here there have been beavers on Bear Creek,” said Dorian. “I think some years they are more prevalent than others. We had some pretty good ones last year and then the problem just went away. We never did any trapping last year.

“It was becoming a safety hazard,” said Clever of the damage to trees the beavers had done. “I’m sure the city is going to have to go in and cut a couple of trees down that the beavers were chewing on before they fall across the (Sodalis) bridge. They ringed some trees that are still standing and dropped several others.”

Falling trees were not Dorian’s only beaver-related concern.

“There’s always the fear of bank destabilization. What you don’t want to do is lose a bunch of trees and your bank becomes eroded out and then you lose part of your trail. That’s something you have to look out for,” he said. “You also have to look out for damming so you don’t have a big pool of water backing up which floods a big area.”

Now never mind that Sodalis is a nature preserve and beavers are, in fact, nature. The park was designated as a conservation site for bats. Apparently trees are too hard to wrap in Missouri.. Forget all those studies that say that beavers are actually GOOD for bats. This is Hannibal and we don’t need your highfalutin research around these parts. And my name is Don Clever Jr!

What do you mean ‘misnomer’?

Wind Lake canal has a beaver problem

A handful of beavers have become a little too industrious for the likes of some people living on the Wind Lake Canal. Officials from the Wind Lake Management District and the Town of Norway are both looking toward resolving the problem.

The lake area has experienced a number of beaver problems over the course of the past eight to 10 years, according to Jim Marks, chairman of the Wind Lake Management District.

“The beaver population is always there,” Marks said.

The district’s main beaver issue at the moment is a dam built by the creatures in the middle of the Wind Lake Canal, the channel that connects Big Muskego Lake in Waukesha County and Wind Lake in Racine County.

“That’s currently our major problem area,” Marks said.

Marks estimated that the dam, built in the center of the stream, is about 2 feet above the water level. He speculated that four to five beavers are likely to blame.Marks said he was alerted to the issue between three to four months ago.

“The residents are very concerned,” he said.

Wisconsin doesn’t like those pesky beavers either. I mean why would a lake-side home owner expect to have to deal with a problem like that, I ask you. Beavers are completely unheard of in those areas! The article goes on to say there isn’t actually a problem right now, but they’re worried it might become a problem in the future. Beaver problems are always anticipated. Just as they were in Martinez.

Thank goodness the criminal justice system doesn’t work like that. “Sure she isn’t a criminal now, but she looks like she might cause problems down the road.”

Cost of repairs compounds problem of beaver dams flooding road in Charlton

CHARLTON, MA – While killing beavers and breaching their dams to stop the flooding that closed Guelphwood Road is at a stall, town officials grapple with a new obstacle in the effort to reopen the road.

“Everywhere you look, there’s a problem with this project. It’s not just trapping the beaver,” Charlton Highway Superintendent Gerry C. Foskett told selectmen last week.

For more than a decade, incessant beaver-induced flooding has plagued a small portion of the road that connects Charlton and Southbridge, causing temporary closings several times a year.

Mr. Foskett closed it indefinitely more than two years ago and began efforts to permanently solve the beaver problem, which reaches past the town boundary into Southbridge.

Permanently solve the beaver problem? Are you suggesting installing culvert protection them or raising the road? I’m so surprised. People hardly ever find permanent solutions to beaver problems.

Perennial trapping, the report says, would ensure beavers don’t rebuild and reflood the roadway.

Wait, what hat does perennial mean again? Websters defines it as

Perennial: continuing without interruption

That sounds about right. So Charlton can solve this problem if we just keep paying for it over and over again. Are you sure ‘solve’ is the right word?

Charlton Conservation Agent Todd Girard told selectmen he got a permit to breach a dam in Southbridge but he also needs a permit from the health board to trap while dismantling dams in the summer months, which is off season for open trapping.

“If we can’t obtain these trapping permits from the town of Southbridge, I’ll never be able to de-water this site and I’ll never be able to have a safe passage for this road,” he said. “It was very challenging working with another municipality, and I was a little frustrated because they are not looking at the full picture.”

The plan to kill beavers outraged local animal rights activists, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had launched a petition.

“It seemed that the people on the Board of Health were more concerned with their individual political protection of a beaver than over opening the road for human safety,” Mr. Girard said.

Gosh, the city of Charlton is really in a tight place. You are in between a beaver and a hard place. I feel for you. I guess lasting solutions like Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions could provide are out of the question. I mean how far is Charlton from Southampton, anyway?