Things are complicated in Wyoming.
Some of the people who live there like to hunt and fish and some of the people that live there like to see wildlife. And those camps can be at logger heads. At the very same timeas Wyoming released their amazing report on beaver benefits they were altering the trapping regulations from selling single permits for specific steams to unlimited beaver trapping everywhere. This caused pretty intense pushback from folks who cared about the issue and now Game and Fish is having to walk back its take back.
Public snaps back at beaver trapping changes
Following public objections and opposition from some unlikely camps, wildlife managers are walking back plans to open up an array of Jackson Hole streams to unlimited beaver trapping.
Portions of Ditch Creek, Willow Creek and Game creeks were all positioned to be open to any trapper possessing an over-the-counter license but will now be recommended for a complete closure.
Draft regulations that will advance next month to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission will still recommend that Fall, Mosquito and Dog creeks — now collectively managed and restricted to a single trapper — be opened to any fur trapper who’s interested. Little Horse Creek falls into this same category.
Public insight gathered through the season-setting process and input from biologists prompted the revisions, Game and Fish spokesman Mark Gocke said.
OOh that must a been a lot of INSIGHT. I bet they got all the INSIGHT they could stand. I’m suddenly reminded of Leslie Knope describing the yelling that goes on at town hall meeting as “People caring loudly and shouting democracy at me”.
Something tells me they got a bellyful of caring and democracy.
One Jackson Hole group that staked out its opposition is the Wyoming Wetlands Society, which has spent years relocating problem-causing beavers from private lands into streams like Ditch Creek.
“Unregulated trapping in the 19th Century led to the extirpation of beaver from much of Wyoming, and while beaver have re-occupied large portions of their historic range, they have only done so at roughly 10% of densities found prior to European contact,” Wyoming Wetlands Society employees Carl Brown, Cory Abrams and Bill Long wrote in a comment letter.
“We are opposed to changing these areas from limited quota to unlimited take, and believe they do not uphold the recommendations set forth by the state in the State Wildlife Action Plan,” the biologists and former game warden wrote. “Unlimited trapping of beaver has the potential to inflict negative population impacts and potentially lead to localized extirpation.”
Unlike California where they give out as many depredation permits as people want, Wyoming issues a “limited number” of permits to particular individuals. Sometimes the anti-trapping crowd gets those permits, and that means the trapping doesn’t happen. Of course the trapping crowd HATE when that happens.
Ditch Creek resident Bob Caesar is among those who successfully acquired a trapping permit for his neighborhood stream and then proceeded not to use it. His reasoning was that the Wyoming Wetlands Society had been transplanting problem beavers into the drainage to reestablish populations, but a fur trapper was running a trapline that was negating the effort. Today, Caesar said, beavers are relatively sparse in the drainage that climbs east into the Leidy Highlands.
“I do know from talking to old-timers that they’re used to be some big beaver ponds up here and good trout fishing in those beaver ponds,” Caesar said in an interview. “And that’s all gone.”
Caesar was disappointed with how Game and Fish initially responded to the situation.
“I look at it as being vindictive, and that’s the kind of stuff you do in middle school,” Caesar said. “Why don’t they pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey Bob, can we talk about this? ‘But they went around [us].”
I’m thinking when you’re trying to save beavers in Wyoming you have to learn to talk differently on their behalf. You have to throw around phrases like “Talking to old timers” and “Hey Bob can we talk about this?” You should probably learn to say ‘folks’ once in a while too. Because it helps to not sound too uppity.
But sometimes it works.
“We recognize the keystone nature of beavers,” Game and Fish’s McWhirter said, “and their extremely valuable role on the landscape. We don’t want to see that impacted.”
Hmm. That’s nice. I wish CDFG had ever said that ever in their entire existence. That would be nice.
Some reaches of northwest Wyoming streams are already completely closed to beaver trapping, including Cache Creek, Cliff Creek and Granite Creek downstream of the hot springs. A common thread among those three streams is that they parallel roads, are easily accessed and see heavy recreational use.
Jackson writer and retired Bridger-Teton National Forest employee Susan Marsh took issue with changes that were afoot to Fall and Mosquito creeks, two of the drainages still slated for unlimited trapping. At both streams, she noted that beaver activity often occurs right along the well-used roads paralleling the creeks.
“Therefore the ease of trapping is increased in the same places where people camp and picnic,” Marsh wrote. “Instead of going to an unlimited take of beavers in these areas, we would urge [Game and Fish] to approach trapping regulations with caution, realizing that this activity can be incompatible with other uses of the national forest.
“The more dogs that end up in leg hold traps or snares,” she said, “the more public outrage will turn toward trapping in general.”
See, that there is some of those special Wyoming arguments against trapping I mentioned before. “Don’t allow trapping on the creeks where folks picnic because when the family dog gets caught in the conibear people will just be MORE anti trapping – and we surely wouldn’t want that”.
Very clever. I like it, Right up there with, “Don’t allow so much beaver trapping because a thriving population will produce more of the other wildlife we all want to trap”.
Game and Fish, meanwhile, is moving forward with plans to implement an annual beaver-monitoring program. The results from the surveys, which will be both ground-based and aerial, could help shape future beaver trapping seasons.
Hmm. So it looks like Game and Fish decided on a kind of muted unlimited policy in which they decided some streams are off limits and some streams are free-for-alls in the hope that this would regulate the beaver population. BUT they are going to implement an annual beaver monitoring program just to make sure they don’t kill too many.
I know its not enough. And the controlled trapping was better, but gosh I wish CDFG had EVER EVER EVER had a beaver monitoring program to count if there were enough beavers left. Or even admitted the need for one.
Sheesh.
Beaver: A Willing Ally in a Drying World
Aaron recently visited Taos speaking to the Rio Fernando de Taos Revitalization Collaborative — a collective of elected officials, agencies, groups, and individuals working to bring a New Mexico river back to life — about living with beavers. Why? Because beaver are vital to healthy and resilient ecosystems. Where there are beaver, there are plenty of other native wildlife. Beaver, North America’s largest rodent, are truly an ecosystem engineer, creating wetlands, ponds, and meadows, filtering water, trapping sediment, and mediating flashy streams into more consistent flows. All they need is water, trees, and time to be busy, as the saying goes.
Landowners in the Taos, NM area are realizing the potential benefit of beaver, but also know that there are possible downsides. Beaver are busy, and part of that busyness includes felling trees to use in their construction projects and as a winter food source. This also includes flooding areas which humans may or may not want to be flooded. This conflict is sometimes problematic and often results in beaver being killed and removed. Defenders’ goal is to work with interested groups, such as the Rio Fernando de Taos Revitalization Collaborative in Taos, to promote more beaver on the landscape through mitigating their impacts. Trees can be fenced, flow devices can be installed to minimize flooding, and education and outreach can help promote positive attitudes about beaver, water quality, water quantity, and habitat for other species such as fish and amphibians.
steel. The new poles are up to 85 feet tall, but are limited to being no more than 10 feet taller than the wooden ones they’re replacing.
