Category: What’s killing beavers now?

“IT MAY BE A DESTROYED POND, BUT AT LEAST THE TRAINS RUN ON TIME”

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beavers and Birds, beavers and community, Beavers and Nitrates, What's killing beavers now? May 24, 2021

It’s the old story. Girl meets beaver pond. Girl loses beaver pond. You know the rest. This time it’s told from New York with trains.

Dammed pond dries out after state removes beaver dam

SARANAC LAKE — When the state removed train tracks for its rail trail project earlier this month it also removed a beaver dam that was creating a pond near where McKenzie Brook flows into Lake Flower.

Locals in the neighborhood who frequently walk along the tracks were shocked and upset. They say draining the pond of water is harming the wildlife living there. The state departments of Transportation and Environmental Conservation say the dam removal was permitted to prevent it from flooding and eroding the corridor, and that impacts to wildlife will be minimal.

“Two beaver dams were partially blocking water flow at a culvert and action was taken to mitigate potential for flooding,” DEC spokesperson JoMo Miller wrote in an email. “This is a common and necessary action for mitigating what can be a significant, costly and sometimes dangerous failure of infrastructure.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. You know the railway explaining that it had to tie beavers to the tracks to prevent THE FLOODING. Everyone does it. You know how it is.

Barbara Kent has lived within a mile of the pond her entire life. Every day, several times a day, she walks her two dogs “Maisie” and “Marigold” on the train-track trails passing the pond, where she takes in the sylvan sights.

Turtles sun themselves on logs, herons swoop low to stand in the water, loons and mergansers feed on the water and frogs belch noisily. Kent said the beavers dammed up the water generations ago and their work has lasted decades.

“It was always there, always,” Kent said. “Everybody just loved it up there.”

Well you know how it is. You and some turtles live your life near a beaver pond. And the beavers get killed them the pond gets destroyed. It’s a dog’s life.

The water body on McKenzie Brook is known colloquially as “Toxic Pond” because the old landfill, now greened over, can be seen through the trees.

Kent was “mortified” when on May 7 she walked down and saw excavator tracks leading off the rails to the dam. The middle of the dam was torn out. Water that used to trickle through the dam underneath now poured over the top. The water level in the pond was dropping and mud could be seen all along the perimeter.

On May 18 the water had dropped low enough to expose tires, logs and beaver huts out in the pond.

The water flowed over the busted dam and through a culvert, to a pond between the Sara Placid Inn and Suites and the Best Western hotel, under another culvert on state Route 86 and into Lake Flower.

“I fell apart over it,” Kent said with a sad chuckle. “I’m 73 years old. It doesn’t take much to rattle me.”

Well, you gotta break eggs to make an omelette and destroy some ponds to keep the trains tracks nice and dry. You know how it is.

Kent said she has no problem with the rail trail project, a controversial topic in town. She just hopes it will be accessible to people of all abilities. But she also said work has been done on the train tracks before without needing to rip the dam out and she doesn’t think it was necessary now.

“Am I being unreasonable?” Kent asked. “This was breeding grounds for so much wildlife.”

The DEC claims the environmental impact will be small.

“While there may be local and short-lived impacts to wildlife, these impacts are not expected to be significant,” Miller wrote. “Some local wildlife species using this wetland may move to other wetland areas and riparian corridors within the immediate area, whereas other species may continue to use the area.”

Adirondack Park Agency Spokesperson Keith McKeever said his agency would defer to the DEC’s judgement in commenting on this issue, because it has jurisdiction.

Kent said she’s worried the now-dry edges of the pond pose a wildfire risk.

Come on, it’s just a little destruction. The turtles and the frogs and the fish gotta be used to that by now. Be reasonable. It’s for the trains!

Kent wondered if the beavers would rebuild their dam and if the state would return to remove it again.

Some don’t want to leave it to beavers. Kent said she’s seen other frequenters of the trail throwing branches back into the water to dam it up again. She’s not sure if this is illegal or will just be ripped out again.

Kent said this feels like it’s a “losing battle.”

She was even hesitant to tell the Enterprise at first.

“But I kind of felt I owed it to the turtles,” she said.

Kent loves the area and has many happy memories there. Her dogs know the trail by heart. Kent was ecstatic on Tuesday when she saw a heron — whom she’s named “Harry” — still flying around. But she’s concerned for the turtles, ducks, eagles and geese. She was worried that she didn’t see any loons.

She hopes they’ll all find another place to live and expects some of the turtles have taken up residence downstream in Lake Flower.

Sure the wildlife has had their home destroyed and the beavers are gone, but just look the tracks are super dry, isn’t that great? The problem with you is that you don’t appreciate the right things.

NOVA SCOTIA KILLS BEAVERS FOR BURROWING

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now? January 25, 2021

It starts small.

Even in a province like Nova Scotia that is notorious for killing beavers. It starts with just one or two people objecting to this solution that solves nothing. First it’s two. Then it’s four. Then it’s an entire town.

Mayor Amery Boyer said the 2 beavers could have caused damage to town’s sewage treatment plant

The culling of two beavers in Annapolis Royal this week has drawn criticism from residents, but the mayor says it was necessary to protect the town’s sewage treatment plant.

“We felt that the situation just couldn’t be allowed to sit because we had no idea what the beavers were doing underground,” Mayor Amery Boyer told CBC’s Mainstreet on Friday.

“… It appeared that they were burrowing into the dyke system so that really kind of escalated things for us.”

What they were doing? Did you think they had tunneled under the prison wall and were planning their escape? Or built a labyrinth of beaver warrens in which to bury the cities treasures?

Boyer said the town originally received a complaint about beavers destroying trees on French Basin Trail.

But after consulting the Department of Lands and Forestry, the town’s public works department and the Clean Annapolis River Project, it was discovered the beavers also posed a “significant risk to the town’s tertiary sewage treatment plant, as well as the adjacent trail and dyke systems.”

The marsh near the French Basin Trail is part of the treatment system for the town’s wastewater.

“If there was a blockage, we could have flooding of the walkways. We could have exposure of contaminated water,” Boyer said.

“If there’s burrowing into the sides of the treatment plant, it could cause the walls of the treatment plant to collapse.”

Prosecution by If’s. This is one of the things I hate most about city responses to beaver. The assumption that because you THOUGHT it might happen it’s the same thing as being sure it WILL happen. Imagine if humans were convicted in similar ways. “He was standing on the street and might have sneaked into our home at night and killed our children when they slept! Lock him up and throw away the key!”

Of when it comes to humans we demand proof of the crime. That’s never needed with beavers.

A notice about the removal was posted in the Annapolis Royal Town Crier and was shared on Facebook, where it drew criticism from residents.

“I couldn’t believe, firstly, that people complained [about the beavers] because it is a nature area. It’s natural, it’s a marsh, and you expect [to see] animals,” Susan Woodland, a resident of Annapolis Royal, told Mainstreet on Thursday.

“Secondly, I couldn’t believe, basically, that they were going to be killed because it says they can’t be relocated. So my first step was to find out, was there not something else they could do?”

Sometimes it just takes a single voice. Remember that.

Woodland contacted Hope for Wildlife, a wildlife sanctuary in Seaforth, N.S. She said the owner agreed that relocation was not ideal this time of year, but recommended relocation be delayed until the spring.

But Boyer said there was no time to wait, especially if damage could be done to the $968,000 treatment plant.

“We did feel it was a time constraint. We just couldn’t let the situation get beyond us,” she said.

Boyer said she understands why residents were upset, but the beavers could have caused more damage than originally thought.

“We live closely with wildlife. There’s a lot of respect for wildlife. It’s just that in this particular situation, we didn’t see a way out.”

I weep for them the walrus said. And deeply sympathize.
With sobs and tears he sorted out, those of the largest size.

I can actually ever decide whether its good for a politician to act like they feel guilty about a bad decision or not. Mostly I think it gives them cover and protects them from looking uncaring. But sometimes its enough of a hook to get the crowbar firmly placed an get them flipped in the right direction. You never know.

Well Nova Scotia needs to realize that what a beaver wants when it digs into the ground in January is a bathtub sized hole with an entrance that won’t freeze where they can sleep with their entire family until spring and not get eaten by bobcat..

They don’t want your sewage treatment plant.

BEAVERS OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE

heidi08 Beavers, What's killing beavers now? December 27, 2020

Well not everyone is full of Christmas cheer for beavers. Some people have their hearts set on killing them. Never mind that they do useful things for people only if they’re alive. The killing is so darn much fun.

This from Oregon’s Statesman Journal.

Beavers doing just fine

As a lifelong outdoors person, I’m amazed at the misinformation and distortions contained in Quinn Read’s opinion column (“Beavers can’t get a break in Oregon” C9, Dec. 13).

Anyone who has spent time along Oregon’s waters has encountered the ubiquitous beaver or evidence of their presence. They inhabit almost every corner of the state with suitable habitat.

I have seen them swimming past boat launches in downtown Portland as well as in wilderness areas and coastal streams and marshes. If you have property adjacent to a stream you have likely had to protect streamside trees from their continual gnawing or unplug culverts to prevent washouts or flooding.

While they can be destructive pests, they are not classified as “predators,” as Quinn stated, but protected by extensive state trapping regulations as fur-bearing mammals and not “hunted” as game animals.

Gov. Kate Brown needs to consider all the legislative mandates contained in the wildlife policy when she appoints new commissioners and include a few hunter and anglers whose constituency contributes over 90% of the ODFW budget and knows the difference between “science-based discussion” and anthropomorphic “BS.”

Thank goodness at least three ODFW commissioners had the common sense to listen to their own staffs’ findings that beavers are doing just fine in Oregon needing no further regulation on any portion of Oregon lands, federally owned or otherwise.

James Dundon

Of course James is a longstanding member of OHA and featured in the 2018 summer issue of this magazine, and the Rocky Mt. Elk Foundation because why not cast true to type?

People who like to like to kill things like to kill beavers. None of that boring tracking and waiting. Beavers give you their full address. You just need to show up for the invitation.

Of course when a person traps beavers they are basically taking their ecosystem services away from US. Like robbing a community food pantry. No one else can have any because you got there first.

Quinn’s point wasn’t that we were ‘running out of beavers’ James. It was that we’re running out of salmon, and water, and time to protect ourselves from climate change. You like survivalist movies right? Don’t ask me how I know, I just know. Think of beavers as a furry swiss army knife that can do many of the things we need in the drying time we have left.

You are fighting for your right to steal resources from everyone else.

Here’s another example from Beaver Creek Park in Montana, where the board finally decided to allow trapping, despite some protest from local residents.

Striking a balance in Beaver Creek Park

It was encouraging to hear that the Hill County Park Board is initiating a process to document a policy for trapping in our Beaver Creek Park.

Hopefully this policy will address more than just lethal trapping of beavers and incorporate a whole park management perspective.

It will be important to document a policy that is consistent with our vision for Beaver Creek Park while being workable and built on valid science, prudent natural resource management, specific infrastructure issues and sound business practices. Striking a balance between recreational, economic, ecological/biological and hydrologic/water quality considerations for the long run will be challenging.

It is time to stop forcing personal beliefs and agendas on our park. It is time for us to get our heads together, listen to each other, respect differences and work in the interest of all the natural resource values, issues and opportunities we have, and could have, for all the owners and users of our Beaver Creek Park.

Lou Hagener

Lou Hagener of Havre is a certified professional in rangeland management by the Society for Range Management, a longtime resident of Havre, user of and advocate for Beaver Creek Park.. Ahh so Lou was part of the group investigating the pesky beaver dams in the park to see if there was any value in their presence after trapping was objected too by folks and flow devices were recommended by Trap-free Montana. See that’s where the line “Personal beliefs and agendas comes in”. Just because YOU in your liberal tree-hugging heart believe that trapping is wrong doesn’t mean that my basement should be flooded.

Oh and when he says “let the science decide”? He means HIS science, you know those papers written in the 1970’s that say flow devices never work and beavers are pests.

It’s a big park. I’m sure he recommended dedicating on stream section to be the test case where beavers were allowed to remain so that their effect on fish and wildlife could be assessed for the rest of the park. Right?

Wrong.

See BALANCE means what I believe is true, and what you believe is a personal agenda trying to take over our lives. That seems fair, doesn’t it?

‘

THE KILLING FIELDS FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? December 20, 2020

Zane Eddy is the Master’s student at Humboldt State doing his thesis on the Martinez Beaver conundrum. Every now and then I am reminded he is hard at work and it officially blows my mind to be part of the subject of anyone’s thesis. He needed to do a GIS project for one class and wanted to use the depredation data we put together over the years. This is just one block in his final thesis but it’s pretty amazing to see.

Abstract

Beavers can cause disruptions and damage to human dominated areas, but they also provide many ecological benefits that are causing researchers and regulators to reexamine the existing lethal management paradigm. We examined and mapped the issuance of depredation permits to better understand the geographic patterns within the data. We found that beaver depredations were not evenly distributed, with a single county accounting for 20% of allowed depredations while 10 other counties had none. There was a drop in the issuance of Unlimited depredation permits in 2015 and counties in California Department of Fish and Wildlife Management Region 2 account for a disproportionate amount of the total allowed take. More geographically precise data would improve this study and further qualitative research could further aid efforts to further beaver coexistence.

Now that is something to see in person. Look at that GIF closer. Even if you never even saw a map of the Sacramento delta you could probably guess where it was by that dark blue region from which all beavers seem to spring. He didn’t include 2018 because they gave us weird data without numbers that year.

Results

We found that over six years studied, CDFW issued a total of 934 beaver depredation permits. Of these permits, 225 allowed for an unlimited take of beaver (Figure 1) and the remaining 701 allowed for 12,331 beavers to be depredated (Figure 2). There were 10 counties that issued no permits during the period and Yolo County issued the most permits with a total of 103 permits. Excluding unlimited depredation permits, Yuba County allowed the most depredations with an allowable take of 2,541, accounting for more than 20% of all allowed depredations.

Ugh. Now let’s be absolutely honest. It’s all an unlimited take of beaver really. You just have to ask for. If you’re a teenager that’s allowed to do everything you want as long as you ask for it first, there really are no rules.

Just once I would like to see a request for depredation where CDFW said, no. You can’t kill beavers here. Sorry

.When we looked at the depredation permits and CDFW Management regions (Figure 2), we found that counties in region 2 sought significantly more depredations than counties in other management regions.igure 1 Shows the distribution of the 225 permits which allowed for unlimited beaver beaver depredations for

There was a drop in the number of depredation permits being issued during 2015, which was because in 2015 WAD used depredation data from previous years to convince CDFW to reduce the issuance of unlimited permits. The decline in unlimited permits resulted in an uptick in the allowable take by permit as unlimited permits turned into permits allowing for 99 beavers to be trapped. This shows that it is important not only to change the base policy, but to instill an understanding of why a policy is changing, otherwise people will find workarounds to return to familiar practices.

Ahhh memories. Remember when we met with the head of Placer CDFW and talked to him about how they issued the most unlimiteds and then we found out that they had magically been told to stop but just started mysteriously handing out permits good for “99 beavers”. That was so funny. It’s nice to see that Zane pointed out that there actually was no actually policy change.

Conclusions:

The change in issuance of unlimited permits was a result of those advocating for beavers and shows that agencies will react to public input, however the increase in high take permits shows the difficulties of attempting to implement policy change without also change perceptions and attitudes of those that institute policy. It is important that there is public oversight to ensure that agencies continue to work in the best interests of those that they serve.

Well sure. All we wanted to know was where were they being killed. Was Martinez unique? Was it the only city where beavers showed up and tempted fate? But of course it wasn’t. It was and is happening all over. And will continue to happen until people get the idea that the problems beavers bring with them are slightly less bothersome than the problems they solve.

We’re working on it.

Oh speaking of the unexpected effects of saving beavers in Martinez in 2007, here’s an interesting new downtown venue that’s about to open at the old Bank of America building. They are issuing a call to help name the mascot for the intended indoor market.I don’t know. Do those toes look webbed to you?

PEOPLE LIKE BEAVERS

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers, What's killing beavers now? October 10, 2020

We’re just in time for your Geography lesson. Airdrie is a small town north of Calgary in Canada with about 61000 people, When you read this article you will begin to appreciate it very much.

Airdrie woman concerned by killing of beavers

An Airdrie resident is upset by the City’s plan to deal with problem beavers that call Nose Creek home.

Waterstone resident Doreen Schulz, whose property backs onto Nose Creek, said she recently learned from a neighbour the City of Airdrie will occasionally trap and kill beavers that are deemed a nuisance.

“I phoned the City because I was quite upset about hearing that,” Schulz said. “We like our beavers along here.”

Schulz, who has lived in Waterstone for 12 years, said there is a beaver den located on the banks of Nose Creek near her backyard. She said she used to see a family of beavers swimming in the area but has not seen them in many weeks, which makes her think they’ve been killed.i

Now that’s just about my favorite kind of response. Not “don’t kill beavers because its mean” or even “Don’t kill beavers because they’re a keystone species”, Just straight out “Don’t kill them because WE LIKE THEM!” Plain and simple.

According to the City’s Integrated Pest Management Plan, beavers will often make their way to Airdrie via Nose Creek, searching for new areas to start a colony. To deter the animals from damaging trees along creekbeds, City employees wrap wire mesh around tree trunks, but “this is not always successful.”

“In instances where beavers result in unacceptable damage to the natural environment and/or infrastructure, the City may lethally remove individuals by trapping,” the plan stated.

Yup, That sounds about right. But its modestly responsible that they try wrapping trees, I guess that comes from being is near to our friends at Cows and Fish all these years,

Archie Lang, the City’s manager of Parks and Public Works, confirmed the City will occasionally trap and kill beavers as part of the municipality’s wildlife population control.

“Wildlife control is something that all municipalities do, and Airdrie is no exception,” he said. “You have to control the populations because they are living in a little microcosm that doesn’t involve their natural predators, for the most part, so animals will tend to overpopulate.”

Lang said there have been a “handful” of instances where local beavers were killed this year. He noted the City is not trying to cull beavers, adding there are at least three or four families the municipality is aware of along Nose Creek.

We don’t kill them all, we just kill some. Think of us as a very picky angel of death. You know how it is,

“This isn’t a mission to eliminate them – absolutely not,” he said. “We control the populations so they don’t become a problem to themselves, actually, and for us as well.”

The main reasons a beaver would be killed, according to Lang, is if it caused significant damage to trees or if a dam causes overland flooding and property damage.

“Trees are expensive, and when they start to take trees down, they can do thousands of dollars of damage in just one evening,” he said.

Prior to 2017, Lang said the City would relocate any beavers that were deemed a nuisance. However, he said Alberta Environment and Parks no longer supports beaver relocation, as they have a low chance of survival in a new habitat.

Hmm, that’s interesting. I’m pretty sure beaver relocation is illegal in Canada. So are you saying you used to break the law but you stopped because they had a low chance of survival? You know what gives them an even lower chance of survival?

Killing them.

But Schulz remains adamant that local beavers should not be killed, given their benefit to the environment and the effect of the City’s wire meshing around tree trunks.

“They have their dens right on the sides and they don’t bother anything,” she said. “They’re certainly not hurting the environment and I think beavers are pretty intelligent. If they know, for example, that there’s no food in an area, they’ll move on of their own accord.”

“Like the eagle is the American symbol, the beaver is our symbol, and I wouldn’t consider them a pest,” she said. “You see people all summer long, they’re walking along the creek, and if they spot a beaver – usually they’re out really early in the morning or after 8 p.m. – people will be taking pictures. It’s quite nice to see a beaver.”

Nicely put Doreen, I could hardly of said it better myself,