Category: What’s killing beavers now?

The sound of the other shoe dropping….

heidi08 City Reports, Environmental, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now? April 13, 2016

Admittedly, all that happened on the mural yesterday was that money changed hands and discussions about first steps were made. The good news is that we have our ‘Whereas‘ contract which Mario needs to sign and return, and public works is supposed to contact me today regarding the power-washing. Nothing gets done without starting I guess, so I’m not complaining.

What absorbed my day primarily was the PTSD flashback triggered by the release of a very negative staff report from Mountain House discussing the fate of the beavers and their water-ruining ways. You know how it is: 15 pages of alarm and acronyms so that the whole problem sounds so complex you really shouldn’t worry your pretty little head about it. And an obviously manufactured possible ‘compromise’ offered with such a HUGE price-tag on it that everyone will want the beavers killed. Honestly, I thought the days of panicked research were behind me – but after an afternoon of labor I managed to issue a fairly intelligent response to their ministerial hysterics. This sentence was, of course, my chief motivator:

“It is clearly evident that in controlling the sequence of repairs and the financial burden that follows, beaver removal is the only option.”

It’s actually in moments like these that I’m happy that beaver relocation isn’t legal in California. The only real power that can motivate enough public backlash to get this staff report challenged is the distaste people feel about killing things that are in their way. If there was an option to just ‘move’ them into someone else’s way, and folks could fantasize that they’d done the right thing because the beavers would be happier in the forest or whatever – support would dry up pretty fast. Here’s my response if you’re interested. I’m sure there are all kinds of typos. Their report was given to me at 3 pm and I was pounding out my response until 7.

The MOST interesting part of this report to me was the part where they say staff already had an ‘expert’ come out and advice them about the beavers in 2011. Hmm. I’m laying a finger aside my nose and predicting that we can GUESS who that ‘expert’ was. The same ‘expert’ that advised our public works that flow devices always fail.

The horror!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, What's killing beavers now? April 4, 2016

Are you sitting down? Are there children in the room? You may want to shield your eyes from this horrific and dystopian glimpse of a future no city should have to endure. Consider yourself warned.

Ew! Ew! Ew! I bet that creek stretches for miles with low dam after low dam stepping its way through the carnage and ruining all that potential drought and future FEMA money! Thank goodness Mr.Hammonds was on hand to alert authorities to the damage. I’m sure it could have gotten much worse.

Beaver solution sought

Austin Acy and Dwight Chavis have been hired by Saddletree farmer Ronald Hammonds to bust down dams and get rid of beavers that have built as many as 32 dams along a two-mile stretch of Saddletree Swamp between Saddletree Road and Mount Olive Church Road. Chavis said that he recently got rid of 28 beavers in one day near the dams that Saddletree property owners say need to come down to prevent roadways from flooding, bridges from being destroyed, farmland from being turned into fields of mud, and trees that could be harvested from being drowned

No one can say exactly how many beavers call Saddletree Swamp home, but that the number has increased following recent heavy rains in Robeson County.

“It’s out of control,” Hammonds said. “We need some help to bring these beavers down to a manageable level. I’m not against beavers. When controlled they are good for the environment. But what is happening concerns me. I don’t want to leave behind for my grandchildren an environment that isn’t in good condition. We have to take care of our environment.”

After which, Mr. Hammonds shook his cane and angrily added, “Get off my lawn!”

This article provoke a rage in me as few can manage, it not only merrily reports on the deaths of hundreds of beavers, it has a photo of the plucky trappers shooting at one. Mr. Hammonds is such a miscreant and angry reverse-lorax, that he even makes USDA seem reasonable by comparison. And that’s saying something. But this is the part that still has my jaw dropping.

David Wallwork, who owns property near Saddletree Swamp, agrees that controlling the local beaver population is necessary to protect the beauty and integrity of the swamp.

“This is a beautiful ecological area with an abundance of wildlife,” Wallwork said. “We will not only help property values but help the ecology and environment in Robeson County by controlling this rodent.”

Saying that the presence of too many beavers is ruining the all the ecology and wildlife in the creek is like complaining that too much sand and water is ruining the beach. It’s like saying that your forest has too many trees, or you couldn’t see anything when snorkeling because they’re were too many fish blocking your view.

Must I go on? It’s the comment of someone who understands nothing whatsoever about the natural world. Nothing!

“The commissioners are concerned about beaver problems and are addressing them,” he said. “For the past 18 or 20 years they have been participants in the Beaver Management Assistance Program.” According to Benton, the commissioners are currently paying $59,000 a year to participate in the Beaver Management Assistance Program, including $4,000 to join and $55,000 for manpower and equipment to remove beavers and destroy dams.

Benton said that he has worked on 42 projects throughout Robeson County since June, removing 160 beavers and 50 dams. “There is a mess in there,” Benton said, referring to Saddletree Swamp. “The swamp is overpopulated with beavers.”

For a mere 64,000 dollars you can maintain your current level of ignorance. But if you want to get even stupider it’s going to cost you. If you pay a bounty as well, you can hand out money to more idiots who will help you deplete the streams and wildlife. Your practice in the past has been to cut off a tail as proof, but why not just take a soil sample from the dry stream, or a photo of where the fish, woodducks and the otters aren’t. That will work fine,.

What a surprise. I commented on this site yesterday to helpfully point out the daylight coming through the many gaps in their thinking, and today that comment is gone! They must have taken it down to treasure it always and keep someplace safe.

Grr.

Whew, is that all? We worried it was something important…

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now? March 23, 2016

In some states a tannerite blast is so common that nobody lifts an eyebrow when Bubba blows out a couple dams. Heck, I’ve heard some folks pack a picnic to go watch because it’s the best date night in town and better than Viagra at getting cranky old men in the mood.

However, in more civilized climes it can come as quite a shock.

Reports of explosion in Oswego County were beaver dam demolition

NEW HAVEN, N.Y. — Dozens of people across several Oswego County towns reported hearing and feeling an explosion Tuesday night that rattled windows.

Oswego County 911 said it received multiple calls about a possible explosion, but the matter was determined to be non-emergency in nature.

State troopers from the Pulaski barracks responded to a location in the town of New Haven where a subject was trying to dismantle a beaver dam, 911 said, which was apparently the noise and shaking people reported. Dispatchers had no other information.

Listen to the 911 dispatch:

Megan James lives on Miner Road in the town of Scriba. James, a nursing student at Crouse Hospital College of Nursing, was studying for a test around Tuesday night.

“And out of nowhere I heard and felt a huge bang,” she said. “My entire house shook and it sounded like someone was either breaking in or drove a car into the side of the house.”

Firefighters searched roads in the towns of Mexico and New Haven for signs of an explosion. After about an hour a dispatcher reported that someone had called and said they had set off Tannerite.

So the terrorist bomb plot of upstate New York turned out to be just a farmer who had watched too many Duck Dynasty episodes. And everyone was relieved and the police could go back to their donuts or speeding tickets and get to work.

Explain to me again why people blow up beaver dams?

Theoretically they believe they are blasting away an obstruction, but given the fact that a shocking number of people mistakenly think beavers live in the dam, I’m assuming they think they’re getting rid of them too. They’re also blowing up fish and ducks and stirring up a host of debris and mud that they’ll blame the beavers for later.

Which makes this call for a tail bounty in North Carolina fairly commonplace when compared to yesterday’s surprising request to have a beaver expert at the wetlands conference.

I’m so foolish I got all excited when I saw this headline.

Beaver help sought

LUMBERTON — A farmer who is concerned about the increase of beavers in the Saddletree community is asking the Robeson County Board of Commissioners for help.

“I bet we have the World Book of Records for beavers in a two- or three-mile area,” Ronald Hammonds told the commissioners on Monday. “We’ve had a record rain and that’s conducive to increasing the beaver number.”

Hammonds told The Robesonian that 30 beavers have been trapped around Saddletree in recent days. He said that dams are popping up everywhere, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimating there are 15 within four miles.

“We need a beaver management program like they have in Columbus County,” he said. “That program offers a bounty to those who will trap beaver. Any successful program needs to include a bounty as an incentive.”

Robeson County already contracts out with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to supply a wildlife specialist to administer the Beaver Management Assistance Program in Robeson County. That program has been conducted in the county for the past two decades and is credited with saving the county money in beaver-related damage to timber, crops, roadways and drainage structures.

Lumberton is so far south in NC that it is almost SC. Wikipedia lists it as having .1 square mile of water, which makes it pretty hard to imagine 30 beavers being trapped. He says all the rain has made the population increase. (You know, because beavers breed more frequently in damp conditions.) Say what you will about the beaver IQ of this farmer, he’s right at least about one thing.

Just destroying the beaver dams is not the solution.

Looks like we got ourselves a horse race!

heidi08 Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Forests, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? March 15, 2016

Residents unhappy with Stratford’s flooding issues

According to residents, beavers built a damn [sic] on Peck’s Pond, which connects to Pumpkin Ground Brook. They say they’ve experienced flooding as a result of the dam, which started in October.

Department of Public Works officials say they tried to create a piping system to keep the water level to no avail. Attempts to breach the damn were also unsuccessful.

The town’s solution is to trap and kill the beavers. Officials say it’s not a solution they wanted to come to. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials say they can’t trap and relocate the beavers.

That’s right, channel 12 news couldn’t pass up an opportunity to swear about beavers and said they built a damn. (Does that mean if the flooding gets worse they’ll say they built a god damn?) Apparently public works put a weighted pipe through the dam but can’t understand why that doesn’t stop beavers? The video shows the pipe flowing, so if they didn’t just blow it out, it’s clearly not big enough to handle the amount of water needed to control flooding. At any rate the city needs to pry open its clenched wallet and actually hire Mike or Skip who actually know what they’re doing. Looks like public pressure might help that happen.

Beaver advocates to speak to Town Council

People concerned about the town’s plans to trap and kill beavers in Roosevelt Forest are planning to ask town officials if anything can be done to change the trapping plans.

A group of Fairfield County animal activists and concerned residents will ask Mayor John Harkins and the Town Council at tonight’s regular council meeting about town’s plans to remove beavers who have settled at Pumpkin Ground Brook. The activists plan to speak to the Council during tonight’s public forum, which begins at 6:45 p.m. in the Town Council chambers. They also plan to host a brief demonstration regarding the trapping at 6:15 p.m.

The animal activists will ask if the Town Council can overrule the Roosevelt Forest Commission’s decision to lay down traps. Town officials opted to trap the beavers to alleviate flooding in the forest after residents living on Barrister Road complained in October. After Public Works crews tried to break up the dam and installed a flow device to prevent the water backup, the beavers patched up the dam, leaving commissioners with little choice.

Before the meeting they’re going to have a little demonstration too. Something to bring the news cameras I warrant. All this fuss – wouldn’t it be easier to do this right from the beginning? I wrote the forest commission and the mayor yesterday about what to do and real solutions. Do you think anyone will listen? I’m not holding my breath, but we’ll see.

Yesterday Jon and I went down memory lane and kept watch at the Escobar bridge from 6:30 to 7:30. We saw no beavers but it was surprisingly familiar and peaceful. One young man strolled by and asked if we had seen any beavers. He said he had watched a muskrat yesterday at about this time. As if hearing his cue, a rather fat and happy muskrat suddenly appeared out of the area of the latest beaver home, swam across the bank and hopped up onto the shore to paddle in the bushes and get some food. After this he marched back down, hopped in the water, and dove back into the lodge.

Maybe feeding a family?

I was thinking how happy he must be to have the space all to himself! He looked like we all feel after a the very large man sitting next to us gets off the bus. Apparently Napa saw one too, so maybe its the season.

Delightful presents arrived last night. Jamie Larson of Tags and Tiles in Havasu Arizona has a soft spot for beavers and was encouraged by our story to donate six of her gloriously layered dogtag necklaces. She even created them especially for us! If you can believe it, they are even more adorable in person. But if you want a beaver I’d go buy one yourself now, because it will be cheaper than the bidding war we’re going to see on August 6.

Dams and Damages

heidi08 Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? March 10, 2016

So yesterday the Swiss Canton of Thergau was declined compensation from the government for the woeful beaver damage it had sustained. They were seeking repayment for what they claimed were damages to roads and infrastructure from a population of what they describe as 500 beavers.

500 beavers!

Remember the entirety of Switzerland is only around 16,000 square miles (about twice the size of New Jersey). I can’t easily find the water stats for Thergau (which admitedly has the river Ther and some lakes) but the entirety of Canton is only 383 square miles. So imaging a population of 500 is a bit of a stretch. The parties somehow failed to convince the government with their persuasive argument of “We’ll like the beavers more if you pay us”.

I can’t imagine why.

The funny thing is that yesterday when the bad news broke, the paper ran the story with an accompanying photo of two otters. To which I helpfully pointed out that if their photos weren’t accurate how did we know the article was? And lo and behold today it has magically changed to a photo of a beaver.

Lucky for us I thought ahead enough to take a screen capture at the time.

(I may well have few really special uses in life, but saving embarrassing stories about beavers is definitely one of them.)

On to more bad news from Roosevelt Forest in Connecticut, where apparently public works installed beaver deceiver that never worked and now they have no choice but to kill the beavers.

A dam problem

Town trapping beavers to stop flooding in Roosevelt Forest

Some pesky beavers are causing some flooding problems for homes near Roosevelt Forest. So the commission that monitors the town’s only forest have voted to get rid of them, though the decision was far from easy.

Beaver traps have been placed in Pumpkin Ground Brook by Wild Things LLC after the Roosevelt Forest Commission voted last week to approve trapping and killing the beavers, which have caused a nuisance in the forest and threatened nearby homes.

.The town’s Public Works Department had installed a flow device, sometimes referred to as a “beaver deceiver,” into the dam to prevent flooding. But David said the beavers reinforced the dam by putting rocks and dirt in there. Public Works later breached the dam several times. But David said the beavers always fixed it.

“I’m very distraught that this was a solution to eliminate the beavers. I didn’t want to kill them,” said Roosevelt Forest Commission Chairman Bob David, one of five commission members who voted in favor of placing the traps.

At first glance this is the kind of story I hate most of all. A city that did the right thing, and installed a flow device – and a commisioner says he likes the beavers and wanted to keep them! But the darned thing didn’t work and now they have no choice but to hire WILD THINGS to kill them. Ugh.

But lets look closer, shall we? The flow device ‘that is sometimes called a beaver deceiver’ was installed by Public Works. Obviously they had zero input from Mike or Skip other wise they wouldn’t use that inaccurate language. The article implies it didn’t work because of ‘rocks’, what difference would that have made to our castor master? DPW probably made up the technology on their own and stuck in a pipe or a bit of hose. Which the beavers promptly plugged.

And as for the ‘distraught‘ Forest Commission chairman? I was quite moved by the quote last night but this is what I thought of when I reread this morning:

“I weep for you,” the Walrus said:
“I deeply sympathize.”
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

Lewis Carrol

Well it’s not all bad news. Spring is nearly upon us and beavers everywhere are thinking it’s about dam time. Everywhere people are starting to see beavers break from their sleepy winter fog. This is from Art Wolinsky in New Hampshire who made his first beaver stakeout of the year and was lucky enough to capture FIVE swimming beavers on film and two tail slaps.

This makes me jealous and I would be heartbroken if watching it didn’t also make me SO VERY HAPPY.