What’s killing beavers now? – Page 25

Multiple Elbows Sprained in Scramble for Credit in Sparks, NV

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? December 2, 2015

Beaver killing suspended after News 4 ask questions

SPARKS, Nev. (MyNews4.com & KRNV) — Just a few weeks ago, the City of Sparks was trapping and killing beavers along the North Truckee Drain that runs along Sparks Blvd. But the City suspended that plan after News 4’s Terri Hendry began asking questions. Now, the City is hoping a group or person comes forward to offer advice and expertise on managing beavers without having to kill them. CLICK HERE if you have expertise to send an email.

Yesterday I was sent news of this ‘change of heart’ by Brock Dolman of the OAEC, John Hadidian of the Humane Society, and Sherry Guzzi of the Sierra Wildlife Coalition. who had already been in contact with Ron Korman the public works manager of Sparks.

The sad part is of course they had ALREADY KILLED FIVE beavers, before deciding to appear like they actually would use alternatives if someone just gosh-darned just told them what to do. Now everyone is straining themselves to take credit for this finger crossed pledge to do it right if ONLY they knew how.

For the record, I wrote them with resources, suggestions, and my phone number minutes after this story broke a week ago. And you can count on no hands the number of times my phone has rung since then. One funny thing is that when I sent information to the mayor of Sparks he wrote back and said that the city attorney was handling the case now. Ahh memories of Martinez! City attorneys are notorious. I guess you send a rodent to catch a rodent?

Sherry and Ted Guzzi are less than an hour away and have already installed flow devices in the area. They’ve exchanged emails and phone calls, but the city is committed to pretending like they want to do this better but just don’t know how? Can someone please help? Preferably someone without any skills or knowledge?

This ain’t my first rodeo. I know politicians, city attorneys and public works lie lie lie. It makes me want to pull their receding hair out in chunks. But the truth is, it’s at least BETTER for us when they lie right – wanting to appear to do the right thing, than when they lie wrong not giving a damn about the truth.

Maybe I’ve become cynical in my very old age, but I really believe all we can truly expect of our leaders is that they understand what the public wants enough to tell the right kind of lies. They would never tell the truth, of course, assuming they even know it. But when they tell the right set of lies sometimes they accidentally behave correctly. Or slowly come to the unpleasant realization that it is in their own best interest to behave as if they were telling the truth. This is doubly true for beavers. Let them act like they’re open to installing flow devices or wrapping trees next time.

Because there will be a next time. And then we can use their own glorious self-interest, (our only truly renewable resource), to get what we want.

21 beavers shot in Scotland

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 25, 2015

This story is so upsetting. Two days ago I saw a comment on a scottish facebook page saying that farmers were shooting beavers. I wrote Paul Ramsay to find out what I could. He quickly wrote back that there had been several incidents and one farmer in particular bragging that he had “Shot 10”.

They were uncertain whether to go to the papers or not, because they feared a negative story could promote a backlash, resulting in more beavers dying..

Looks like the cats outta the bodybag.

Farmers shooting invading Tayside beavers

But it has now emerged that the bodies of 21 beavers have been discovered with gunshot wounds since the end of 2012.

Farmers and other landowners are suspected of being responsible for the slaughter and have been urged by conservationists

to adopt non-lethal methods to control the species.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) has examined the bodies of 23 beavers in the Tayside area and concluded that two died in road accide

nts and the rest were shot dead.

At present, a licence is not needed to shoot beavers as they have no legal protection in the UK. However, possessing and moving a dead beaver is not legal without a licence.

Why on earth should we be surprised at this story? Just because beavers were extinct for 400 years, and scraped their way back from the bistory pile, doesn’t mean a farmer won’t shoot them now. I mean, they happily shoot rabbits, foxes, and badgers. So why wouldn’t they shoot beavers?

The very slanted article is the best answer I could have thought of to Paul’s question. No matter how responsibly you sit on the story and consider your cautions, its going to break soon enough anyway.

Better to make sure you’re in front of it.

Beaver Moon.

Tonight is a full beaver moon. So when you’re looking up in ghostly wibderm think of our Scottish friends.

The importance of counting beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? November 22, 2015

First a sorry follow up to the Sparks NV beaver story, I heard from Sherry of the Sierra Wildlife Coalition that 5 beavers were reportedly trapped over the weekend. And just for added insult the news station chose to STEAL Cheryl’s lovely photo of happy urban beaver to discuss why urban beavers couldn’t possibly be tolerated. Letters were written.

Speaking of the bumpy path of urban beavers, I was realizing that our chapter would have more weight if we could say something about how common this issue is in the country. There isn’t any data base that would possibly tell us that, but one special place that I happen to know of and have access to. I went through and did a spread sheet of all the beaver stories in or near cities I reported this year on the website. Now mind you, I don’t cover EVERY SINGLE story, but consider this a minimum. Cities all across the country, from Bakersfield CA to Ackron OH, San Marcos TX and Cumberland RI. There have been 107 so far in 38 states, with various complaints including flooding and chewing trees. The vast majority end in depredation, but it was heartening to see that a fair number ended this year in mitigation.

California and Massachusetts are apparently numbers 1 & 2 on the list, although assume some observer bias because one is the state I live in and one is the state Beaver solutions lives in. I’d love to have this data for the past 5 years, so we could spot trends and changes, but I don’t think I’m that patient. Even the states missing this year I know I’ve reported on in the past.

Well, except Hawaii.

This was a lot of work, so now a treat from the Cheyenne Zoo via LK. Heartening to see Ginger doing what she can do, regardless of the odds.

Seems like old times…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now? November 20, 2015

There’s been a confusing amount of good news lately. A reader of this website could get the mistaken impression that things were all rosy for beavers and beaver understanding everywhere. You might think that everyone wants them in urban and rural settings to take care of amphibians, water storage, and salmonids. You might think that people had stopped blaming them for power blackouts and giardiasis outbreaks.

But you’d be wrong.

Beaver Blamed for Taking Down Utility Pole

A State Trooper spotted the tree down on the wires at Circle Drive in Roaring Brook Township early Tuesday morning. Crews on the scene tell Eyewitness News, a beaver living in a nearby pond gnawed on the tree, toppling it on the lines. It doesn’t appear anyone lost any power, and the tree will be removed.

Now that’s more like it….blaming a fallen pole on a beaver even though the power company is supposed to trim away anything that can fall on lines during a storm. Anything in the standard nuisance line? Maybe with a euphemism about ‘removing’ them instead of admitting the lethal truth?

Plans to Remove Nuisance Beavers in Sparks

SPARKS, Nev. – The City of Sparks has obtained a permit from the Nevada Department of Wildlife to remove nuisance beavers from a drainage ditch along Sparks Boulevard.

“It’s basically the North Truckee drain and it’s the end of that rather elaborate irrigation system that comes off the Truckee River and heads into Spanish Springs and then the water drains back towards the Truckee River,” said Chris Healy of the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

“When they build the dams they need material to do it and they start in on the trees. Some were wrapped and they still did damage to the point where we lost that tree,” Healy said. “That’s the real tragedy because what about the birds that utilize the area, use the trees to roost in and nest in. It’s a better area when we have trees surrounding waterways.”

“We do not allow beavers to be moved; you could be moving disease to a healthy beaver population,” Healy said. “Also, too many beavers in one place leads to trees being felled by those beavers. Anywhere there is appropriate habitat in the state of Nevada, beavers are there.”

Bonus points for getting NDOW to call it a drainage ditch, I’m sure that’s what you wrote on your permit, and they’re just reading it verbatim. Good work enlisting the services of Chris Healy to turn environmentalists against each other and spread the lie that you need to kill beavers to save birds. Near as I can tell Chris is the public [dis]information officer for NDOW, which has a swanky website promoting what a great place Nevada is for everyone that’s not a beaver.

And they TRIED working with residents to do this humanely, look how hard they tried! 2 and a half feet of chicken wire! If beavers had been chickens this would never have happened.

Sparks is just outside Reno, which puts it firmly in Sierra Wildlife Coalition territory. In fact the article features a slanted interview with a beaver defender who calls them ‘wonderful creatures’ and says that traps are inhumane. If I can get a hold of her I’ll advise her to call them out for calling a living stream a drainage ditch, and show them some data on how beavers help birds. My personal preference is always to try and be ‘less huggy, more sluggy’ – to coin a phrase.

The fact that the beavers will be killed doesn’t sit well with some residents. A small group gathered at the corner of Rock and Victorian Avenue Thursday night with signs they hoped would get their message across.

“Beavers are our friends, they are nature’s engineers,” said Connie DeAngelis. She’s heard that the traps are going to be placed underwater.

“A beaver can stay alive up to 15 minutes underwater so for them to put a beaver through this is tortuous treatment to kill it and eliminate it because it’s eating trees, because it’s doing the things it’s supposed to do, it’s just hideous,” DeAngelis said. “It’s sickening and there are other ways to relocate beavers, there has been a lot of studies done. The fact that they wouldn’t look for a more humane way to do this is very disappointing to me and to a lot of people that don’t know about this yet.”

I just friended Connie on Facebook. Lets see if we can sent a little beaver help her way. The thing I don’t understand is why the news knows about the permit. It’s not like every depredation permit is reported on the 5 oclock rundown. Even though it should be, since you’re taking the beavers away from everyone. The best possible explanation would be that some friend at NDOW let it leak. But I doubt that. I can’t imagine the city has to announce when they are getting a depredation permit. Martinez certainly didn’t.

So how is this public? Hmmm.

Tree planing today. Wish our heroic workers luck!

Good things come to those who wait

heidi08 Environmental, History, In the News, What's killing beavers now? November 1, 2015

Fur market has ups, downs

Trapping season opens soon. By keeping an eye on the global fur markets, a trapper can still do well if they target certain fur bearers for this season.

Beavers will probably not even be worth trapping, except for conservation and damage control. There is little demand for beaver, and most of the beaver fur is going to the hat trade at greatly reduced prices. Expect most buyers to not make any offers on beaver fur.