Category: What’s killing beavers now?

THE EDITORIAL ARGUMENT FOR KILLING BEAVERS

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? July 19, 2019

Gosh, it seems like only yesterday I was laughing at the CT county that was trying to talk their way out of fixing a beaver problem by proclaiming how interesting and beneficial the animal truly was on someone else’s property. I argued that they were just avoiding the cost of having to do anything about it. I wasn’t the only one who saw through their lazy admiration. Now there’s an Editorial on the subject.

Dealing with the beavers of Black Hall Pond

While beavers generally are considered beneficial, they also can cause flooding and destroy trees. So, as beaver populations continue to grow, also increasing is the likelihood of sometimes unpleasant human-beaver encounters of the type now occurring around Black Hall Pond in Old Lyme. Such encounters, much as those that occur between humans and coyotes, black bears, fishers and other wildlife that also are reclaiming their natural habitats throughout the state, are inevitable.

There are instances when more intervention is warranted to manage damaging wildlife, however. We think this is the case currently in Old Lyme. Black Hall Pond resident Dave Berggren has lived in his house for nearly 60 years and told The Day that beaver dams built on property at the opposite end of the pond — property he doesn’t own — have caused the pond’s water level to rise so drastically his back yard is underwater, his septic system is failing and his house is sinking.

Berggren claims neither local nor state officials have provided him any assistance in solving the problem. Generally, officials have said there is little they can do. If their hands are tied, what is an individual homeowner supposed to do?

I guess you can’t install a flow device if the dam isn’t on your pond. You probably could still get a permit to kill them if they are causing flooding, and no one would ask for their address. Apparently this land owner tried to paddle to the dam and rip out the beaver dam himself. Hmm, guess how well that worked for him?

Because of what is apparently extreme damage in this case, we urge public officials to take a more active role. Locally, for example, officials should assist Berggren in pinpointing who owns the land on which the beavers have built their dam — it is only that property owner who can seek a trapping permit — or provide Berggren permission to secure such a permit. Trapping could alleviate the beaver damage. Connecticut laws allow beaver trapping and in cases in which property damage is severe, it is warranted.

On the state level, officials at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection should visit the property. Water level control devices installed on beaver dams can keep water level rise to a minimum. DEEP personnel can determine if such measures would be effective in this instance.

We agree that it’s not advisable nor likely would it be effective to break up the beaver dam in the swamp near Black Hall Pond. Neither is it acceptable, however, for local and state officials to take a completely hands-off position here, when a resident’s home appears at risk and a possible public health issue could exist.

Check your watches, ladies and gentlemen, because when a widely read editorial starts tossing about concepts like liability, I predict the sleepy county commissioners are going to wake up very fast. Those poor beavers aren’t long for this world.

And do you think that once their killed the problem will never ever happen again?

Nope. The vacancy sign left with their departure will find another family living their soon, just wait and see. I’m thinking the county will move quicker next time but I could be wrong.

Posted by Quonquont Farm on Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Now I bet a lot of you have seen this fun design. Someone shared it the other day on FB and I thought it needed a little tweaking

‘TIS THE SEASON

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, kits, What's killing beavers now? June 16, 2019

June of course is Kit time. Not when they’re born around here but when they’re usually seen for the first time. For 11 years I watched new kits fumble around the creek every summer, I suffer withdrawal pangs every day that I don’t get to see a beaver kit in 2019, but John Hutters in the Netherlands posted this photo on facebook yesterday that soothed my soul for a while.

It may well be the sweetest parent/kit shot I have ever seen, but I’m open to competition.

Look at that tail! Just look at it and tell ME that isn’t a social greeting! I adore this picture. John also has a sweet new film of mother and kit grooming but it isn’t on youtube yet so unshareable here. Something to look forward to, I promise.

Meanwhile our friend Emily Fairfax has started teaching at Cal State Channel Islands, where she is working on accessible ways to process data so that she can teach her students to be the most convincing scientists they can be, This meant she was excited about the beaver depredation spreadsheet we got from CDFW. And she tossed together this lovely interactive.

If you hover over a region it will tell you the name of the county and how many permits were issued. Pretty snazzy huh? Not quite the right parameters for this website but darn cool to see live. Just look at that dark slash across placer county which stands like an open wound killing the most beavers of any place in the state.
Still.
Sigh.

But onward. We must fight for better things. Even if the freekin’ city won’t hang our lampost banners and the printer isn’t printing our brochure yet. Never you mind. The show, as they say, will go on. Here’s the lovely brochure for your perusal anyway. Use the +/- to zoom in and view it closer.

Brochure For Printer

THERE ARE LIES, THEIR ARE DAM LIES, AND THERE ARE BEAVER LIES

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? April 4, 2019

Just three days ago I wrote that Nevers park was “bringing in the calvary” and hiring Mike Callahan rather than trapping beavers. I said that because Steve Straight told me that because he had been relieved to hear it from councilwoman Brittany Poster said to him. But it turns out that both Steve and Brittany were lied to. Mike was never contacted and a trapper came and dispatched three beavers the next day. The whole thing was on local news last night and in the local papers this morning.

Beavers trapped, possibly killed after causing issues at South Windsor park

If you’ve been following at home for a while you might remember that the most egregious beaver lies – the real whopper -, are always handed down by the city administrator. Maybe because he’s hired and not elected and will never have to face voter outrage. In Martinez the beavers lead to our cycling through three city administrators. The first famously said that a flow device couldn’t work in our creek AFTER he first said he’d never heard of them. The second asked what “John Muir would have to say about planting trees for beavers” when the eagle scout asked for permission to plant willow, And the third – well, we’ll let you know.

It looks like the South Windsor city manager got stuck delivering some doozies. Beavers, apparently attack people in parks. Didn’t you know? Matthew Galligan is just doing his job to protect the community (and the mayor).

Beavers removed from SWindsor park over community protests

When beavers are trapped, the trappers licensed through the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection determine their fate, Town Manager Matthew Galligan said. They may be relocated, but will more likely be euthanized, since beavers are overpopulating the state, Galligan said.

“There were too many factors that affect public health, safety, and property in place to allow for the beavers to coexist” with Nevers Park activity, town officials said in a written statement Tuesday. Another concern is the possibility of beavers attacking humans who come too close to their young.

Mosquitoes, fish, disease, drinking water. You know the drill. At this stage the city council just throws every possible concern at the all and sees what’s going to stick. At our big November meeting Mike Mensini talked for a half an hour about salmon even though there never were salmon in Alhambra Creek. Because when you’re in charge you get to say ridiculous un-examined things until you run out of breath and never get interrupted with questions.

At least concerned residents did their part.

Many residents who wished to leave the beavers to their business continue to disagree that removal was the best option, however, and criticized Galligan on social media.

One resident, Stephen Straight of Abbe Road, maintains that town officials were wrong to trap the beavers before bringing in an expert to reassess other options, including methods of tree protection and controlling water levels. The beavers did not pose any threats, he said, calling the yellow tape closure of the trail “a stunt.”

Straight and another resident spoke up at Monday’s Town Council meeting to urge officials to reassess the situation. Both residents and council members were unaware that the beavers had already been removed until Galligan informed them that night.

Good for you Stephen. You gave it your all and these beavers deserved better, As we learned in Martinez it takes every last voice to save beavers, and even then it might fail. Here’s what turned out to be our game-changing meeting. but we didn’t know what would happen at the time. It was part luck and part circumstance and part sheer stubbornness. Without councilwoman Janet Kennedy going on vacation at the time. It all could have ended very differently.

Instead of the Middlechild Productions Documentary “Beavers Las Vegas“.

FRIENDS, WITH BEAVER BENEFITS

heidi08 Beavers, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? March 27, 2019

Well, Mike Callahan confirms he did, in fact, do a training for the staff in London Ontario a few years back, but he has no speculation on the flow device where the outtake pipe goes uphill. Our filmmaker friend from Windswept, Doug Knutson says that London is the wildlife management ideal they’re working for in his city and shares this report. You can tell by the nutria on the over photo that Belleville has a long way to go.

Councillor McCaw says Friendly City shouldn’t be killing wildlife

Belleville is delaying any move to adopt a new policy on how to deal with wildlife in the city, including beavers.

City council had called for a new policy, following an incident last fall, when residents in the east end rescued a beaver caught in a trap and drowning. The policy presented to council by staff this week included rules that live traps should be used as a first step, and killing traps only as a last resort.

In public areas traps would be set in the evening and removed in early morning to avoid danger to the public and pets. The proposed policy indicated that when animals are found in live traps, they are to be humanely euthanized.

Did you catch that? Our old policy is that beavers would be trapped. But our new one is that beavers can either be trapped and killed right away or trapped and killed later. The timing changes. The killing, you see, does not. In addition the city will remove the traps in the morning and post signs to warn residents.

Mighty white of you, says every beaver, ever.

This just isn’t good enough for Doug, who is still pushing for better options.

So the city will agree to take care of resident’s delicate fee-fees, but what about using a flow device or solving the problem without killing?

The city would evaluate the area for potential options such as Beaver Baffler or Beaver Cone, prior to any trapping activity. Councillor Kelly McCaw said she couldn’t support it, adding “We are a friendly city and shouldn’t be killing our way out of a situation.”

That’s the best part of the article. We love Kelly. There’s a scene in Hamlet where he’s trying to pry information out of his school friends that have been warned by his parents not to cooperate. He innately senses that one of them is about to crack and zeroes in on that guy.

Hamlet: Be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.
Rosencrantz: (to his friend) What say you?
Hamlet: Nay, then I have an eye of you – if you love me hold not off!

And in my mind, even now, this phrase springs into my mind when I think I have found the proverbial weak link in the chain, and thus the way in. As I believe Doug very clearly has found with Ms. Kelly McGraw. I would stick by her side and feed her all the information she needs and maybe throw in some very cute photos of beavers as well. Maybe some kids drawings beavers too. You are welcome to any of ours.

Doug has bravely moved the train from “We’ll kill beavers whenever we like” up the tracks to “We’ll be thoughtful about public impact when killing beavers.” Which is hard to do. But if you want to force it to the next station, which is the hardest part of the climb, I would stay close to Kelly.

Because it all starts with a willingness to think that killing isn’t right and there should be a better way. And where it goes from there is up to people like us.

BEAVERS AND CAMELOT

heidi08 What's killing beavers now? January 12, 2019

Call it a hunch, but something tells me this Nebraska town won’t be jumping on the beaver bandwagon any time soon. I wish I could embed the video because it’s truly must see teevee when it comes to beaver complaints but you’ll just have to go watch it for yourself.

Johnson Lake residents work to find solution to beaver issue

JOHNSON LAKE, Neb. — Beavers at Johnson Lake are causing some residents to worry about their property. They’re coming out at night, munching away on trees and the concern is how to protect the area.

Terri Rank has been a resident of Johnson Lake for many years. She said she has never seen damage like what she is seeing now and she has never seen as many beavers as she has seen since the new year.

” And it concerns me because if the beaver population is growing, it could affect our quality of life. It could affect our children, grandchildren, our pets swimming in the lake, it could damage boats. It’s obviously damaging our trees,” said Rank.

That’s right. The beaver population could affect their children and grandchildren and pets. I love nature as much as the next really unreasonable woman but come on? What else can I do?

Rank and her neighbors have seen trees bitten down to pencil–like stubs and while she said she just wants to live in harmony with them, that might be the last option.

“If you want to live trap a beaver, you can only move it 100–200 yards from where you trapped it. All that does for us is push it down a few lots and make it more of a neighbor’s problem but they’re going to swim right back to wherever their den is if it’s in our area,” said Rank.

Ahhh of course we all know where this is going, right? It’s the classic “what else can I do but protect my land by killing them” argument. We’ve heard it a million times before.

There is a part I didn’t expect though.

I spoke with Pat Molini with the Nebraska Game and Parks who said trapping a beaver is actually the second-best plan when dealing with tree damage.

“Well the best thing to do if they’re damaging trees, is to protect the trees, that’s the absolute best thing to do. Either put a protective wrap around them or use fencing to protect them,

That’s right. An ACTUAL park and game officer telling her on recorded television that the BEST way to protect trees is to fricken protect the trees. I didn’t think I’d live long enough to see that in person.

I’m tearing up – hold on.

and then yes, the next best thing to do would be, if it’s possible, if you can legally do it, is to get a local trapper that has a fur harvester permit,” said Molini.

Well that’s more like it. We know the drill. First try an actual solution and then hire a trapper and get a temporary fix. This ain’t our first rodeo. We’ve heard it all before.

However, tree damage is not all these beavers could do.

“They can sometimes cause flooding and they can also cause crop damage, you know, agricultural crop damage. They’ll sometimes go in and take corn down and you know, either feed on it or use it you know for building dams or huts,” said Molini.

Yes. Yes. Yes. But remember. Just remember. For one brief shining moment a wildlife officer literally said on national teevee that the VERY BEST THING you could do to protect trees was PROTECT TREES by wrapping them.

Let’s just hold onto that silver thread. It was a glorious, unspoiled moment that we never expected from Nebraska. A brief shining moment – I like to think of it like the ending of camelot.

Each evening from December to December
Before you find a man who kills them dead
Think back on all the tales that you remember
and WRAP INSTEAD!

Ask every person if she’s heard the story
And tell it loud and clear as oft you please
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
Called wrapping trees!