Category: Who’s blaming beavers now?

THEY’RE JUST TROLLING ME, NOW

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now? June 4, 2018

After reading about Skip lisle and Patti Smith and so many folks in Vermont who care about the good works that beavers do, you start to think that maybe folks in the Green Mountain state are just smarter about beavers overall. Maybe they’re better than the rest of us and have fixed all their ignorance and intolerance.

HA!

Letter: A simple proposal to restore rivers

I grew up in Pawlet. I grew up fishing the Mettowee, the Otter Creek, the Poultney, the Castleton, and the Battenkill rivers. A lot has changed in those rivers since I was a kid. The fishing has declined drastically! I’ve heard of a few plans that the state is thinking about doing to change things around. I think that the plans that I have heard are a waste of time and money.

I have a few suggestions. First thing we need to look at is, what were the rivers like and what were the fishing regulations back when the fishing was good? Well, in the ’70s, there was a length limit of 6 inches for trout. Back when the fishing was good, there were common suckers, horned dace, shiners, and creek chubs in the rivers. There are none of these in the rivers now! What are the fish supposed to feed on?

Back when fishing was good, there weren’t many (if any) beaver dams. Now the rivers are backed up with them to the point that there is so much silt on the bottom that the fish can’t spawn or you can’t walk through it! The two rivers that are the worst for beaver dams are the Otter Creek and the Battenkill River. If you go north on the Battenkill, above Dufresne’s Pond the problem begins. It is the worst from Toll Gate road to route 7A. It is one dam backed up to another dam, to another dam, to another dam all the way to route 7A. The last time I fished that stretch of the river, I was in 10 inches of water and 3 feet of silt. Back when fishing was good, I used to fish that stretch. It was clay bottom and the fish were plentiful and I mean big fish (20-plus inches) and plenty of them!!! The Otter Creek south of the Mount Tabor road is the same as the upper part of the Battenkill. Beaver dam backed up to beaver dam.

See when I said “back when the fishing was good” I meant when I was a kid. In the 1970’s. There were a lot more fish then. I’m assuming that was the beginning of history because it’s where I started. (I have zero idea of what it was like in the 1870’s or the 1670’s because I’ve never opened a book in my life.) But I assume that since there were more fish and zero beaver when I was a kid (A) must have caused (B) and I have a solution! Wait until you hear my clever plan.

This is my thought. It would be the cheapest fix for the state. Start at the lowest beaver dam in any river (not just the rivers I mentioned). Tear that dam out (I’m talking from one side of the river to the other side! No part of the dam is left). Let the water level lower and the silt wash away down stream. Move up the river to the next dam and do the same. Keep doing this until there are no more dams in the river. I know, people are going to complain about the silt in the river. There’s two fixes for that. Either clean the silt out with machines or leave it. The following spring, when the snow melts and the rivers start to run deep and fast, it will clear out the silt. Let the rivers get clean again. Back to pebble or sand bottoms.

Am I on candid camera? Is this a joke? Is the writer of this letter Paul Ryan who thinks we can eliminate poverty by getting rid of food stamps? Sure Dan Wood of Hampton New York. Rip out all the dams. Kill all the beavers. I’m sure that those crazy folks at NOAA and Trout unlimited got it all wrong. Never mind the fish that would drown in silt from all the excavation, perish of drought in the summer and freeze in the winter without deeper pools. I’m sure you’re right.

It gets better.

Thirdly, we have invasive species that need to be taken care of, cormorants and mergansers. They were never around when fishing was good. They are an invasive species. They do not belong. Get rid of them!

If we do these things, I can see the rivers making a huge comeback within three to five years.

I can’t even….

I’m sure the editor published this letter to let his opinions look foolish. Surely there are plenty of folks that remember fishing was always better near a beaver pond. Right? Let’s ask the folks at Fishbio. I’m sure they have some thoughts about this.

Make sure you read the subtitles!

Film Friday: Busy Beavers of the Tuolumne River

Beavers are considered “ecosystem engineers”: their busy dam building activities in rivers can slow water down and create important habitat for salmon and other fishes. Our Vaki Riverwatcher automated fish counters also regularly document beavers swimming by – so we decided to make a film about their activities! This film was also featured in the 2^nd Annual Tuolumne River Film and Culture Festival in Atherton, California. Learn more about the relationship between beavers and salmon, and enjoy today’s Film Friday!

TOO MANY BEAVERS IN PEWAUKEE

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now? May 9, 2018

Pewaukee Lake is a five mile fishing spot in Wisconsin. It is best known for it’s inland sailboat races. Not remote in any way, it is a popular summer visit for Milwakee residents, who once upon a time depended on ice harvested from its shores.

Oh and it has some beavers too.

The beaver population around Pewaukee is growing and that is causing some problems

VILLAGE OF PEWAUKEE – Beavers are among the many wildlife populations growing in Lake Country, and they are beginning to cause some issues at the Pewaukee River and around Pewaukee Lake.

“I like the beavers, but you have to limit the activity or they can destroy a place,” said Tom Koepp, manager at Pewaukee Lake Sanitary District. “I’ve never seen them come in as much as they have in the last five years or so.”

Koepp has witnessed their damage in an area near the lake where they have chewed down an entire stand of poplar trees.

You mean these beavers purposely didn’t starve themselves to serve your interests? The nerve!

“When I walked down the boardwalk by the river I thought ‘Holy cow, we do have a problem here,’ ” Koepp said.

Other entities, such as the village and snowmobile club, have also noticed issues with the beaver population, and have asked Koepp to terminate a few.

Koepp said he has trapped four since the beginning of this year. Koepp said beavers are more active in winter and spring, but he plans to continue to monitor them going into summer.

You know how it is. They’re asking him to “thin out the herd”. Of course Mr. Koepp has no earthy idea how many beavers are there and doesn’t realize they don’t travel in herds.. He can only count how many trees have fallen. And does he even mention wrapping trees in his complaints? No he does not. Because the only solution he has learned about is the final solution.

For the record, wrapping a few trees would save those trees for the long haul. Killing a few beavers will work until the remaining beavers get hungry.

Which reminds me of the new activity we’re planning for the festival this year. There’s one corner of the park with three small trees and we plan to wrap them with (A) plastic fencing, (B) chicken wire and (C) welded wire and ask folks which is the correct way to protect them.

The right answers will have a chance to win this.

REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED DAMP

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now? March 12, 2018

Once in a great while you come across a story that suddenly makes everything worthwhile. All the hard work and early mornings, every ridiculous nutria photo, all the awkward city planning, suddenly dissipates while one shining headline puts the entire thing in perspective, leaving you trembling with joy and purpose down to you very toes and fingertips.

Canadian trapper survives brutal sexual assault by 200-pound beaver

A Canadian trapper claims he has survived a brutal sexual assault by what he calls the “biggest beaver he has ever seen.” Bill O’Connor, 63, was checking his beaver traps near Lake Winnipeg when a large bear-like creature attacked him out of nowhere.

O’Connor, who first thought he was being mauled by a small bear or wolverine, soon realized it was, in fact, a very large-sized beaver“I had never seen a beaver of this size in my entire life,” he told local reporters.

The beaver, apparently bruised by one his traps, was extremely aggressive and even managed to knock the sixty-three-year-old man unconscious before he awoke minutes later.

“I woke up, my face in the snow and gasping for [sic] hair. The beaver was crushing me with its weight and doing a humping motion on my head and neck while making a strange guttural sound. It must’ve weighed at least 200 pounds,” he recalls.

Moments later, the large-sized semiaquatic rodent eventually ejaculated on O’Connor’s head and neck, before leaving the area.

“I had warm beaver semen all over my hair, face, eyes and mouth, but man was I glad to be alive,” he said, visibly grateful.

‘Wiping tears’. I’m sorry, are you serious? That photo is too much. The violated trapper pointing indignantly. I would say this is parody but of course we’ve read crazier allegations from trappers all the time.. Remember the one in Yellow Knife that said they could bounce off their tails like a pogo stick and lunge at you?

.

I have to ask though. What does beaver semen even look like? I mean, how did you recognize it? And 200 lbs? Beavers mate in the water and the females all have a built in a flat leathery chastity belt so rape is kinda out of the question. To do something that complicated almost requires consent.

The fact that your story takes place on land is just ONE of the reasons I don’t believe it. I’m going to call it a STORY. And a funny one at that.

Conservation officer, Tom McGreary, says visitors at the nearby Kinwow Bay Park Reserve have reported multiple sightings of an unusually large-sized beaver in the area. “We have also had several reports in the area by local residents of excessively large beavers but until now it had been more of a local legend,” he said when reached by phone.

“Beavers are usually not an aggressive species unless they feel threatened or are injured, although sexual predation on other mammals, especially humans, is unheard of,” he adds.

Beavers continue to grow throughout their lives and adult specimens weighing over 25 kg (55 lb) are not uncommon. The largest specimen ever recorded was captured in Red Lake, Ontario, in 1897 and weighed an impressive 107 kg (237 lb).

Wow this story even has the obligatory warden quote saying beavers aren’t normally like that. Hahahaha! Is there anything else these professionals do besides answer ridiculous questions from reporters? Did anyone have the nerve to honestly ask this question out loud?

And HEY equal time, where are the otter rape stories? Inquiring minds want to know.

Gosh that is one hilarious story. There is almost nothing that can top this allegation. I mean I don’t expect to EVER see anything as outrageous or as hard to believe as a trapper saying he was raped by a beaver.

Raise your hand if you’ve spotted the problem.

Residents protest beaver killing: Canadian version

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Educational, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? November 12, 2017

Greenburn lake is in the Gulf Islands off the west coast of British Columbia. It’s actually located in that little missing chip in the utmost left hand corner of Washington State. It’s not all that far from Port Moody as the beaver swims, so I’m hoping many heroes help them with this particular problem.

KO_22282-633x420 — Aerial view of Greenburn Lake, South Pender Island, with North Pender Island and Vancouver Island in the background, South Pender Island

Gulf Islanders outraged over plan to euthanize beavers

A death sentence has been passed on the beavers living in a small lake in the Gulf Islands, but concerned citizens are hoping they can force a last minute pardon. The rodents have been busy building dams in South Pender Island’s Greenburn Lake.

Parks Canada, which administers the area as part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, says the beavers’ work is threatening an earthen dam. Officials say they’ve exhausted all other options and have no choice but to humanely trap and euthanize the animals. But local residents are planning a blockade in an attempt to get the execution called off.

“We’re actually horrified by the fact that they would dream of killing wild animals when their mandate is to protect the wilderness and wild animals,” Leslie McBain told CBC News.

“It is ironic that their symbol, the National Parks symbol, is a beaver.”

‘A very difficult decision’

Nathan Cardinal, acting superintendent for the park, said he’s sympathetic to concerns from the public. “Having to take these steps is a very difficult decision for the agency and everyone involved,” he said.”We respect the right for people to protest, for sure, and we acknowledge that many people on the island care about the beavers. For us, euthanizing a problem animal is always the last resort.”

Between one and eight beavers have made their homes in the lake and, as they construct their own dams, more and more water is building up behind the man-made dam, threatening its structural integrity. Cardinal said that if the beavers are allowed to continue living in the lake, the dam will fail, causing water to spill onto people’s properties and into their homes.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

“At Parks Canada, it’s our mandate to ensure ecological integrity, but we always have to ensure that public safety comes first,” he said. Parks officials have been looking at potential solutions for about a year.

They’ve tried installing something called a “beaver deceiver” — a rectangular fence protecting a culvert that allows water to flow through — but the rodents responded by building dams in new places, causing more backup.

In what pretend universe is a beaver deceiver rectangular? How on earth would that possibly work? So let me understand this right, because you failed to use a tool correctly the beavers must die?

Parks officials have also looked into relocating the animals. But Cardinal said beavers are both territorial and increasingly abundant across B.C., so staff couldn’t find a suitable new home.

Now that it’s November, Parks Canada feels compelled to act. “We need to address it now before we get into the very wet season of the winter,” Cardinal said.

But McBain has a hard time believing there are no other options and would like to see the community consulted about what happens to the beavers.

“Humans are impacting the environment, it’s not beavers that are impacting the environment. We destroyed their habitat first, now we’re just going to destroy them,” she said.

First of all, NICE work Leslie. You already have that reporter eating out of your hand because look at the tone of the article! I’d say if you bring some children dressed in beaver tails and show them a photo of the ACTUAL trapezoidal beaver deceived you’re home free. Or at least on broadcast news. Then 200 more people will care about this issue and THEN you’ll be home free.

I have no idea what kind of rectangular fence they used to protect the culvert, but it sound like the beavers scoffed at their feeble attempts and kept right on making a safe pond for their family. Those stubborn beavers, willfully insisting on protecting their children and eating ALL winter long.

I will try and track down Leslie and Nathan today, and talk to them about real options.

On a related note, this was a nice discussion of urban wildlife recently on KQED. I’m sure it was just an oversight on Colleen’s part that she forgot to mention beavers.

Mystic Decision-Making: w/ UPDATE

heidi08 Beavers and Forests, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now? November 1, 2017

Today is a grim day for beavers living at Mystic lake in Bozeman Montana. Located in the Custer Gallatan National Forest at the bottom of Montana near the top of Yellowstone. November 1st is the date the Forest Service and City will be teaming up to syphon out some of the water before ripping out the dam entirely because they are worried a washout could impact the city. It is 35 degrees today with a winter storm warning, so in every likely hood most of those beavers will lose their home, their pantry, and eventually their lives if enthusiastic hunters don’t pick them off in the meantime.

City, Forest Service to tear out Mystic Lake beaver dam

City and federal officials are working together to get rid of a potentially problematic beaver dam at the outlet of Mystic Lake that they say is a safety hazard.

The city of Bozeman and the U.S. Forest Service began talking about tearing out the dam in late August. A news release sent out Wednesday said the dam is “large enough to create a public safety concern downstream due to increased water volume in the lake.”

The work will begin Nov. 1. Workers will siphon water from the lake to Bozeman Creek to drop water levels. Heavy equipment will roll in to help tear out the dam.

The Forest Service wants to warn hikers that Bozeman Creek’s flows will likely be increased while the work is ongoing. Trucks and heavy equipment will be rumbling up administrative roads and trails throughout the area, including Forest Service Roads 176 (Moser Creek Cutoff) and 979 (Bozeman Creek).

So they agreed this work should be done three months ago but didn’t get around to doing it until NOW when there is no chance the beavers can recover their food stash or rebuild their flooded home? I suppose they didn’t want to compromise the trails during hiking season so they waited until winter. But this is just cruel. I can’t believe the forest service is helping them do this. Who do they work for anyway?

Beaver Dam Removal Planned for the Mystic Lake Outlet south of Bozeman

Bozeman, Montana – Trail users near Mystic Lake, in the Sourdough Drainage, south of Bozeman, Montana should be aware that there will be a flurry of activity associated with a beaver dam removal project starting November 1. Visitors can expect vehicle activity, heavy equipment operation and a crew working near the lake outlet for about two weeks.. “We realize that the activity may disrupt hunters and recreationist in the area but the work is extremely important” acknowledged Acting Bozeman District Ranger, David Francomb.

For the project duration, there will be higher than normal water flows in Bozeman Creek. Flow related water surges will be comparable to spring run-off water levels, thus, recreation users considering creek crossings should use extra caution. Property owners along Bozeman creek will see more water in the stream. According to Brian Heaston, City of Bozeman Engineer, “the increased flows are not anticipated to pose a threat to life safety or property.”

You’re worried about disrupting the poor, poor hunters in the area? Trust me, they’ll be fine. Someone sent Ben Goldfarb the last-org discussion about this decision by some wildlife activists in the area who know better. I’m glad people are worried about these beavers, because they should be. I feel just awful for not writing about this sooner and contacting the folks involved. We were in transition between the Sierras and home and the alert must have escaped me.

I doubt anything short of an injunction is going to stop them today when their heavy equipment is already loaded and on its way but we can make their lives a little less pleasant. Honestly these are the very kind of decisions that enrage me. For what its worth, here’s the forest service number and the project engineer’s direct line

I was feeling hopeless this morning but I am SO WRONG! Sounds like locals must have gotten involved. I wrote Mr. Francomb and he wrote back this morning from his home in Vermont, cc’ing the ranger currently in charge. They knew about flow devices but were worried about a dam washout. Then a late email came just now saying that the flooding will be mitigated and a long term solution will be proved at a later date! WHOO HOOO!

Update on Mystic Lake project. Engineers are currently working on a mitigation device to keep water to tolerable level after lowering and keeping the beavers in the system. Long term solutions will be discussed at a later date. Thanks.