Category: Who’s Killing Beavers Now?

Just because you’re watching, doesn’t mean you’re paying attention!

Two North American beavers check out a man-made beaver dam in the new beaver enclosure during a sneak peak of the new American Trail at the Smithsonian National Zoo in 2012.

Over the years, the wildlife spotted in my North Greece backyard, bordered on one side by a wide and winding creek, reads like a field guide.

Without question, though, the creatures that most intrigue me and I only rarely see are the industrious beavers that gnaw on the trees lining the creek banks.

Am I the only one who was lulled by this friendly little headline into thinking this was a nice appreciation article about watching what beavers do in your own backyard? I feel so betrayed by his ultimately murderous tone, but I should have been immediately alerted by the use of this photo which shows to beavers on a manmade dam in the Smithsonian enclosure. (Of course it would have to be manmade. You can’t let these animals go mucking around with it themselves).

The DEC website dubs them “nature’s wetland engineers.” That’s because their propensity to dam small streams creates ponds and habitat that benefit a wide variety of wildlife species. Beavers fell trees to get at the succulent leaves and branches in the canopy. A lodge in the middle of a pond of their making also protects them from predators. Next to man, nothing alters a landscape like a busy beaver.

On the flip side, beaver activity can kill a good trout stream if water temperatures rise too much, vast tracts of forest can be killed by tree roots being submerged in water, and roads and farmland can be washed out by flooding caused by beaver dams.

On the flipside the reporter of this story is woefully uninformed and has never heard of hyporheic exchange that cools water temperatures in beaver dams and has no awareness of the obligate nestors or great blue herons that are grateful for those flooded trees. Beavers are destructive and ‘icky’ and you can guess the only way they can be effectively controlled.

To keep the beaver population stable, approximately 15,000 to 18,000 animals need to be harvested each year, Smith said.

Trapping season in Region 8 starts Monday and runs until Feb. 15. There are no daily bag limits. The Adirondacks and Catskill regions have even more liberal trapping seasons for beaver. A special trapping license is required.

The Genesee Valley Trappers, Assoc., whose lodge is located at 4462 County Road 32, Canandaigua, conducts fur auctions on the third Sunday of every December, January, February and March. The first is scheduled for Dec. 15. Check in starts at 6:30 a.m

“The fur market overall is doing well but the one thing lagging is beaver,” Smith said. “If you’re going to put the effort in, it’s not beaver at the moment. You can catch muskrat at $10 to $12 apiece and it’s a lot easier than putting up a big beaver pelt to fetch $25.”

Contact the Genesee Valley Trappers Association at (585) 229-4759 or email geneseevalleytrappers@yahoo.com.

Let’s thank our lucky stars that’s it’s not more profitable to trap beavers, because God knows what happened the last time that was true. One of the only arrows in our quiver is cost savings over time, which we can poke property owners and mayors with again and again. Still drama queen stories like Martinez don’t help matters any. What was the last number or city hurled at the press to explain how much our ‘beavers’ cost them? I remember looking at the itemized costs when I was on the subcommittee and we paid 13,000 to fly Skip from Vermont and install the flow device. There was also 5000 in overtime listed for all the police officers at the beaver meeting. (No, I’m not kidding). Not to mention all the staff overtime hours for uselessly putting in the cable and measuring how deep the water was. I believe the total was hundreds of thousands by the time that second layer of sheetpile was hammered in.

Taking care of beavers is a fixed expense, but controlling fears about beavers it appears is infinite.

It’s always a developer…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 22, 2013

I’m beginning to spot a pattern in the marshy beaver thicket, and it looks something like this. If a beaver conflict makes the news cycle once, blame some flooding. If it hits the news cycle twice, blame a noisy woman. And if it rides the news cycle a third time, look for a wealthy property developer, because he is driving the train and he’s used to deciding where it goes.

Hopkinton builder targets pesky beavers

HOPKINTON —

Beavers are threatening to cause problems at Legacy Farms so developers have asked the town for permission to hire a trapper to get rid of them, developer Roy MacDowell said Wednesday. The industrious rodents can cause problems when their dams cause flooding or block culverts. Standing water also attracts more mosquitoes.

“It is an issue,” MacDowell said.

Hopkinton AGAIN? I can’t believe I’ve been forced against my will to learn how to spell that name. Well, I got a nice email from the selectman chair last week and Mike tells me he had a good conversation with him. So there must be something fiscal at work behind the scenes. Who’s this MacDowell character anyway?

Roy MacDowell’s Wayland mansion hits the block … again

Roy MacDowell Jr. is downsizing, but to where and what he’s not so sure. What’s for certain is that his 25,000-square-foot home in Wayland is on the block. The asking price: $21.8 million.

MacDowell, one of Greater Boston’s most successful developers prior to the downturn, said the reason for the move is somewhat mundane; he and his wife, Virginia, are empty nesters looking to lighten the load as they enter the next stages of their lives. That they are selling this dream home just months after MacDowell officially ended a costly and emotionally draining legal defense of his real estate empire is beside the point, he said.

Wait, I’m having flashbacks. Is it 2007 again? Everything seems so familiar. Have I gone through some kind of time warp? I seem to recall that the most powerful NO VOTE on our Martinez beavers came from a developer. And what’s Mr. MacDowell’s vision for the wetlands?

Legacy Farms is taking shape in Hopkinton

Condomiums will sell for around $600,000, MacDowell said. The 15 single family homes cost around $800,000 each, he said.

“I think there’s a pent-up demand in the market,” MacDowell said Tuesday, walking across glossy hardwood floors in the model unit.

At the other end of the development, Wood Partners has built 240 apartments, and staff in the rental office are taking potential tenants on tours.

The apartments’ clubhouse houses a movie theater, billiards room, swimming pool, gym and meeting rooms. MacDowell’s plans for the north side of Rte. 135, behind Weston Nurseries, include 35 single-family homes and 390 simplex or duplex condominiums, he said.

There are also new plans to build a 127-bed retirement community on Rte. 135, in an area previously slated for businesses.

That’s right. We have to make sure that beavers don’t add a natural element to our planned community. Anything for our developer friends. And for those playing along in Martinez you might especially enjoy that last sentence when you remember a certain Berrelessa Palms monstrosity. Always tack on a senior project when asking to change the general plan. It helps your nefarious ascot look more noble.

Last year the developer donated a new well to the town. Some work has also been done on the downtown intersection. When the town approved the plans for Legacy Farms, the developer in exchange agreed to perform certain favors for the town.

I think there’s a Latin term for that kind of arrangement isn’t there? It eludes me…

Surrounded by beavers

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 16, 2013

You will be watched over tonight and tomorrow by the “Beaver Full Moon” which should remind you to get ready for the winter that is (theoretically) coming. It was either named so that folk would remember to set their beaver traps before the freeze OR so to honor the hard work the animals are doing getting their food cache’s ready for the long winter. I obviously think the second explanation is superior. Mostly because folks never seem to need to be “reminded” to kill beavers – they think of it ALL by themselves.

Here is another reason to think about beavers, from Connecticut where beavers seeking an education have decided to dam near the State University.

Beavers take to damming up Bass Brook near CCSU

They’re not swimming in the sewers on Main Street or in the pool at the YMCA but they are damming up Bass Brook near Central Connecticut State University. It might not be startling after the recent increase in wild animal sightings in the city, with a black bear spotted around CCSU back in June and a moose killed near busy Route 72 in September. But beavers in particular can pose problems for property owners, who the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection does issue special trapping permits to if the issues become significant enough.

“We get over 100 beaver-related complaints every year,” said Chris Vann, DEEP wildlife biologist. “Most of the problems are pretty clearly apparent — if there are high-water levels around a roadway, towns will get involved, and landowners complain if a significant part of their lawn is going underwater because their septic system or well may be threatened.”

You’ll be happy to know that the DEEP stands for the “Department of Energy and Environmental Protection”. Tell me how those two things go together? Apparently they take their job of protecting creeks from beavers seriously! (Remember that protecting creeks from beavers is like protecting banks from money, boy scouts from badges, or police from donuts.) Obviously this reporter has gleaned beaver info from sources beyond DEEP’s pocket. Because she says:

While these landscape dilemmas can be a pain for humans, the ponds that result from beaver craftsmanship serve as new habitats for other wildlife.

Mr. Vann was prepared for this comment and was armed with what I consider a truly sinister response.

“We certainly recognize the benefit of beaver, but at the same time, we regulate beaver management to try to minimize property damage,” Vann continued.

Did you get that? We know beavers are good and help the very environment that we supposedly get a pay check for protecting, but we’re worried about property damage more so we focus on that. Maybe DEEP actually stands for Defending Emerging Energy & Property? Clearly they’re not worried about Bass creek or the wildlife those beavers are supporting. They get a letter.

And you can’t be truly surrounded by beavers without a pop- culture reference. I am delighted to say that Cheryl was able to alert me to this from her bedside, which definitely seems auspicious! This is from the last week’s episode of Bones called “The Dude in the Dam.” Enjoy!

‘Pond’ Beavers, ‘Carnivous Doves’ and other lies.

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 6, 2013

About this time every year, (usually a little bit earlier) so many stories of beaver problems clutter the newswires that I begin to despair of ever catching up to report on them. I start to wonder if it all really matters, if there’s any hope of changing hearts and minds, if a wishful girl with a beaver mission can possibly make a whit of difference is this crazy beaver-killing world. Well, I’ll let you know the answer to that question when we get farther along in the story, but for now we’ve got lots to talk about.

Beavers causing problems at Turner pond

Seaman attributed the change in water level to changes in the dam and beavers. Selectman Kurt Youland, who also owns property on Pleasant Pond, said many of the historical beaches around the pond have disappeared. He said there are about six active beaver lodges on the pond, which equates to nearly 40 animals.

Seaman said she has done all she can legally do and has hired a state biologist to trap beavers, raccoons and seagulls. She said it cost $70 to $100 per animal.

You kill seagulls? This is Maine, mind you. And you think you have six active lodges with 40 beavers in a single lake? Well, it looks like the pond’s about a mile across so that seems pretty unlikely. You know what a great way is to tell how many beavers are in an area? To get up early or stay up late and actually watch them for a few days! See who’s living where and who has young. You might even hear them, talking to each other and asking for favors. It could happen. But if you did that you would realize these are very social families who work hard and really care about each other. And then you wouldn’t be so excited to trap them, would you?

You know, I met a very reasonable-looking man from Maine on the footbridge yesterday. He was not very enthused about our beavers and said cautiously, “I’ve seen beavers before back in my home state. But they were smaller. Those were POND BEAVERS not these huge RIVER BEAVERS.”

I tried explaining politely that what he saw in Maine were kits, and that full grown beavers are much larger. I even tried to allow that our beavers do not have to fast during the winter freeze so they might carry a few more pounds. But he would have none of it, what he saw in Maine were POND beavers, a completely different animal.

So I have been muttering this to myself for three days now and wondering that we let people who think these outrageous things drive and vote and own firearms. My mom had a neighbor the other day tell her that “Doves were the most vicious birds, they attack other birds for no reason. You have to get rid of them.”

I guess that’s why we release them at peace ceremonies? To scare are enemies into keeping the truce?

My point (and I do have one) is that half the time (or more than half) people who sound very sure of themselves don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. And they don’t WANT to know, because their mind is made up, and like a double bed in a sleeper car, they don’t want to have to make it again. Reporters do not appear to know this. And they constantly confuse “sounding certain” with “being right”.

Here’s another example.

Beavers a dam nuisance to Hopkinton homeowners

HOPKINTON – MA

A group of neighbors in the South and North Mill streets area have hired a professional beaver trapper to combat what they call out-of-control flooding on their land created by beaver dams.

Speicher has applied to the town for an emergency permit to trap beavers using a kind of “quick kill” trap only allowed with special permission. He met Tuesday with town officials.

Meanwhile, a bill is making its way through the Legislature to permit wider use of quick-kill traps and streamline permitting by putting the state in charge instead of municipalities.

Of course a bill is making it’s way through the legislature. It always is. The one thing that we can be sure of in this world, besides death and taxes, is that a bill is always winding it’s way through the state house to overturn the will of the voters and remove the beaver scourge. Of course, even if it passed handily, it will do no such thing. Because the beaver population is growing whether you use kill traps, suitcase traps, or electric chairs to control it. It’s growing because that’s what successful populations do. Do you think Connecticut or New Hampshire never complain about beavers because they weren’t “tricked” into outlawing crush traps?

Someday I’ll get tired of making fun of Massachusetts for its ridiculously constant whining about the voters in 1996. I’ve written about it maybe 100 times in 6 years, and I received a personal letter from the governor last year regarding it. Some day I’ll give up and realize the state is on a crash course to beaver-stupid and can’t wait until it gets there and can conibear to its hearts content.

But not yet.

Beaver dams popping up in Springfield

In the mean time there’s a nice beaver story from Springfield MA, which very kindly reminds the viewer that tampering with beaver dams is illegal!

“All this time I haven’t seen any, and these beavers are really something new because they were not here three months ago…I hope they don’t touch them just leave the beavers alone. they are a good thing I think,” said Luisa Powers from Springfield.

There but for the grace of God goes Martinez…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 5, 2013

Did you ever have one of those friends that never listened? Whatever project he happened to be working at the time on he never wanted advice, or read instructions, or learned from your or your uncle’s experience. He wanted to figure it out himself, and was blessed perhaps with more testosterone than sense. He waived off your advice installing the sprinkler system, putting together the table saw, and laying the foundation. He was the original do-it-yourselfer and didn’t take kindly to guidance of any kind.

Even though he could have used it lots of times.

I think this must be what Bakersfield is like, as they enter their 7th year of beaver challenges, eschewing all the help that has been directed their way. They had their first big beaver drama around the same time as we were facing ours. Folks got pretty engaged and there was enough media attention that the Beavers sports team in Oregon actually gave support of some kind. I would love a FOIA to learn what happened to those original beavers, but of course they promised that they weren’t trapped just ‘discouraged’ and the media likes to pretend that its the same beaver, coming back, every couple years.

Chew on this: The bike path beaver is back

Nearly two years after we left him, having felled eight trees at Truxtun Lake, the fabled bike path beaver is back on the gnaw at the Park at Riverwalk, and making a winter home near the Bright House Networks Amphitheatre.

Recreation and Parks Director Dianne Hoover says the beaver, or beavers, have damaged three Oak trees during the past two weeks, and have felled 11 bay, crape myrtle and redbud trees, costing the city around $550.

Don’t worry. Dianne knows just what to do. She’ll solve it herself and not pay attention to any of that silly advice from those crazy beaver lovers in northern California with the swear word in their names.

In response, city crews have wrapped the bottom three feet of the trunks of more than 30 trees at Riverwalk in green nylon netting that resembles chicken wire, or a very small-gauge chain-link fence.

The device has a better than 90 percent success rate, a parks employee said, at convincing beavers to eschew trees.

90% protection! My goodness! I had to look up this fine product and see how it worked. There are several versions on the market, and sells at height of two and three feet as protection against rabbit, deer, hare and woodchuck. I haven’t seen any that claims to be proof against beaver. Because that would be a very stupid promise unless you lived in one particular city where ridiculous things are routinely believed about beavers.

“They go through and gnaw around and leave a spike, so we had to remove those for safety reasons. We think they’re coming from Kern River Canyon and migrating down. That’s what we think, but we don’t really know for sure,” said Hoover, who described the city’s efforts as “trying to live in harmony with all.”

Crews have dug out the tree stumps at Riverwalk because they’re a hazard.

Thank goodness they acted in time to prevent those trees from coppicing on their own. What with that explosion of nesting habitat who knows what could of birdlife could have cluttered up their precious bike path?