Category: Who’s Killing Beavers Now?

Passion, Compassion and Deceit

Sometimes even when you write letters, and call the mayor, and get press coverage, and earn worldwide attention, and seem like you’re winning, and talk to all the professionals and get offers of help, even earn a visit from Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife -sometimes when you do all the right things, it still comes out wrong.

Our friend Anita Utas of Ottawa just reported that Lily and the two kits seen in this video have disappeared. The city says they were “relocated”, but has no details about where they were taken and no one saw it happen. The kits are younger than we would like for a relocation, and Anita fears that they weren’t relocated at all, but trapped, since they all disappeared in a single night. She argues that even if they were relocated it is very unlikely that a single beaver with two young and no shelter and no food cache will survive very long in a new habitat.

You might remember that the city bought themselves some expensive good will recently by bragging about installing a few flow devices in ‘experimental areas where there were no actual beavers’. Here’s Donna Dubrueil’s letter on the subject, published in yesterday’s EMC Kenata.

It’s not just beavers that are being deceived. Residents are as well.

The issue we have is that this provincially-significant wetland is a low-risk site with respect to beaver conflict. Thus, it’s hard not to see this installation as a cynical public relations exercise to divert attention away from the fact that the City of Ottawa still plans to trap beavers in storm water ponds, municipal drains and at the other sites where the majority of the 134 beavers were trapped and killed last year.

If the city really wanted to evaluate the success of water flow devices, why wouldn’t it install them in actual conflict sites?

How else can you evaluate the success of these devices compared to the annual costs of trapping, the very significant labour and equipment costs required to regularly unplug culverts along with infrastructure repairs?

We have some serious questions about this installation from a functional and aesthetic perspective.

It is definitely a monstrosity now but even when the water levels come back and if the beavers dam on the outside fence, it will still do nothing to hide all the metal and piping that has been installed inside the fence.

Our centre had the opportunity to see the beaver deceivers that were recently installed for the city of Cornwall using the latest and most effective design in blending these devices into the natural environment.

It was done free of charge by the Association for the Protection of Furbearing Animals, assisted by Michael Callahan of Beaver Solutions, which has successfully installed more of these devices than anyone in North America.

A similar offer was made to Ottawa but was ignored. Taxpayers should be asking why.

Donna DuBreuil
Ottawa-Carleton
Wildlife Centre

Worth A Dam is so sorry. And feels such compassion and solidarity with your loss. No one in Martinez should fail to understand how close our own beavers came to this fate. It was never enough to have the support of downtown, animal lovers or city-distrusters. It was never enough to have nightly news or to arm ourself with information. It was never enough to have the Sierra club or Audubon or a beaver festival. The truth was always that what saved our beavers were voters. We were three families in Virginia hills or Morello Park away from ending up with only a sad inspiring story for all our efforts. If the city could have gotten away with doing it any other way on god’s green earth, they surely would have.

On days like today, I think of those people I didn’t know and have never heard from again and who had what could be called a ‘passing interest’ in our beavers such that they drove into town on a weeknight and attended that crowded November 7th meeting all those years ago. Since we shop at different stores and support different candidates and belong to different school districts we may never see each other again. But I remember them. And I am grateful.

It’s never the ‘base’ that makes the difference. It’s the margins.

‘Too many notes — er, beavers’

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 27, 2012

Beavers source of pride as well as concern for Plzeň region

Plzen, West Bohemia, Aug 26 (CTK) – The rising population of strictly protected beavers, the highest in the Czech Republic, is a source of pride but also concern for the Czech westernmost Plzen region, in view of the damage they cause to local field and forest owners, it ensued from a recent debate of experts.

Jiri Vlcek, from the regional office’s environmental department, said he hopes that the region will keep its impressive strong beaver population.

“Nevertheless, their high number is problematic in agricultural areas, where we permit beaver dams to be removed. By no means has the removal of beaver lodges or even shooting of beavers been permitted. I don’t rule out selective shooting [of beavers] in the future, however,” Vlcek said.

Yes, we reintroduced beavers to our country a few years back but we didn’t think they’d cause any PROBLEMS! We thought we were reintroducing the helpy beavers! Not the floody-dammy-blocky beavers! Now we might have to shoot some of them because lord knows we can’t actually SOLVE problems in Prague. I mean, its not like we can look at the internet or pick up a book or drive a few hours south to attend the international beaver symposium next month and learn how to solve these pesky problems from the experts.

Skip Lisle & Alex Hiller at the International Beaver Symposium in Lituania

“Fields, gardens, trees get inundated. Beavers also like to block water canals crossing beneath railway tracks and roads. In these cases we have to react immediately, because people’s safety is endangered,” Jan Kroupar, head of the regional office’s environmental department, said.

Beavers have also damaged buildings, and even paralysed a few water treatment plants’ operation, he said. The Regional Office permits the removal of beaver dams on special request. It also offers financial compensation to owners for the damage caused by beavers. “More and more owners have applied for compensation for the damage beavers caused by inundating or cutting trees,” Kroupar said. The compensation sums paid out in the Plzen region are the highest in the Czech Republic, said Vlcek.

Well. There it is!

No evil fishermen last night and lots of people came down to catch a glimpse of our hero in action. He came from upstream again, and mom emerged from there as well. A kingfisher was busy from his perch under the bridge and Moses was experimenting with a new pole to lower his camera down to water level.

Let THAT be a lesson to you!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 22, 2012

Wauconda woman pulled from shoulder-deep mud

Stuck for hours after trying to clear beaver dam

A Wauconda woman is pulled from the mud Monday after she fell while trying to open a beaver dam near her home. (HANDOUT / August 22, 2012)

A Wauconda woman was rescued late Monday after she sank shoulder-deep in mud while trying to clear a beaver dam, according to fire officials.

The woman called out for help for hours before someone heard her around 10:30 p.m. Neighbors heard a faint cry from a swampy area near the house, said Ted Hennessy, deputy chief of the Wauconda Police Department. Rescuers used ladders and boards to reach the woman, then shovels to dig around her, Hoover said. Workers attached a harness around her body and pulled her out.

From the ‘just desserts’ file comes the story this morning of a nameless woman from Wauconda (near Chicago) who decided to rip out the beaver dam on her property, sank into mud up to her shoulders and had to be excavated by the fire department with pulleys like a sarcophagus in the Valley of the Kings. Prompting this single question, why didn’t this ever happen to a member of our city council or a certain property owner on the banks of Alhambra Creek?

She was taken to Condell Medical Center in Gurnee as a precautionary measure, Hennessy said. People who live in the area said they are familiar with clearing beaver dams. The problem area is a pond near VD Kimball Second Subdivision that drains into nearby Bangs Lake, said Caroline Thacker, the subdivision’s treasurer. Thacker said the beaver dams cause water to back up into people’s homes and yards.

“I’m sure she was trying to do good,” Thacker said.

Unless you’re the beavers of course.

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Beaver deceiver keeps culvert clear

More outstanding examples of beaver-stupid from Ottawa, the city that ripped out the lodge in Paul Lindsay Park and exposed two young kits to starvation and death. Their public relations department decided to do a little polishing on their tarnished wildlife image and prompted this article about flow devices being installed in places that merited an experimental approach on account of (a) not actually having beavers or (b) not really mattering all that much.

A “beaver deceiver” was erected in the Kizell Pond wetlands on Wednesday, Aug. 8. The installation of tubing and cages are to keep the beavers from building dams near or blocking the culvert on Goulbourn Forced Road.

The Kizell Pond beaver deceiver is one of five currently in the city, with another two set for construction, said Nick Stow, senior planner of land use and natural systems with the city.

“They have two main benefits,” said Stow. “They allow us to protect infrastructure from beavers without having to trap and remove the beavers and…they also dramatically reduce maintenance costs in the long term.”

Ah Nick! How have you been? It’s been a while since the endless stream of emails we exchanged where you lied first about the beavers being in the lodge the city ripped out, then lied about there being no homeless kits, then lied about the fact that storm water ponds were SPECIAL problems and couldn’t tolerate a flow device, and then lied about Mike Callahan when I sent you photos of installations he had done in storm water ponds, and then lied TOO him directly when you explained that they weren’t possible solutions in Stittsville. No wonder you wanted to show off your beaver-saving prowess, after explaining to Anita that you might be willing to bring in an ‘expert’ (rhymes with ‘rapper’) to move the beavers but she couldn’t watch or know where they were being taken to or tell anyone else about it.

This was my very favorite part of the article

“It will take about a year for the site to fully develop and of course the water levels are very low right now because of the drought,” he said. “So when the water levels come back up and the beavers again become active at the site, we expect the only visible part of the beaver deceiver will be the tops of the cages protecting the inlets to the drains.”

You see, the reason this was a good site for the ‘trial installation of a flow device’ was because there are NO BEAVERS THERE. (Or water for that matter). Makes sense right? The same way you test the success of cancer medication on people who don’t have cancer, herpes treatment on people who never contracted the disease, or birth control on lesbians? You don’t think Ottawa would take a tom-fool risk like installing a beaver deceiver where there were actual BEAVERS do you?

I’m so full of respect for your courageous and humane decision, I just have to ask. Have you ever walked out near the dam to check the installation up close? It’s incredible. Walk right into the water to get the best view. Step closer…Just a little closer….

“Night of the Living Beaver”

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 20, 2012

Beaver dam has Medfield neighborhood warily eyeing rising water

Sigh. Massachusetts again. Complaining about humane trapping restrictions again. Shorter answer to the city of Medfield that has been robustly resisting information and all offers of help on the mysterious subject of beaver dams in late summer:

“It’s like a horror movie.” That’s how one Stagecoach Road resident described the stinking, algae-covered lake threatening to engulf her property, thanks to a beaver dam on the Stop River near South Street.

Yes, exactly like a horror movie. Screaming, helpless victims scattering everywhere. Sawdust and felled trees strewing the streets. Ignorant people run screaming from nature to persuade the authorities to use ray guns to exterminate their last hope for survival. I’m not hopeful about Medfield, since I already wrote everyone involved and they’re about an hour away from Beaver Solutions and they still don’t know better. Still, this handy fact sheet might help with the endless repetition necessary to change a few calcified minds. Click on the picture for the full pdf with references.

Compensation for Assange?

heidi08 kits, Video, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 17, 2012

With Ecuador stepping in, it looks like the Swedes won’t get everything they want right away…but apparently there are compensations. Although Sweden remained neutral during WWI and II, this headline gleefully announces their pacifism only extends so far…

Local authorities prepare to hunt Swedish beavers

In their application to the county council, the municipality board asked for all the animals to be shot, but they were only granted permission to shoot one adult animal and any potential young beavers born last year. The flooding has reportedly been a nuisance for residents in the Aspö area of Skaraborg, where some football fields have become waterlogged and walking paths flooded.

This is a country that has enough brilliant minds to know better than to use a shooting spree to solve a problem that could be easily fixed with a flow device. Especially when the “solution” is going to wreak havoc on countless species in the area. In fact they might want to plan on heading south next month to attend the 6th international beaver conference in Croatia where experts will go over the solutions in detail. Day three is all about biodiversity.

How do I know the Swedes know better than this? An upset biologist is quoted in the article ‘

“Imagine having these fine creatures so close to the town. The flooding isn’t their fault,” said disgruntled field biologist Manne Ryttman to local paper Skaraborgs Allehanda. “It is completely wrong to shoot them, they are useful and an integral part of the Swedish fauna,” Ryttman told Skövde Nyheter.

Right there with you, Manne. And check out this commenter (‘Keith’) whom I feel is a powerful beaver advocate waiting in the wings…Worth A Dam Swedish office?

Of course, their ponds are of absolutely no use to any other life forms – birds that are attracted, fish that spawn, frogs that breed, insect life that is rejuvenated in the pond area.

Vegetation increases around the pond area and the diversity of life in that area is increased.

Respectfully, Eric 1, nature has it’s own ways of balancing the equations. You are only expressing one aspect of the equation.

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On a brighter, less beaver-killing note, our Kentucky-based stop-motion wizard of beaver creek fame released a new film last night and I can only say that it’s worth the short time it will take you to watch, and probably the time it will take you to comment with praise afterwards. Ian is a remarkably gifted young man and I’m going to predict that you will hear his name again and again in the next 50 years.