Category: Who’s Killing Beavers Now?

Villians and Heroes

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 12, 2012

This commemorative tree is among several damaged by beavers on Memorial Hill Grove off the Amherst Bike Path. Beaver damage to trees has been on the rise due to this season's dry weather, which causes the animals to build more dams. Nick Agro / Buffalo News

Busy beavers unwelcome in Amherst

Traps set to control critters who gnawed memorial trees

Some commemorative trees standing along the Ellicott Creek Trailway are sporting skinny waistlines these days – if they’re standing at all – thanks to some busy beavers who are now in the cross hairs of the Town of Amherst.

The town began setting traps a few weeks ago to capture and kill the critters, a long-standing but not well-known practice that waxes and wanes depending on weather conditions. In wetter seasons, the dams built by beavers can lead to flooding damage. In drier years, like this one, the beavers have to create more dams, which means more tree damage.

And so it goes. Terrorists kill New Yorkers, and New Yorkers plant trees, and beavers chew trees, and New Yorkers kill beavers. The article waxes on to point out that they only kill beavers when it’s been a very wet year – or a very dry one. Or whenever they think of it. They have to do this. It’s not like they can protect the trees any other way.

As far as encircling all the memorial trees along the creek bank with wire mesh, Anderson said the town simply doesn’t have the resources. “I just don’t have the men, the manpower and the money,” he said.

I took the liberty of drawing up the onerous equipment list you will need to supply and I’m going to assume you can afford it. Heck, Worth A Dam will chip in for brushes if you want. Get the local scout troop involved and have them paint the trunks – they’d do it for a badge and a packet of skittles.

I saw three beavers this morning, Dad, Reed and Jr looking very beaver like at the secondary dam. Someone has put a very tidy layer of mud across the surface that is so even it looks like they used a ruler. Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to stalwart beaver hero and indispensable carrier of all things heavy, Jon. Because he has worked in the same place doing the same thing while several different corporations passed the potato, he is eligible today to collect one of the last blue collar pensions in California! Thanks for everything and the beavers could never manage it without you!

Shooting the Gift Horse in the Mouth – er tail

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 28, 2012

The county board of administrators in DeSoto Mississippi are mighty worried and face a gnawing problem. Mind you – they’re not worried about the worst drought conditions the state has seen in any time during any growing season EVER. Or about the fact that this declared drought has been named a national disaster by the federal government making it eligible for FEMA. They’re not worried that besides DeSoto it affects 1000 counties and 26 states. Who’s counting? The elected officials at the top of Mississippi have more pressing things on their minds.

BEAVERS!

So just this week they sat down to discuss the problem and consider re-instituting the tail bounty that had been so popular in years past.

“There are people out there who’d like to do it,” DRCUA board member Barry Bridgforth said of collecting a fee for beaver tails. “We’re not trying to eradicate the beaver population but control it because they’re rampant in DeSoto County. If there’s a sizable body of water, they’re in there.“

See we’ll pay folks to kill beavers and at the same time take money from the federal government for drought conditions, because hand outs are only a problem when they go to THOSE people. What other choice do we possibly have?

Bridgforth pointed to a pond on the property of fellow board member Joe Frank Lauderdale: “He’s only got one tree left on his island in the pond. The beavers got rid of all his ornamentals.”

All the ornamentals! How much can one man suffer? He obviously has no choice. Certainly you can’t expect them to wrap the trees they want to protect with wire or paint them with sand. That would be barbaric! Much better to pay 10 dollars a tail and let folks kill themselves some pocket money. Times are tough. And beavers are cluttering up our creeks.You know the REALLY annoying thing they do in our creeks? They pile up all this mud and sticks and back up the water in these little stagnant ponds. They do it all over and all the time and in every stream they find! Sometimes they clutter up the creek with ponds so much we can hardly show the USDA officers how bad our drought is. We better get rid of them right away.

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I’ll tell you what. Maybe its a naming problem. Let’s not call them beavers let’s call then ‘water-savers’. See these little guys hunt down any remaining trickles you have left and hoard them into pools. They dig holes and build dams and pile mud and raise the water table so that you miserable wells have a little more water, and the hyporheic exchange through the banks cools your water temperatures so that a few of your remaining fish don’t get baked. And the deer drink from them and the turtles and frogs retreat to them, and waterbirds hang out on the banks so they have something to eat. And when this pondwater comes out on the other side of the dam its actually cleaner! Because the dam has filtered it! Oh and what price do these water-keepers charge to do this labor, live on sight, train the new workforce and make repairs onsight 24/7?

Nothing, They work for free.

But thanks to the county board of supervisors in DeSoto you can now get $10 a tail for killing them. Sweet.

Late-Breaking Beaver News….

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Educational, Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 26, 2012

Beavers saved by mayor now homeless thanks to city, says community

Neighbours Daniel Burns, Anita Utas and Anne Sturgeon spoke out for the mother beaver and her kits. They said the city needs to think up better ways to handle animals in a new Wildlife Strategy.

Lucky the beaver is missing and presumed dead by Stittsville residents who are looking to the city for a new Wildlife Strategy after workers destroyed a lodge he and his partner made for their two kits.

“I find it very odd that Lucky has disappeared,” said Anita Utas who lives near the storm water pond in a Stittsville suburb where the beavers make their home. “They are monogamous and the adults stay with the kits for two years.”

The beavers named Lucky and Lily have two five-week old kits and became a cause celebre in late 2011 when Mayor Jim Watson said the animals would not be trapped and killed as per city policy.

Well the media has finally come lumbering onto the scene, almost a week after the city ripped out the protection of 4 beavers who reportedly weren’t there at all. The Mayor keeps writing me back as if he were reasonable and interested in actual information, but I know he is making this decision with as much thought as you put into having your knee move when the Dr. taps it with that rubber mallet. Maybe less.

“You can’t come down this path with out finding someone who cares about the beaver,” said Anne Sturgeon, who lives near the site. “I don’t think it’s right they destroyed the home of a Canadian icon on Canada Day weekend.”

Nice! I’m glad to see Anita has some companions in this campaign, its hard work worrying about beavers when a city is determined to pretend they don’t matter. Anita is a beautiful artist who donated a lovely encaustic painting of a beaver to the silent auction, a painstaking process in which

Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added.

See? Anita paints with hot wax. That must mean managing crazy lying city council members is child’s play to her. Keep up the good work Anita!

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In other news, I did an interview with Glynnis Hood Sunday who resurfaced after her relaxing sebattical and it will air on Sunday. It’s a great story and a behind the scenes look at her new book which we’ll also be offering at the festival. We were approached by the National Humane Society of the US who said that Stephanie Boyles sent them our way and they wondered if they could use photos from the website! Janet Snyder wondered if all these images of beavers were from free, wild beavers since they were so close? Ha. Yes, indeed, I told her. I’ll let you know what they chose. And if you’re interested in browsing more about next weekend’s festival, check this out! Didn’t Amelia Hunter do an amazing job? Maybe you’ll consider hiring her for your next graphic job!

Oh and speaking of amazing artists have you seen this? By our own FROgard Butler, who, as usual, will be helping children do amazing art at the festival,? Guess what her middle name is?

Stittsville Eviction

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 1, 2012

Let’s say, (and why not?) that you’re the mayor of a nice little suburb to the west of the nation’s capital in Canada. You are generally well liked, get free lattes and get an excellent parking place. When the note crosses your desk that there are some pesky beavers in a drainage pond you barely register as you pass it along to public works to take care of it. Then you go back about your business, ribbon cutting the new showroom or securing school lunches or what have you.

Then SHE pops up in your email. Anita Utas. One of those animal-hugging artists. On your phone. In your paper. On your evening news. “Save the beavers” she starts saying, spouting nonsense like wrapping trees and flow devices. A neighbor says “kill the beavers” and since its one against one and one of them agrees with you, killing wins out. You hire the trapper and that’s that. Then she’s back with friends. SAVE THE BEAVERS! They repeat! Louder! If this story sounds familiar, it should. You can reread about the Stittsville beavers here to refresh your memory.

Imagine the mayor’s surprise when they returned with the media and cameras!

You start getting mail from all across Ottawa, then all across canada, you even get something from some crazy town called Martinez California 2300 miles away! You get tired of answering the phone to angry people complaining about killing beavers. You do what any normal man would do under the circumstances. You’re no fool. You know better than to blow against the wind. You save the beavers.

For a while.

You show up for the photo op with the rodent. You accept the gratitude and adulation from the animal lovers. You post a sign over your office that says “move along, nothing to see here” and you write back all the letter senders and say ‘don’t worry’. Then you wait and bide your time until early summer when the kits have been born, pick a national holiday long weekend when everyone will be out of town, and send your goons in on a friday afternoon to rip out the lodge.

This is the email I received from Anita Utas yesterday:

Ottawa – Today, Friday, June 29th, around noon, about a dozen City workers descended on the beaver lodge at Paul Lindsay Park Pond, home of Lily and Lucky and possibly two kits that were born in May. City workers tore out the lodge and removed the branches. Nothing remains.

The beaver had not been blocking pond culverts or taking down any trees. Many people enjoyed seeing them at dawn and dusk, eating the overabundance of lily pads, which is their favourite food.

One lone beaver is trying to rebuild the home. It is not known whether the mother and possible kits escaped unharmed, or whether they were killed during the destruction.

She was away when it happened. Someone called her to the scene where there was no lodge, no sticks, and a struggling beaver trying to rebuild. What an outrage! For the first time it almost makes me feel sorry for public works. City officials make the heinous decisions and send the dirty-work-crew out to implement it and get all the blame. Somebody knew this was the lodge, and it was a great way to get rid of the beavers after you persuaded Anita to wrap all the trees so they couldn’t possibly build it again. Who ever passed along this order knew did it to get what they wanted, avoid bad press and save what matters – the drainage ditch.

For the sake of our younger readers I’m going to assume that everyone sleeping in that lodge leaped safely into the water when branches started moving. I’m going to reassure myself that those beavers, like most all beavers, had bank holes nearby they had scoped out previously and retreated there and are taking their time while they think over what to do next.

Then I’m going to write letters. You should to. They deserve massive public shame for this underhanded eviction which is so cowardly and cruel it almost makes Martinez look saintly by comparison. You can email mayor Watson here (jim.watson@ottawa.ca) and councillor Qadri here (shad.qadri@ottawa.ca). Really. I know you’re busy, and it’s the weekend, but take 5 minuts and do it. Beavers may be nocturnal but apparently the constant application of daylight is the only thing that saves them.

Send them my regards.

Bitter Chew

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? June 22, 2012

Saskatchewan is one of the most beaver- ignorant provinces in Canada, and that’s saying something. They have had beaver bounties, beaver culls, and have provoked some of my most acerbic writing. Don’t believe me? Put the word ‘Saskatchewan’ in the search bar on the right and see what comes up. It is arguably true that I am prouder of my ‘exploding beaver‘ riff than I am of almost anything I’ve ever written, so I suppose I owe them that. As remarkably backwards as their thinking was last year and the year before that, I have to admit I’m still surprised that it isn’t getting any better.

Rural Municipality of ML to crack down on beavers

Beavers beware.

The Rural Municipality of Meadow Lake is going after its beaver population, taking advantage of two government programs funded through the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.

Five beaver bounty hunters have been selected, and they will turn in beaver tails from areas the RM identifies as having especially serious beaver problems. A total of $3,500 has been allocated, which will pay bounties on up to 234.4 tails.

The joke is that 234 beavers, of course, can’t ‘beware’ or do anything whatsoever to prevent their slaughter. Nor could you if steel body-crushing traps were buried near your work or home. Come to think of it, you’d have better odds than the beaver, because humans shirk their responsibilities, play hookey, have affairs and don’t turn up where they’re expected every day like beavers always do. Beavers are so reliable we know exactly how to kill them. They are incapable of ‘being ware’. Doesn’t that make this article witty?

The article goes on to list the municipalities that will be funneling tax-payer dollars to pay for all this beaver death. It’s amazing the way Saskatchewan forks over money to liquidate the animals. Of course they COULD use that cash to install culvert protection and wrap some trees and the have some money for next year to spend on parks, senior programs, or school lunches. But where’s the fun in that?

Of course, just as when Regina did the same thing last year, we can expect a population rebound that will send ripples of new beavers upstream, because when you kill all the beavers in an area, the ones you invariably missed will have more food and bigger broods next spring. This means you will do this all again in 2013. What city will be next to try Old World solutions to new world problems? You can be sure you’ll read about it here.