Category: Who’s Killing Beavers Now?

Go DEEP!!!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 17, 2012

Town Takes Action to Lower Water Level at Mills Pond

Licensed wildlife officers [i.e. trappers] employed to assist in reducing beaver population.

Looks like the water’s too high at mill pond. Time to kill some beavers again. Apparently that’s the kind of forward thinking they are proudest of in the nutmeg state. Mind you they don’t appear to kill all the beavers, just a few. Because you know, if the dam is high it means the population is getting too large. Get it?

Like that wall in China.

Town officials said some beaver trapping is generally done every few years and said increased water levels were causing drainage problems on Simonds Avenue. The water was also encroaching on the high school property and a little league field, officials said.

“It’s gotten to the point where we had to do something,” Public Works Director Robert Martin said. “We don’t take it lightly and follow the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection procedures.”

The town of Avon has two DEEP certified nuisance wildlife officers that trapped the beavers, Martin said.

Mind you the acronym DEEP does not signify their level of emotional maturity and isn’t a reference to how far they are in the pockets of taxpayer dollars. It refers to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. (Because, you know, the two things just ‘go together’ and who else would you put in charge of beaver non-solutions?) So DEEP came in and killed a few beavers (hopefully a pregnant female with this spring’s kits) and now the town is happy again.

Martin said the action is unfortunate and feels beavers help create ponds that benefit many other species but as the population grows, it’s harder and harder to control the water levels, he said.

“At some point you need to control the amount of beavers in there,” Martin said.

While there are Water Level Control Devices that allow increase flows through a dam site, town officials said they followed the most practical solution.

If by PRACTICAL you mean TEMPORARY, I completely agree with you. Wouldn’t wanna use one of those silly pipes that actually solve the problem when you put on waders and can kill a couple beavers every couple years instead!

Canton resident Gary Laviana said he is upset by the activity. Laviana said the beavers are remarkable animals but agrees that the population was likely too large. But the town should have done a study, with public input, on the issue rather than rush into action, he said.

Laviana said his biggest concern is the pond. He said the water level could drop too much and the town may have done “irreparable damage to the dam,” causing it to fail given the right circumstances, such as a heavy rain.

Gary, Gary, Gary. Let’s have a little chat shall we? Come over here and take a seat. Comfy? Now this may come as a shock, so brace yourself. But sometimes cities don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to beavers. Shocking, I know. Have some water. Better? It gets worse. Sometimes they KNOW BETTER but they still lie, because it’s easier and they can get away with it. They can get away with it because no one challenges them. Because YOU don’t challenge them. Here, watch this video from 45:00 and see what happens when people do their homework. The beavers need you. You, Gary. This pond and every wild living thing in it needs you to learn the facts.

Young beavers disperse before they become adults. So even though the dam is higher it doesn’t mean the population is growing. The only way you’ll be able to tell if the population is growing is to come down several times bundled up warm toting coffee and bacon sandwiches and sit in the shadows and count what you see all night every night. Do you think your city did that?

Me either.

Tomorrow’s GOOD beaver news will include NOAA asking for public comment to restore coho habitat on the rogue river. And I’ll give you a hint about the solution. It has a flat tail.

Oh and guess whose back? full plumage male and 2 females!

Don’t try this at home…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 16, 2012

Sometimes you find a beaver story on the news and it melts your heart and stiffens your sinews with the inspiring community outpouring of support it elicits. And sometimes you read a story with such indifferent, abject, and ignorant cruelty that it turns your stomach with a seismic shudder. But every so often you get the story that does both at exactly the same time, like this from Stallings North Carolina.

Residents in a Stallings neighborhood are upset after a family of six beavers was trapped and killed, and a picture of the carcasses was posted online. People who live in Fairfield Plantation said the beavers had been a part of the neighborhood for years.

“The beaver dam was huge. It was about five feet tall. It was really a good, interesting nature lesson for my grandchildren,” said resident Jeff Hatch.

But the Fairfield Plantation homeowners’ association was concerned about the beavers’ dams in the neighborhood creek. HOA members said the beavers were threatening the hardwood forest, and that flooding from the backup of water was creating a deep water hazard for children in the local park.

Dam. Another dead beaver story, you are probably thinking. Why does Heidi write about such morbid subjects all the time and bum us out? And if that was the END of the story I would partly understand your muted disdain as you moved about your day onto other subjects. The economy perhaps or the primaries….

Ahh but there’s more.

Last week, the neighborhood HOA president sent out a newsletter, informing residents, “We hired a trapper who apprehended six, four of whose mug shots can be seen at fairfieldnc.com.”

The president, Larry Evans, then posted a graphic picture of four of the beaver carcasses on the website, but quickly took it down a day later after a resident complained.

That’s right. The tone-deaf HOA president not only decided to have the heroes killed, he decided to post the photograph on his website. (I guess since that dead tiger photo from Ohio was so popular!) One can only shudder to think what he might have posted after the rat trapper came or after having the sewer line succefully snaked, or a criminal apprehended.

We might as well face it. For the rest of time there will be abysmal people with cell phones who have the kinds of impulse-ridden brains that drive them to do horrific, inhumane things and then that one neuron devoted to understanding how technology works that makes them want to take a photo and post it on line. Look what I did! Isn’t it cool?

Well, if you would like to explain to Mr. Evans how not cool his decision was, you might consider dropping him an affectionate note here. And if that rousing earthquake didn’t just shake your bad mood away, I got this photo from our beaver friend Ian Timothy yesterday.

When beavers bite off more than they can chew!I

This is obviously the work of a yearling or two, trying to prove themselves. I can imagine the scornful looks from Dad saying ‘son, that’s too big’ and Jr. setting his jaw firmly and chewing and chewing and chewing….Mom comes by hours later and says “honey why don’t you try a smaller tree?” and he hunches his shoulders and keeps chewing and chewing and chewing….his brother comes by in the morning and says “aren’t you done yet?” and he says “SHUTUP” and keeps chewing and chewing and chewing….

I will remember this photo as a lesson every time I take on a project that is impossible to finish! Thanks Ian! And episodes 4-7 will be featured at next weekends Colorado Environmental Film Festival. Since Sherri Tippie lives 15 minutes away I know Twigs will be in excellent company!

Bad Apologies

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 7, 2012

Something about this story from Canada reminds me of that old joke of the young farmer deciding to broaden his hopes by adding chickens to his investments. He goes to the feed store and asks for 50 baby chicks, tucks the box under his arm and walks away. A week later he is back again, asking for 100 chicks. Again he takes the purchase carefully away and disappears. The third week he comes back asking for 200 chicks! The feed store owner can’t help but comment and says ‘wow you’re really liking this chicken career!”

The farmer shakes his head, “It’s not working out at all.” He laments.

“I must be planting them too deep!”

Death of beavers accidental, says Parks Canada

JOE LOFARO /METRO OTTAWA

A Parks Canada official says two beavers that built a lodge near a wharf at the Hogs Back locks were accidentally killed when rising water levels drowned them inside a live trap.

He said Parks Canada hired a licensed trapper with the Ministry of Natural Resources who is experienced with trapping beavers in urban areas.

Area resident Jenni Meldrum claimed she saw kill-traps at the site when she walked her dog on Tuesday, but Mazurkiewicz said that is not true.

“It was not a snare trap,” said Mazurkiewicz.

“Because of the warm weather and the way the beavers had put the branches and so on around their beaver lodge, water built up and they were drowned.”

So beavers built up their lodge because of the warm weather? (Um, that doesn’t make sense. Beavers build up their ‘lodge’ for cold weather.) Can we just assume he means ‘dam’ and doesn’t actually know the difference? And can we assume that any person that hires an ‘executioner’ as a ‘birthing coach’ probably doesn’t care too much about outcome?

Let’s give trappy the benefit of the doubt and say he DID use Hancock or Bailey traps. Any trap that kills is a ‘kill trap’ essentially. That is why a person might visit his trap the next morning. Or why a responsible human wouldn’t use a live trap at all during rain or snow melt because it would be dishonest to say the animals can be safely trapped when they’re going to be flooded before you get around to freeing them.

“We try to be as humane as possible with the trapping, and it’s unfortunate that the beavers died,” said Mazurkiewicz.

Hand me a Kleenex! Your heartfelt regret is gonna make me cry! Is it just me or are you SICK of these people who apologize without admitting they ever did anything wrong in the first place? ‘If I hurt you I’m sorry’. ‘If you misunderstood my intentions I apologize’. “If the beavers drowned its unfortunate.”

PULEEZE!!! Spare us the faux-regret. You wanted these beavers OUT of the way and spent a little extra money asking for live traps so huggers like Ms. Meldrum and her friends at the PTA wouldn’t make your little ‘parks-&-rec‘ kinda life any more miserable than it already is. You knew the water levels were likely to change. You knew relocating beaver in January was a death sentence. You knew that Timmy the trapper would probably kill them anyway. You just wanted them gone.

Just so you know, the dead beaver in that trap could have been somebody’s prize poodle – lets say the wealthy matron in charge of gift baskets for your Christmas parties – you could be in a hundred gallons more hot water than you are now. Think about that the next time you decide not to inconvenience your residents with the horrific burden of explaining how to wire wrap their precious trees.

Almost a Darwin Award….

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 27, 2012

Man hurt, charged after dam removal try

SPAFFORD, N.Y. (AP) – Police say Justin Clark had a plan for removing a nuisance beaver dam near his rural central New York property. Instead, he now has a severely injured hand and a drug-related arrest. And the dam is still there.

Ahhh Justin! You were this close to winning the coveted honor! Of course the key requirement for the award is that you remove your foolish self from the gene pool, but you came dam close, so that’s gotta count for something. You don’t actually have to die, just blow up your reproductive organs. Keep that in mind.

The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office tells the Posts-Standard of Syracuse that Clark was using gunpowder to make a homemade bomb he intended to use to blow up a beaver dam near his property in the town of Spafford, 20 miles southwest of Syracuse. But the device accidentally exploded Saturday, causing serious injuries to one of his hands.

The sheriff’s bomb disposal team was called in to investigate. That’s when detectives say they found 10 marijuana plants growing inside Clark’s house.

Blew up your fingers, failed to clear the dam, and had your home invaded by the swat team, I’d say Justin that at this point the words “Let that be a lesson to you” are a tad redundant! Still, you amused many many people who took time out of their busy day to read about your misfortune and smile, so that’s a contribution, don’t you think?

There slightly more info at Syracuse.com.

Clark injured his hand Saturday while making a homemade explosive he intended to use to remove a nuisance beaver dam near his property. Clark was transported to Upstate University Hospital, where he was treated, and members the Sheriff’s Hazardous Device Disposal Team were called to assist with the investigation. HDDT technicians report that Clark was using gunpowder to construct the makeshift device, which accidentally exploded.

Oh and if you’re still worried about that dam when you get out of jail, why don’t you look here or here for a better solution. It’s not as much fun as explosives I know, but maybe without all that weed you’ll need a better way to relax. I hear watching beavers is very soothing.

Johnston Iowa…changing the rules one beaver at a time!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 21, 2012

You’ll be relieved to know that the city council of Johnston, IA has voted to change the rules that prohibit trapping and relocation of beaver and have ‘voted to trap’ one nuisance beaver.

One pesky beaver won’t be a problem for the city of Johnston much longer.

On Tuesday the Johnston City Council approved a revision to the city ordinance for

Recently, a beaver has been wreaking havoc along the aptly named Beaver Creek.

City Administrator Jim Sanders said the current city ordinance did not allow for the city to trap the beaver and release it elsewhere.

I just have to ask. What on earth makes you think there’s only ONE beaver? Beavers aren’t known for living the single life in hermitage. And why does this article talk about permission to relocate with no indication of anything but trapping? I guess death is a kind of relocation….”the undiscovered country from who’s born no traveler returns” sort of thing

The revised ordinance, which was based on a similar ordinance in Urbandale, allows for trapping by a governmental unit to capture animals which are creating a public nuisance as a means of protecting public and private property. “I do believe a trap is a great way to relocate,” Matt Brown said of the ordinance. The council agreed to waive the second and third reading of the ordinance and approved publishing the ordinance.

Oh well. if Urbandale is doing it it MUST be okay. I mean, it’s not like its winter or anything. Or 6 degrees today in Johnston. I guess these beavers have been painstakingly making a food cache to withstand the freeze and when you ‘relocate them’ they’ll starve and die. You’re not doing something cruel and inhumane or anything.

And since its a new ordinance, there are no standards or requirements or laws about how to do this. No pesky rules about what kind of traps to use. No hancock’s for you. I’m sure you’ll get a snaggletoothed trapper to take out ‘the’ beaver with a snare or something. If he doesn’t die outright, he probably will starve in his new home before he dies of internal bleeding. Not to mention all the kits you’ll orphan by taking out their Dad or Mom. Hey maybe mom’s pregnant too already, so you might get an effective beaver abortion?

Well, I’m sure Iowa knows what its doing. We let them vote first, so they must be wise. They wouldn’t just change the ordinance for nothing would they?