Category: Who’s Killing Beavers Now?

IT’S ALMOST DONE – AND NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON.

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 20, 2019

What a relief to know that the folks in St Johns NL aren’t getting any smarter than our cynicism would expect. Remember this city is on the very edge of the very edge of Canada almost in the Atlantic Ocean, and just North East of PEI which we know is notorious for beaver retardation. This is pretty much what you’d expect from a town that never read a book or looked at the internet.

N.L. town calls in trapper to deal with pesky beavers clearcutting trees

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A Newfoundland town has called in a trapper to deal with a group of pesky beavers that have been felling trees on private property — in some cases onto power lines.

But in recent years, the rodents have developed an affinity for trees in residential areas, clearcutting as many as 14 on one property in a single night.

Keith Park, a municipal enforcement officer with the town, said the beavers have become more brazen because new developments have been built closer to their homes.

“You’ll see them sometimes, swimming along the river bank — I guess they’re kind of scoping out where their next venture is,” Park said.

There are a number of beaver dams along the Humber River, but one large dwelling in particular — estimated at about three metres wide — is believed to be the source of the intrusive group because of its proximity to a residential street.

Get that? There are a number of dams on the river but they’ve spotted ONE in particular that has the bad beavers living in it. Because there’s no difference between a lodge and a dam and you can tell the morality of a beaver just by its address.

The provincial Department of Fisheries and Land Resources arranged for a trapper “to address complaints regarding nuisance beavers causing residential property damage,” according to a statement.

Park said the town will avoid disturbing beavers living in other parts of the river that haven’t been approaching private properties. As of Tuesday, the trapper reported six beavers have been caught and the issue appears to have abated for now, Park said.

Park said most residents in the hardest-hit area seem happy to see the beavers gone, but there has been some resistance to additional trapping.

The trapper reported he will remove traps from an area just outside town because someone has been intentionally setting them off, Park said.

The town is keeping an eye on the other beaver dwellings and Park said people are prepared for more visits in years to come, as more animals may move into the same dwelling.

“This (beaver) house has been there probably 10 or 15 years now,” Park said. “This will reoccur.”

“We killed the offending family, and I guess your trees are safe enough for now”. Never mind that new beavers will come soon and everyone knows this isn’t the end of anything. Too bad my urban booklet isn’t finished yet or I might send them one.

But it is coming along fairly nicely. Flip through the pages and take a peak why don’t you? There’s one and a half still blank in the center, but go through to the end. You can zoom in or share,

One last treat for the dedicated. I found this video by accident the other day. Doesn’t it look like this beaver is thinking about building a lodge from ice?

THE JOY OF BEAVER DISCOVERIES

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beaver-themed merchandise, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 17, 2019

How much do you love this photo and want to be this eager child unfolding the mysteries of a beaver pond for the first time or the twelfth time. Every morning I went down to see our beavers I felt just like this kid, Howard Carter at the edge of Tutankhamun’s tomb, on the verge of discovery. Thank you Betsy for sharing this image on the beaver management forum.

I’ve finally gotten to the part of my urban handout where I’m talking about various experiences of discovery. Judy Taylor-Atkinson of Port Moody wrote a beautiful piece for it that I thought I’d share. Remember to click on the image twice if the text is to small.

Isn’t that beautiful? The very definition of “Urban Wildlife bringing Social Cohesion”. Completely unlike this Utah city which is missing the forest AND the trees.

Park City Municipal Will Euthanize Trapped Beaver: Flooding And Damage From Dams On Poison Creek

Park City public works has hired a trapping service to capture and euthanize a couple of beaver that have built dams on the stream along the Rail Trail. Residents have complained to the city that the back up of water from a couple beaver dams is causing flooding and property damage.

Lots of beavers on NPR this week. I particularly liked this quote. He sounds almost sad.

On McCleod Creek, we have 13 pond levelers and these pond levelers are constructed to where the beavers will build a dam and we put a pond leveler in, and they quit building, so they don’t make it bigger and bigger. And the beaver does well, and we’ve been successful at those.” They use devices called pond levelers on McCloud Creek to encourage beaver habitat and dam building but Dayley says the ponds close to town on Poison Creek along the Rail Trail are too shallow. “

Remember the City Manager of Martinez told a resident that the KNEW about pond levelers but felt they wouldn’t work in Martinez. And uh, 11 years of safe beaver habitat says they were wrong.

Just saying.

Beaver friend Ulrich Messlinger sent me a copy of the new beaver book they are publishing in German “Entdecke die Biber” and wondered if I thought a translated version would be appreciated by American youth. I had fun reading it and told him yes of course. but couldn’t help sharing this one swiped image from it about beaver rehab. I have no permission to share this but couldn’t resist because I believe it is the sweetest beaver picture in the known world.

GO AHEAD. I DARE YOU. SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THE BEAVER WISDOM.

heidi08 Beaver Art, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? October 5, 2019

Today Worth A Dam is off to Wild Birds Unlimited for their fall nature event. It is the first such event since Gary Bogue’s death and likely to be tinged with rememberence. Last night I received word that his widow was hoping I’d come to the memorial. It startled me in an echoing kind of empty-corridor way to learn that I and the beavers were ever a topic of discussion in Gary’s home or personal life.

One life touches so many others.

Enough of this reflection. Off to Havre Montana where there is much debate over what to do with some namesakes that have interfered in Beaver Park. Havre is about half an inch from the Canadian border and I guess they’re getting some urgent messages their neighbors that trapping may not be the solution.

Is trapping the right way to manage beaver in Beaver Creek Park?

The Hill County Park Board for several months has been hearing proposals for alternative ways to control the beaver population in Beaver Creek Park, but one user of the park says the best way is how it has been done for decades – trapping.

“The (Hill County Park Board) has managed the park for decades,” Fran Buell said. “They did it right.”

Buell, a long-time trapper herself and member of the National Trappers Hall of Fame, added that the park has healthy wildlife and the only thing detrimental to the park is the beavers cutting down trees and causing flooding.

Sure, any solution you have to repeat over and over again is the best solution right? Like how when your tire has a leak and you keep refilling it with every day so you can get to work. There’s no single better way than to just keep repeating what was done before is there? I mean you can’t fix the leak right?

Park board member Renelle Braaten said that she is trying to put together a natural resource committee to look at wildlife management because the issue is larger than just beavers – it’s overall management of the park.

“It’s not all about trapping beavers,” she said. “It’s about the ecosystem and the need to get someone who knows what they are going to see what needs to happen.”

Braaten said the park board and the members of the community have a responsibility for promoting, preserving and protecting the park for future generations and she disagrees with trapping as a method of wildlife management.

“You can learn to work with them,” she said. “… I’d like to see us work with Mother Nature, not against her.”

Well, well, well. Ranelle has the right ideas although the article says that she read on “facebook” that trapping was inhumane and beaver deceivers are easy to install. Who quotes facebook as a source for anything? Okay she’s not the best witness on the stand, but her opponent isn’t great either.

Buell said that trapping is the best method for wildlife management and is a human way to control the population of beavers. Trappers, also do have the ability to target specific animals by altering the triggers and a number of different methods, although it is not always 100 percent accurate. She added that trapping is also generally human and even if another animal, such as a pet, was caught in a foothold trap the animal will not be terribly harmed.

????

She said that Beaver Creek Park has a large population of beavers. One pair of beavers can repopulate from 80 to 150 beavers within four years, with one pair of beavers possibly producing three to five kits, infant beavers, every year. She added that if the park has an overpopulation of beavers, the park could be changed drastically, with the beavers cutting down most of the trees and making the park a large wetland area. Having an overpopulation of beavers also raises the risk of beavers contracting diseases, which could be spread to humans and other animals, and starvation from not having enough food and resources available to sustain the population. An overpopulation could also cause the beavers to migrate to other areas.

????

Science is such a poor substitute for custom. Why use it? Never mind that 80 percent of beavers don’t breed until their third year and never mind that you will disperse and find their own territory and never MIND that an adult beaver enters estrus once a year. It’s true if I say so. I’m a trapper!!!!

“Trapping is recognized by the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks as one of the most ethical, human and responsible ways to harvest an animal,” she said.

The article then goes into a description of the many different kinds of traps that could be used because it’s such a complex science. But I think we should pause and just comment on the reporters habit of using the word HUMAN when he obviously means HUMANE. What’s ip up with that? I certainly agree that trapping is human. An animal would never do something like that. But I’m not sure that drowning an animal that can hold its breath 15 minutes is anywhere close to humane.

Braaten said that trapping does the opposite of controlling the population, instead encouraging more beavers to breed.

“If you stop trapping them and stop killing them, the population would level out,” she said. “Killing off their offspring is making them breed more, so you’re not accomplishing anything. How many years have we been trapping out of Beaver Creek Park? And we still have a problem. So why don’t we try some of these other things.”

????? I’m getting a sense Havre isn’t the apex of public learning. The reporter seems uneducated. The Trapper seems uneducated and the beaver defender seems darn uneducated. Maybe I’m a cynic. Did we ever sound that foolish once? Or is Martinez just a city of beaver Elites?

Humane Society expert Dave Pauli said that the best way to manage any property and any program is generally not one specific way and the park board could use a number of different methods and tools to manage the park.

Pauli said that for the past 10 years, according to park records, the park has trapped about 180 beavers a year, but the park still has a flooding issue.

“So maybe that method doesn’t work,” he said.

???? 180 beavers a year? 180 beavers a year? There would have to be miles and miles of streams and rivers to get to that number. And how would you learn a figure like that. Surely there is no park officer who keeps a record of the numbers of beavers killed that year. Maybe there’s a primitive tally on some trappers fireplace?

He added that trapping also has some negative effects and disrupts the population. But tools, such as beaver deceivers, are effective and may be able to reach mutually acceptable results.

“Generally speaking, with wildlife, you cannot kill your way to success,” he said.

Pauli said he is not totally opposed to trapping although the park needs to have other tools it can use and turn to.

“I am not suggesting that it’s off the table, but it should be a tool that is used in a situation where it actually solves something,” he said.

He added that the beaver deceivers are generally successful, and although the beavers work to plug them up, if the beaver deceiver is maintained and regularly cleared out, the beavers will become discouraged and either learn how to live with it or move.

Welp. Everyone deserves a pat on the back for this one. It’s good to spend time talking about beavers instead of just trapping them. It’s good to consider the use of beaver deceivers and good to acknowledge that sometimes trapping can be necessary. Now I sure wish all off you had spent some time reading this website or any other reputable source on beaver management, and I wish you had any idea of the numbers of beavers you have or any understanding of population dynamics, but heck.

Not every town is Martinez you know.

BEAVER ROUNDUP

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 10, 2019

I know what you’re thinking.

Because of the last five glowing articles I posted about beavers you’re probably thinking, hey beavers have arrived! People everywhere understand how great they are! That woman can probably stop writing sad news about them every day and take up knitting or basketry!

But if you were thinking these things, you’d be wrong.

County works to trap, kill beavers in Lake Terrapin

The days are numbered for beavers that have made their homes in the Lake Terrapin neighborhood. Prince William County officials on Monday began getting ready to trap them.

“We know they’re in there, We just have to find them” Said once city official,

I would quote more but this morning the entire story is behind a paywall and I can’t find more details. Lake Terrapin is in Virginia. And the reporter believes that the beavers are living in the dam so I set him gently straight last night before the entire report disappeared. Never mind. We know what it says. We can imagine some woman says she doesn’t want them killed – just moved – and then someone from fish and game is quoted as saying beavers can’t be moved because it just moves the problem somewhere else.

This ain’t our first rodeo. We know the story. We know this story from CT too.

Complaints on the Rise, DEEP Offers Guidance on Beavers

The number of beaver-related nuisance complaints filed with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) over the past three years rose from 113 in 2016 to 163 in 2018. Another 150 complaints have already been filed this year.

“Beaver complaints are definitely on the rise, and the damage they are causing can be severe,” said Chris Vann, a Nuisance Wildlife Biologist for the Wildlife Division of DEEP.

When a complaint is filed with DEEP, the affected landowner – whether a resident, town or other organization – can apply for a permit to trap the beaver or beavers. Before DEEP will issue a permit, the landowner must prove that the beavers are either causing severe damage or pose a threat to public health and safety. Photographic documentation can be used as evidence for claims of damage, but in the case of septic issues a report by a professional building or health inspector is required.

Now maybe if you were anyone else but a stats student and beaver advocate you’d see these numbers and say GOSH beaver problems are on the rise! Good think we’re killing so many. But come closer gentle reader because there’s a very interesting finding in these dead beaver charts that I want to point out to you.

The red line is beavers killed. And there are two places it rises sharply. In 2012 and 2016, see that? Basically beaver take increased in those years by nearly 100%. And the following year beaver take declined by only 11 percent.

Meaning you have to do twice as much work to get only a 10% gain, Where else would this statistic be considered convincing? I mean if you increased your business expenses by 100% and then made only 1o percent back that would be a net 90 percent loss right? Most businesses would fold with numbers like these.

Except the beaver killing business. Which does well and is devoid of all goals but one. I mean it doesn’t matter if hiring a security guard makes you a more likely target for robbery next time. You’re not thinking about tomorrow. Just today. Just that one beaver family that is flooding your basement or carport.

Wikipedia tells me that the entire state of Connecticut is 5.567 square miles of which 12.6 is water. That means they get about 11 complaints a year for ever 1 square mile of water they have. We can probably assume that some of those different complaints are about the same beavers. Since a beaver might eat Mrs. Landings maple tree one night and Mr. Todd’s crab apple the other.

“If beavers continue to cause problems residents are definitely allowed to apply for another permit. We have many landowners who apply multiple times,” Vann said.

In the state of Connecticut, there are several professional trappers, but also 35 licensed volunteers spread throughout the state that can help residents with a permit to trap beavers during the offseason. The closest volunteers to Old Lyme are located in Haddam and Clinton, according to Vann.

The offseason stretches from April 1 to November 30. During the other four months of the year it is trapping season for beavers. The fur trade is still big business in Connecticut, Vann said, and there is no limit to the number of beavers that can be trapped per person. According to Vann, each year between 880 and 1,000 beavers are trapped for their fur in Connecticut.

That’s right. We kill 1000 beavers for fur and a couple hundred because they bug us and we still have to pay a government agency to keep track of this for us. Killing beavers is big business. It’s the way things have always been done. If we have more we just kill more. And if we have less we still kill more.

Think of it as ‘sustainable’.

WYOMING PUTS IT [UNTRAPPED] FOOT DOWN

heidi08 Beavers and Wetlands, Who's Killing Beavers Now? June 20, 2019

Things are complicated in Wyoming.

Some of the people who live there like to hunt and fish and some of the people that live there like to see wildlife. And those camps can be at logger heads. At the very same timeas Wyoming released their amazing report on beaver benefits they were altering the trapping regulations from selling single permits for specific steams to unlimited beaver trapping everywhere. This caused pretty intense pushback from folks who cared about the issue and now Game and Fish is having to walk back its take back.

Public snaps back at beaver trapping changes

Following public objections and opposition from some unlikely camps, wildlife managers are walking back plans to open up an array of Jackson Hole streams to unlimited beaver trapping.

Portions of Ditch Creek, Willow Creek and Game creeks were all positioned to be open to any trapper possessing an over-the-counter license but will now be recommended for a complete closure.

Draft regulations that will advance next month to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission will still recommend that Fall, Mosquito and Dog creeks — now collectively managed and restricted to a single trapper — be opened to any fur trapper who’s interested. Little Horse Creek falls into this same category.

Public insight gathered through the season-setting process and input from biologists prompted the revisions, Game and Fish spokesman Mark Gocke said.

OOh that must a been a lot of INSIGHT. I bet they got all the INSIGHT they could stand. I’m suddenly reminded of Leslie Knope describing the yelling that goes on at town hall meeting as “People caring loudly and shouting democracy at me”.

Something tells me they got a bellyful of caring and democracy.

One Jackson Hole group that staked out its opposition is the Wyoming Wetlands Society, which has spent years relocating problem-causing beavers from private lands into streams like Ditch Creek.

“Unregulated trapping in the 19th Century led to the extirpation of beaver from much of Wyoming, and while beaver have re-occupied large portions of their historic range, they have only done so at roughly 10% of densities found prior to European contact,” Wyoming Wetlands Society employees Carl Brown, Cory Abrams and Bill Long wrote in a comment letter.

“We are opposed to changing these areas from limited quota to unlimited take, and believe they do not uphold the recommendations set forth by the state in the State Wildlife Action Plan,” the biologists and former game warden wrote. “Unlimited trapping of beaver has the potential to inflict negative population impacts and potentially lead to localized extirpation.”

Unlike California where they give out as many depredation permits as people want, Wyoming issues a “limited number” of permits to particular individuals. Sometimes the anti-trapping crowd gets those permits, and that means the trapping doesn’t happen. Of course the trapping crowd HATE when that happens.

Ditch Creek resident Bob Caesar is among those who successfully acquired a trapping permit for his neighborhood stream and then proceeded not to use it. His reasoning was that the Wyoming Wetlands Society had been transplanting problem beavers into the drainage to reestablish populations, but a fur trapper was running a trapline that was negating the effort. Today, Caesar said, beavers are relatively sparse in the drainage that climbs east into the Leidy Highlands.

“I do know from talking to old-timers that they’re used to be some big beaver ponds up here and good trout fishing in those beaver ponds,” Caesar said in an interview. “And that’s all gone.”

Caesar was disappointed with how Game and Fish initially responded to the situation.

“I look at it as being vindictive, and that’s the kind of stuff you do in middle school,” Caesar said. “Why don’t they pick up the phone and say, ‘Hey Bob, can we talk about this? ‘But they went around [us].”

I’m thinking when you’re trying to save beavers in Wyoming you have to learn to talk differently on their behalf. You have to throw around phrases like “Talking to old timers” and “Hey Bob can we talk about this?” You should probably learn to say ‘folks’ once in a while too. Because it helps to not sound too uppity.

But sometimes it works.

“We recognize the keystone nature of beavers,” Game and Fish’s McWhirter said, “and their extremely valuable role on the landscape. We don’t want to see that impacted.”

Hmm. That’s nice. I wish CDFG had ever said that ever in their entire existence. That would be nice.

Some reaches of northwest Wyoming streams are already completely closed to beaver trapping, including Cache Creek, Cliff Creek and Granite Creek downstream of the hot springs. A common thread among those three streams is that they parallel roads, are easily accessed and see heavy recreational use.

Jackson writer and retired Bridger-Teton National Forest employee Susan Marsh took issue with changes that were afoot to Fall and Mosquito creeks, two of the drainages still slated for unlimited trapping. At both streams, she noted that beaver activity often occurs right along the well-used roads paralleling the creeks.

“Therefore the ease of trapping is increased in the same places where people camp and picnic,” Marsh wrote. “Instead of going to an unlimited take of beavers in these areas, we would urge [Game and Fish] to approach trapping regulations with caution, realizing that this activity can be incompatible with other uses of the national forest.

“The more dogs that end up in leg hold traps or snares,” she said, “the more public outrage will turn toward trapping in general.”

See, that there is some of those special Wyoming arguments against trapping I mentioned before. “Don’t allow trapping on the creeks where folks picnic because when the family dog gets caught in the conibear people will just be MORE anti trapping – and we surely wouldn’t want that”.

Very clever. I like it, Right up there with, “Don’t allow so much beaver trapping because a thriving population will produce more of the other wildlife we all want to trap”.

Game and Fish, meanwhile, is moving forward with plans to implement an annual beaver-monitoring program. The results from the surveys, which will be both ground-based and aerial, could help shape future beaver trapping seasons.

Hmm. So it looks like Game and Fish decided on a kind of muted unlimited policy in which they decided some streams are off limits and some streams are free-for-alls in the hope that this would regulate the beaver population. BUT they are going to implement an annual beaver monitoring program just to make sure they don’t kill too many.

I know its not enough. And the controlled trapping was better, but gosh I wish CDFG had EVER EVER EVER had a beaver monitoring program to count if there were enough beavers left. Or even admitted the need for one.

Sheesh.