Category: Who’s saving beavers now?

MORE FRIENDS FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? May 3, 2018

I received another email yesterday concerning what I’m going to call the luckiest beavers in the entire state of North Carolina. This time it was from a professor who was making those lucky beavers a website to share photos and information about them.

The email was asking me about a document found in some dusty corner of the website describing the bogus reasons cities say they have to kill beavers. Honestly, if you held a gun to my head I wouldn’t recognize it or remember writing it, but it had my name boldly on the cover so at one pint I must have – I made sure he had some more relevant resources and offered our support.

I’m very impressed with the way the site uses the photographs of supporters to document how the beaver habitat creates a vital ecosystem. I’m also happy that it names the creek where they live instead of just referring to it as property of the Home Owners Association of Briar Chapel. This might be my favorite photo. It’s a cardinal sitting on the beaver dam, which I have never seen before.

The website has the latest news about the beavers and a call for volunteers and donations. It also has a relevant links page (on which we’re number one) and a collection of videos and information.

Now one of those videos I hadn’t seen before and was produced at Cornell University for their 4H naturalist program. It is engaging and well done with a glowing review of beavers. There were just a few minor problems.

Can you guess the first one?

Okay, woodchucks aside, the other giant problem around 5:45 where it describes the dams beavers build to manage water. They go on to say that this is packed with mud to make a wall – so far so good – which the beaver then tunnels into to make a home!!!

Et tu brute? Cornell University is advertising that beavers live INSIDE the dam? Complete with graphics? Cornell University got a grant from USDA to say that? You know the smartest person from my entire high school got a scholarship to Cornell and it has always been kind of a hallowed place in my eyes. I remember how admiringl I received his letters from Ithaca College. How could they be wrong? Heck, maybe there’s new research I don’t know about and I’m the one whose wrong. Maybe the fact that our beavers didn’t live in the dam was just a fluke. And all the others do.

Okay, well I wrote Linda last night with the polite question about where she got that interesting point. (She’s a professor of Ent0mology by the way.) And mentioned to the website creator that he might want to switch videos to one that was more accurate. He obviously decided not to because who are you going to listen to, some crazy woman who saves beavers or CORNELL university for gods sake.

Here’s the entire video if you want to investigate for yourself.

IN WHICH AN ENTIRE CONTINENT SAVES BEAVERS

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? April 26, 2018

We are in a golden moment in time when all of a sudden all across the Northern Hemisphere folks have decided to save their beavers. I can’t imagine what’s caused it or how long it will last, but I’m going to bask fully in this bright sunshine as long as I can. Last night I got a frantic email from Atlanta Georgia with a man who was worried that the beavers who moved into the pond at his apartment complex would be hit by cars on the busy road beside them!

He said that he had seen one walk near traffic and wondered how he could help them. There are big stretches of the south where I couldn’t recommend a single beaver friend, but luckily he wasn’t too far away from The Blue Heron Nature Preserve so I introduced him to director Kevin McCauley. The wild part is, Kevin had JUST received a photo from a friend about a beaver in traffic.

Hopefully it’s the same one and they can figure this out.

Eek! Don’t you just love his little raised paw? Like an old italian grandpa shaking his fist at at kids driving too fast.

This morning there was a report from 841 miles away in London Ontario where a woman was upset to find beaver traps at her favorite park.

Worried someone’s dog could be injured or killed by the traps, Dupuis is questioning why the Ministry of Natural Resources is using the fatal devices to kill beavers in their natural habitat.

“It’s barbaric,” she said. “They’re not telling anybody about it.”“Twelve traps were set in the water, along the edge of the pond, well away from any trail or access point and marked with flags,” Kowalski said, adding the trapping is scheduled until the end of the month.

“You can put them in some place like a river and let them find their own territory. They don’t have to be killed,” said Salt, the founder of Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Centre in Mt. Brydges. “We don’t have an overpopulation of beavers in Southwestern Ontario.”

Located on the Thames River, the Komoka Provincial Park is known for its hiking trails, wildlife, diverse plant species and scenic views.

Just imagine what it will be like when everyone cares about the beavers near their home town. A girl can dream can’t she?

FRIENDS WITH BEAVERS

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? April 25, 2018

In addition to folks going out of their way to save beavers, they are also hiring people to do it the right way! Ben Goldfarb posted these photos of him and Mike Callahan working together to install a culvert protection fence (beaver deceiver) on Tuesday. You’ll not it is not the customary trapezoidal shape because of the site demands. I’m especially happy that Ben and Mike like working together because apparently when this author gig is all over Ben is thinking he’ll become the flow device expert in Connecticut, where he plans to settle.

Author and soon to be beaver installer Ben Goldfarb

.Mike was busy helping friends this week. Art Wolinsky in New Ham[shire also posted this time lapse video of his installation of culvert protection on Monday at Art’s Sherwood Glen’s condiminum as well.

It’s so fun to see it all come together!

More videos posted this morning, this from the West Hampton Trail Cam that we’ve been watching.

Westhampton Trail Cam: Beavers, then deer (video)

The article says the tussle is likely courtship. I relly don’t think so, considering we filmed mating and wrestling both. When ever we filmed this behavior it was with two yearlings wrestling to see who was stronger. Like on this lovely morning nine years ago.

DEFENDING THEIR RIGHT TO BEAVERS EVERYWHERE

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? April 24, 2018

There seems to be an epidemic of saving beavers – which makes it the best epidemic ever. Last night I was contacted again by about the Briar Chapel beavers, and this morning efforts are being made to save beavers in Wisconsin. There’s an update at the link that I can’t embed but is worth watching.

Village of Mukwonago plans to relocate beavers to prevent flooding

MUKWONAGO, Wis. (CBS 58) — The Village of Mukwonago plans to move a colony of beavers so they can remove a dam that is causing flooding in surrounding areas. Water from the creek has been spilling into the wetlands and moving towards storm water ponds near W Wolf Run and Maple Run.

“When flood water enters in the storm water ponds and it forces the water out over the top due to flooding. Then, you will have contaminated water entering into the Mukwonago and Fox River system,” said John Weidl, village administrator.

The village estimates there are about six beavers in the dam and la t week the village approved a solution to get rid of them. The options were to relocate or lethally remove them. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recommended lethal removal for the health of the animals themselves.

Snicker. Ya gotta love that. You better kill them right away or they might get sick or go hungry!

“We do not recommend relocation for any wild animal. Generally, if you relocate an animal you’re moving them to an area they are not accustomed to and they have a higher chance of dying in that area,” said Dianne Robinson, wildlife biologist.

But in the last few days, about a dozen of people throughout southeastern Wisconsin have offered their private land to move the beavers to.

“We understand the challenges and we’ve talked to the DNR and we understand their concerns. At this point, we feel like the best options for us are to relocate these animals,” said Weidl.

This week, the village’s department of public works will be working to find a trapper and meet with those who offered their land to see if it’s a suitable for the beavers. Weidl said the village will continue to work with the DNR so they can come to a solution that’s good for everyone as well as the animals.

So we have some nice private landowners that want beavers, and maybe we can find someone in Wisconsin who knows how to live trap them. Considering the possibilities this is sounding pretty ideal. I wrote the administrator this morning saying I’m glad he’s responding humanely but a more long-term solution is to install a flow device, and gave him the contact info for Amy Chadwick, Mike Callahan and Skip Lisle.

Let’s see if he gets curious. In the meantime it’s a madhouse of beaver rescue out there. If I were the mayor or city administrator I’d stay FAR AWAY from the issue right now.

People are demanding their right to beavers!

BEAVER REPRIEVER IN BRIAR CHAPEL

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? April 23, 2018

Good news on all fronts! We ended with exactly enough children to fill the 148 squares on our banners, and enough people complained about the beavers in Briar Chapel that it looks like they’ll be safe for a while longer. As I always say about saving beavers, “when the people lead the leaders will follow“, And this time it turns out to be true. I admit that a delay of execution isn’t the same as a pardon, but it’s giving their defenders time to get together and further strategize about the next step. And what I’m hearing is that they’re using that time wisely.

Beavers catch a break. Chatham County neighborhood delays their removal.

On Friday, the property manager of the Briar Chapel neighborhood announced it will not move forward with a plan to trap about 35 beavers that have built several dams along Pokeberry Creek in the northern Chatham County community. Two days earlier, the community association board had voted to eradicate the beavers.

Garretson Browne, president of the Briar Chapel Community Association board of directors, additional conversations with U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services officials had occurred since the vote to remove the rodents. Together, the neigh borhood and Wildlife Services decided to explore other options with the beavers, he said.

The association sent a statement to homeowners on Friday. It read:

The Briar Chapel Board of Directors acted in good faith and based on expert consultation from the US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, to manage the growing impact of beaver damage and flooding in our community. The board has investigated this issue over the past several months, and came to its conclusion only after significant due diligence was done on the options. The board would prefer other alternatives to manage this challenge, but they were presented with only one viable solution based on the significance of the situation. With that said, and understanding that no one, including the board, wants to see any wildlife harmed, we have communicated with the US Department of Agriculture and have discussed having additional consultation before any work is done.

This is my favorite part;

Stacey Donelan, another Briar Chapel resident, said many homeowners want to make sure the beavers are not killed. “Briar Chapel’s residents will keep up the pressure and protests until the BCCA BOD unquestionably confirm that killing the beaver population is irrevocably off the table,” Donelan said in an email.

Hurray for Stacey and her many friends! And hurray for people everywhere who stand up for beavers! It’s wonderful to be reminded of how we started on this auspicious occasion of a national magazine publishing so casually that “some cities have decided that beavers make good neighbors.” I love how it doesn’t even mention how hard we had to work or how many protests it took to force our city council to do the right thing.

“But now, some people are working to make sure beavers can live happily in their communities.”

Yes they are, Ranger Rick, in Martinez and in Briar Chapel too.

I thought you’d want to see the finished park banners the children created at Earth Day. Here are all six sides. Aren’t they lovely. Tell me again why people pay for artwork?