Category: City Reports

Rhode Island goes ‘Martinez’

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? April 23, 2013

Cumberland Officials Consider Killing Park Beavers

CUMBERLAND — A family of beavers has grabbed the attention of town officials, who are concerned that the dam it built on Sylvie’s Brook near the athletic fields at Diamond Hill Park will lead to flooding problems in the area. They also are concerned about the beavers causing tree damage in the popular park.

Their idea to trap and kill the animals, however, is being called cruel and inhumane by some area residents. Local resident Deborah Vine-Smith is among those concerned the beavers will be killed. “Aren’t we supposed to be compassionate to wildlife?” she asked.

Wait! I know this story! Doesn’t the city say “beavers need to be killed” and residents say “Find another solution!” And the city says, “There is no solution but the FINAL solution”.

After reading a story in the April 17 edition of The Valley Breeze, Smithfield resident Nicole Waybright sent an e-mail to DEM that read, in part, “Is there another alternative? I can picture the town making a quick, zero-researched decision. Can something be done to prevent this tragedy? Acre by acre of R.I. is being developed. … I sometimes wonder where the animals will go. People see them as ‘nuisances,’ but is the answer to kill or destroy animal after animal for human comfort until extinction? There must be a way for park wildlife, environment and humans to co-exist without destruction.”

Go get the popcorn. I think this is going to get good. Rhode Island is not exactly a beacon state when it comes to beavers. This could be a turning point. Now shh, listen to this.

Fellow Smithfield resident Jim Bastian was so upset after reading the same story that he fired off an e-mail to various media organizations across the state, including ecoRI News.

“Once again, the arrogance and cruelty of human beings towards nature shows its ugly head,” he wrote. “Cumberland officials are moving towards killing the family of nuisance beavers that reside in their park. Isn’t that a great example of our handling of nature? Isn’t it a park … where we want wildlife to have at least something of a safe haven so on weekends we can ‘get back to nature?’ Or do we really mean, a very controlled nature where we force it to meet our petty narrow perimeter of what we need nature to be? It is not animals that are the nuisance, once again it is human beings.”

Ahh, Jim. Nicely said. Now you just need about fifty more letters from school teachers and senior citizens and a girl scout troop and maybe a local sheriff. I’m serious. Let me tell you in Martinez we found out that getting solutions is easy. Preventing flooding is easy. Solving problems is easy. And protecting trees is easy.

But educating city officials is hard, hard, hard work.

You’re off to a great start. Sounds like you might already have a friend in Mr. Brown

Charles Brown, a wildlife biologist for the state in the management of furbearers wrote that “beavers are often referred to as a keystone species because of their ability to alter the landscape and create wetland habitat beneficial to a variety of wildlife species.”

See if you can bring Brown on board to install a flow device. Get some third graders to help wrap trees. Martinez advice to Rhode Island is to stay vocal and do your homework. And maybe you should watch this from about 45 minutes on.

P1070278 — Click photo to watch an amazing civic beaver meeting

Good luck!

Call the beaver WAAmbulance!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Environmental, pictures April 19, 2013

I’m sorry but my tolerance for the “EW beaver” brigade is just about worn out. Honestly, you’d think that the fact that we cover the same story day after day from Oklahoma to Ontario would eventually begin sink in! Information should be flooding the Google pages if nothing else so that folks couldn’t possibly search ‘beaver problems’ without finding ‘solutions’.

Ahh, but you’d be wrong if you thought the willful need to maintain ignorance was easily vanquished in combat. No, it is viral-hardy, and always sprouting new varieties when one form is cured. Never mind. It’s almost Earth day. Let’s educate.

First we should go to the Nutmeg state where a budding poet-laureate has made the brilliant discovery that the words “beaver” and “cleaver” rhyme. Good for him.

Pardon The Reality: Cleaver beavers?

We live on one of Lewisboro’s pristine lakes, within an area served by the Three Lakes Council (3LC), an organization dedicated to the preservation of the entire surrounding watershed.

And here in 3LC-land we’re dealing with a beaver problem unknown in recent memory. Specifically: they’re back.

Beavers destroy beloved trees, including very large ones, sometimes literally overnight, and gobble up shoreside vegetation, including waterfront perennial gardens; and they build dams that block the two much-travelled channels connecting our three lakes.

There is substantial disagreement among lake residents as to what the proper course of action should be, and for the past couple of years, since the beaver issue reared its cutesy nose, destructive teeth and talented claws, my neighbors have been discussing what to do about it via the 3LC email group.

So the good folks of the Three Lakes Council are unsure about having all that NATURE messing up their views? And even though neighbors know you can protect trees with wire, its so dam UGLY it would be much prettier just to kill them! Never mind that abrasive painting would solve all their problems and cost 30 cents. Never mind that beavers are bringing fish for the fishermen and birds for the birdwatchers. They have columns to write. Does beaver rhyme with the name of any other murder weapon besides cleaver? Maybe he’ll work on a ‘trap rap’ next?

The save-the-beaver group points out that shoreside trees can be protectively wrapped (advice for protecting gardens is less available). And a group of dedicated and stalwart volunteers now dismantles beaver dams in the channels as they’re built.

But should residents be forced to put what some consider unsightly wrappings on their trees and give up on waterfront flowers and vegetation just to accommodate a few interloping rodents?

Sigh.

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Now let’s rush to Incline Village near Tahoe where they just can’t kill beavers quickly enough!

Killing of beavers in Incline Village causes stir among Tahoe wildlife groups

When members of the Sierra Wildlife Coalition recently heard reports of beavers potentially being killed on public land along Incline Creek near Tyrolian Village, they were shocked and frustrated.

The permit, which allows for the trapping or shooting of beavers on Incline Creek, requires shooting authorization to be given by city or county government. Tyrolian Village Association is the homeowners’ association for the Tyrolian Village subdivision in Incline Village, so in this instance, Washoe County would have to give the OK.

The Tyrolian Village Association issued a statement Tuesday chronologically detailing events. According to the statement, beavers began damming a small stream next to TVA property approximately three years ago.

Beaver ponds were rapidly eroding the dirt berm and trench line supporting the TVA sewer line, which transports raw sewage from more than 200 homes. The association said workers attempted to break up the dams, but beavers quickly rebuilt them.

Upon seeking help from local, state and federal agencies over a two-year span, according to the statement, none of the agencies disagreed with the need to remove the beavers, nor did any suggest alternatives, other than obtaining a depredation permit.

So wait, are you saying that the Tyrolian Village Association allows raw sewage to pass in open canals from its homes? You might need to change your name from “Village” to ‘Medieval residence cluster’ okay? Oh, wait the raw sewage is in a protected pipe that’s resting near a berm beaver ponds could possibly erode. Anyone have a tape measure handy? I’d love to measure how dangerous the situation is!

Wait, again, I’m sorry. Doesn’t it snow in Incline village (I mean Incline MRC)? So isn’t the snow melting about four months of the year and wouldn’t those lines be exposed to soggy conditions anyway? I mean I’m sure you took that into account when you made them, right? Can a beaver pond really cause more erosion than 3 feet of snow? Really?

Horn said IVGID land begins below Tyrolian Village at Diamond Peak Ski Resort.

“Since we’re (IVGID) the water purveyor for Incline Village and Crystal Bay, we’re certainly concerned about the environmental impact of (beaver-caused) erosion going down this creek and into the lake,” Horn said. “But the turbidity is not at any level that would be unacceptable to us.”

Right. It’s those beaver-caused problems that run into the lake that you need to worry about. Not those humans and detergents and oils and weed-killers and….

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And now to clear your palate; the Delightful Surfing beaver by Ann Siegal.

Surfing beaver – Ann Cameron Siegal

When the ‘flowing’ gets tough….

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions April 17, 2013

The tough install a flow device!

Mantua workers adjust beaver dam after residents complain of flooding

After the South Jersey Times reported on the submersion of a walking path in Jennifer Forsyth’s backyard, township officials approved the installation of a flow device, which allows water to flow through the dam rather than around it. Forsyth was pleased with the speed with which the township was able to address the problem.

“It was really cool that, in less than a week, they made a decision,” she said. “We should get our path back, and there’s still a pond there. There should be plenty of habitat for the beavers.” Workers installed the flow device Thursday, and the project was completed in a single day.

Hurray! Solutions to the rescue and you can stop wasting time ripping out the dam! I wish there was a photo of the device, because I’d hate to think they installed something ridiculous like an egg-beater in there. But since its New Jersey and Sarah Summerville has already been involved I’m going to assume its a success story and chalk up another win for team beaver! Oh and this is my favorite part:

The ponds that form as a result of beavers building dams across streams provide an environment in which birds, fish and mammals all thrive. Forsyth said she and her husband have seen wood ducks, river otters, wading birds and more fish than ever in the water since the beavers first moved in about a year ago. The flow device will maintain water levels so that the pond is kept to a minimum depth, controlling the reproduction rates of the beavers and alleviating some of the flooding to nearby properties.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it’s done.

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Now who’s driving to tahoe to say this to the waterboard friday?

Forum to discuss beavers, land-use conflicts and management

Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board staff will host a forum Friday to receive input from agencies, land managers, and interested parties regarding beavers, beaver habitat modifications, and beaver management in the greater Tahoe/Truckee area. This forum is meant to provide a means for interested parties to voice their concerns, identify issues and gain an understanding of applicable regulations pertaining to the management of beavers.

Hopefully we’ll get some smart beaver advocates there! Tahoe needs more beavers.

Now I’ve seen everything…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? April 13, 2013

Beaver blogging is a strange pastime that often reveals the very odd and irrational underbelly of civic planning, nature awareness, and education. Over the years I’ve been doing this I’ve gotten used to reading about city engineers who think beavers should be trapped or they might flood the town, mayors who think they should be trapped before they eat all the trees, and city planners who think they’re breeding in the sewers. I’ve been through the rabid beaver scares, the beavers eat salmon scares, and the beavers ruin the water for fish scares. Heck, recently I’ve even followed a beaver murder.

But this surprises me.

In case you fainted too, I’ll recap. The beavers are chewing trees along a beautiful nature path. What if the trees falls down and hurts someone? The clip features a city council member that wants the beavers dead, and a city council member who thinks that would be wrong. IE somewhere in the world there are city council members who know a little more about nature than Martinez.

The tie breaker in this contest is the Salmon Arm Bay Nature Enhancement Society (SABNES) describes its mission thusly:

To Assist the Ministry of the Environment and the Nature Trust of BC with the development and operation of the Salmon Arm Bay, its walkways, trails and viewing facilities for scientific, educational and environmental purposes and to increase the awareness and involvement with related projects in the community

I was having a hard time thinking about a non-profit developed specifically to “Help” an already existing governmental agency, but then I thought about the ‘friends groups’ in National Parks, (of which the John Muir Associations one.) The difference of course is that the friends group exists solely because of the federal group, and all it does is things that help it. As such we have a member of NPS at every meeting and they have to approve everything that goes to press or gets communicated about them.

Of course SABNES should respond that beavers are a huge asset to the nature area. Their chewing of trees stimulates a natural coppicing that becomes ideal nesting habitat for migratory and songbirds. They should point at this study which showed that beavers increased bird count for an area specifically because of their chewing. In Martinez we have greatly enjoyed the abundance of new bird species that have come since the beavers settled. And they might enjoy this video, which shows one of the many uses birds find for beaver-chewed trees. Rookeries for Great blue heron is another. Or dead trees for wood ducks. Or lodges that make much desired swan and geese nesting locations. You get the idea.

Here’s a thought. Instead of helping the Ministry of the Environment find reasons to kill beavers (they’ve got that covered), and letting councilman Eliason think that killing them is cheaper, why not help them learn about how important beavers are for the very environment they’re charged with protecting? Maybe you can sponsor a local high school science class to do a species count, or boy scouts to sand paint trees, or appoint a few wildlife and tree monitors whose job it is to check for new nesting and dangerous trees that need city staff to remove them?

Better yet, watch this at your next council meeting or board meeting, and then we can talk.

Is San Jose as smart as Martinez?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental April 9, 2013

Was your sound up? Did you hear that beaver chorus starting at 1:12? If you’re counting along at home, that was three beavers on camera in the Guadalupe river. And one very pregnant mama. Since she didn’t fertilize herself we can assume there are at least four beavers living in silicon valley.

I wonder if they were pleading with the Santa Clara Valley Water District to let them stay. Obviously this is a family that’s been around for a while. Mom is pregnant and needs a safe home to raise a family. This is no time for spring cleaning, and apparently the SCVWD is already saying that they should go.

Maybe you can help change their minds? Go sign the petition.