Cheryl called me yesterday with an APB that the wildlife rescue program “Sea Rescue” was profiling the adoption of a beaver kit. The story is that sea world learned of a kit that survived a bear attack in Canada and flew up to get him. They didn’t clarify exactly why it was worth flying thousands of miles to raise an orphaned kit when they could just pluck one of the many that are routinely killed in their back yard, but okay. They also said that because it was hand reared by a human it could never be in the wild, which I bet Audrey Tournay would find very interesting.
The kit’s name is “PEANUT”, which is kind of adorable.
I of course snapped on the TV in time to hear that the baby beaver “had to be taught to swim, or they would drown!” Which is bunk because beavers pretty much swim from birth (and if you were shaped like a peanut you probably would too) but need to be taught to DIVE or they can’t get in or out of the lodge. Still the footage is adorable so you better keep an eye out if you’re able. .
City officials are making plans to destroy the beaver dams that have been built across the Oligarchy Ditch, such as this one near North Shore and Breakwater drives. (Matthew Jonas/Times-Call) ( Matthew Jonas )
Remember the “best-ditch ever?” and the story of the oddly titled “oligarchy ditch?”. Well they’ve decided to take some action with the beavers living there, and maybe because they’re 45 minutes from Sherri Tippie or maybe because of the Estes park bruhaha, or maybe even because I wrote them when the article appeared last year, the news ain’t all bad.
LONGMONT –– These furry vandals didn’t leave any fingerprints behind, but their teeth marks are everywhere.
Beavers have wreaked havoc along the Oligarchy Ditch near McIntosh Lake, bringing down trees and using them to build sizable dams across the ditch, prompting city officials to put together a plan to get the water flowing again.
Dan Wolford, the city’s land program manager, said Friday he was putting the finishing touches on a communication his department will be sending to City Council in the next day or two outlining what those plans are, and he expects crews to begin dismantling the dams either next week or the week after.
“We’re developing a citywide standard operating procedure plan,” Wolford said.
I’d like to pause a moment and say that sometimes in life you are giveninformation that includes both good news and bad news, and depending on what kind of day you’ve had or how tight your shoes are or or what sort of life curve you’re grading on, you could feel either hopeful or grim about it. Sometimes the opposing forces could be of such equal weight that they cancel each other out so you end up feeling nothing much at all. I’m not sure what I feel when I read this story. Here’s an example:
After the dams are removed, city forestry crews will either wrap the trees or use another method to dissuade the beavers from their chewing habit, Wolford said.
“Another technique that’s out there is painting it with some gritty sand, some water-based gritty sand, because they don’t like the taste,” he said.
Okay then.
I have just two corrections for Longmont, and then I’ll wish them god’s speed.
Stop using staff hours to rip out dams. Install a flow device instead.
Beavers dislike the TEXTURE – not taste. Last time I checked beavers don’t chop down trees with their tongues.
Our ‘boots on the ground’ spies liasions attended Tom Purdy’s lecture on Urban Beavers in London Canada last night. It had more than 370 attendees and folks were turned away! Feedback from one lucky attendee follows:
I thoroughly enjoyed last nights talk at the library. Tom seems to know his stuff and I felt his view of beavers and urban beaver issues were spot on. He even mentioned the Stanton beaver story, but he was careful not to get into the politics of it. Good stuff. 80% of his presentation was about the life of a beaver, things we all know. At the end he mentioned solutions, again, all the ones we agree on and promote. He would be a great guy on our side if we ever needed that extra help to convince the naysayers!
Margaret Gelinas Dog Rescue Volunteer co-owner of the Market Pet Shop Great Canadian EcoFest Director www.greatcanadianecofest.ca
Great Canadian Ecofest? Ecofest with a beaver on the logo? Be still my heart! Can we possibly chat about how beavers will be ‘featured’ in this fest? Wowowow! New friends for beavers! Here’s some more good news. Jon saw our newest family member (last summers kit) going into the old lodge this morning in the wee hours. He’s not a yearling yet, but he definitely isn’t a baby anymore….beaver-tween? And if you miss seeing beavers yourself, you will enjoy photographer Ann Cameron Siegal’s amazing beaver slideshow here.
(And doesn’t this photo look like ‘Dad’?) Cick for a fantastic beaver slideshow - Ann Cameron Siegal
An illustrated talk about Castor Canadensis, better known as the Canadian beaver, will launch the six-week Nature in the City series Tuesday at the Wolf Performance Hall in downtown London. Learn about this iconic symbol of history and industry that is both admired and scorned. (QMI Agency)
The eighth incarnation of the hugely popular Nature in the City speaker series kicks off on Tuesday at the Central Library’s Wolf Performance Hall in downtown London. Nature London and the London Public Library are co-sponsors.
Through six illustrated talks, Londoners again have an opportunity to learn about interesting aspects of our urban habitats. However, too often we simply see streets, bricks and mortar within the city limits there is a surprising diversity of spaces, plants, and animals.
Tuesday’s presentation will be on the theme of urban beavers. Since these animals are largely nocturnal, we see more evidence of beavers’ presence than the animals themselves.While many admire this industrious emblem of Canada, others decry North America’s largest rodent. Outdoor educator Tom Purdy will talk about how these adaptable animals cope within London.
While I have made every possible human effort to establish first contact with Tom, I’ve had about as much luck as SETI so far. The good news is that I contacted Donna Dubreuil of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre and she put me in touch with ‘boots on the ground’ in his area, so to speak. This morning, she sent this:
London Free Press: Gillespies’ article this morning is on Tom Purdy’s lecture tomorrow. In the past, Gillespie has been known to be anti-beaver (largely from info he received from a local trapper.) Gillespie quotes Purdy saying that trapping is the last resort when dealing with beaver problems. He states that beaver deceivers and baffles allow us to peacefully coexist with this amazing animal. The article also references Stanton Drain…
And then she sent the article which contains this. (God, I love having ‘boots on the ground…)
Although some local environmentalists opposed moving the beavers, those animals were moved to the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Rosseau, near Parry Sound, for the winter and will be transferred to the Munsee-Delaware First Nation reserve this spring. Beavers can ignite strong emotions. I learned that about two years ago when I wrote a column about a licensed trapper who has removed beavers — in lethal fashion — for both private landowners and the City of London for nearly 20 years.
After writing about the trapper, I received a number of angry letters and e-mails, including one from a young former Londoner who, borrowing a page from my description of the lethal beaver traps, wrote that she’d like to see me “trap yourself and find out how it feels to have your vertebrae crushed slowly and painfully while you slip into an irreversible state of unconsciousness.”
Well, that is fairly colorful. Do beavers provoke strong emotions? To be honest, for me ‘beavers‘ don’t provoke nearly as strong emotions as ‘stubborn ignorance’, ‘willful dishonesty’ and ‘puposeful cruelty’ do. But, hey that’s just me. The article also says this:
Although Purdy acknowledges that intervention is warranted in some situations, he says in most cases we can coexist with the flat-tailed chewer. “(Trapping) should be a last resort,” he says. “There are lots of other strategies that should be tried first.”
Purdy points out that beaver dams, which can often cause damaging flooding, can be circumvented by “beaver baffles” or “beaver deceivers.” These devices feature underwater pipes that alleviate flooding while still preserving the dam, which beavers use to maintain a safe watery route to food.
Tom! Buddy! Old pal! Ever think about starting a beaver festival in London?
Let’s say, (and why not) that an unnamed city a fair drive from Martinez had some beavers that were blocking a culvert. Not surprising yet? Here’s the fun part: through a weird accident of fate they didn’t want to kill them. (Yet.) They wondered if they could solve the problem another way, and wrote Wildcare for help.
Wildcare didn’t know much about fixing beaver haitat but they had recently published my article about it and sent their SOS my way. I followed up and talked to these folk about the issue and arranged for Cheryl to go have a look at the habitat. Gasp-inducing fact #1: when I mentioned the value of beavers to the watershed and all the wildlife they’d produce, the person on the phone said “Oh you don’t have to convince me! We know!”
Let’s say that when Cheryl was out scoping the habitat she met the man behind the beaver-savin’ campaign who happened to have installed a camera to keep watch on them. Lets say he was actually employed for this unnamed city and asked if we could do a site survey and tell them what they might need. Let’s say at our yearly new year’s dinner,Cheryl arranged for Jon and Igor to come traipsing around the habitat and look around.
Now let’s say that the habitat turned out to be the most magical beaver wetlands imaginable. They had a delightful morning following the twists and turn of a perfectly meandering stream and identifying 6 dams and countless chews. There were cheerful conversations, otter scat, paper whites, and more secret dams to uncover than they had time to track down! A second visit was planned. Mike’s DVD was given along with two Worth A Dam hats, at which time the resident beaver saver offered his card.
Gasp-inducing fact 2: his card said he was from an undisclosed department that had greatly balked about saving our beavers, lo these many years ago.
What happens next? Well, Igor and I may be requested to present a plan to the city council, (no names until they’re on board) and detail the reasons to live with beavers, of which I can tell you right now the biggest one is that this habitat is so beautiful that even if they trap every single one they’ll be more in 6 months anyway. We discussed the Worth A Dam scholarship and having Mike or Skip come do it and we’ll see what happens next!
All in all a pretty remarkable start to the new year. And I am in wonderland.
The kit’s name is “PEANUT”, which is kind of adorable.
