Category: City Reports

Missing the point…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions June 28, 2012

Belgrade will continue removing troublesome beaver dams

By Mechele Cooper: Staff Writer Morning Sentinel

BELGRADE — The town will continue removing troublesome beavers that build their homes in culverts, a problem that has gotten worse this year and can lead to problems for landowners and costly road repairs.

“Beavers have become a serious problem,” said Selectman Ernie Rice. “Not only are they a hazard on roads when they flood, but also they do a lot of damage.”

Rice said the town has put up barriers to discourage beavers and are sensitive to people’s feelings toward the animal. But beaver dams in the culverts can cause flooding and washouts that can lead to costly road repairs, he said.

Road Commissioner Kevin Hawes said the town has had a number of problems with beavers returning to places they were removed from.

This just in. Beavers block culverts. Even though it annoys us. They could, of course, build a long dam across the inlet or outlet and leave the culvert entirely protected so that our roads drain the way they were meant to drain. But do they, even once, think of our traffic needs? No! Beaver selfishly think only of the most direct route to getting the pond of their dreams. They look at all their options and choose the culvert to build a dam in because its easy. EASY! Those lazy, slacker rodents! Then the good souls at Belgrade Maine (who know that bleeding hearts don’t want them killed) pay a trapper to pick up the rodents and move them somewhere else! And the ungrateful creatures come BACK! How’s that for thanks?

MacCabe charges 50 cents a mile to move a beaver to another location. His invoices include fees for catching a beaver, baiting traps, the removal of animals and transporting them.

For example, May 12 to 14 removed a beaver on Knowles Road and charged $170, including $35 to trap the beaver and mileage to and from the job, and then 70 miles to the release site.

From May 15 to 21, MacCabe dealt with several other beavers, catching and rebaiting traps and bringing them to other locations. His invoice for those jobs was $340.

Just curious. How did you get the DNA results to know that they were the same beavers that came back? You know beavers are hard to tell apart, so it wasn’t just looks right? I mean because if you were going to pay 340 to move some beavers out of habitat that looks so alluring that new beavers move IN and set up shop then that would be kind of a waste of money. Gosh, is that what you did? Hey, I know what you could do instead! Talk Mr. MacCabe into building one of these at that pesky culvert, or you know, every culvert connected to a waterway with a nice stand of trees.

Then the beavers can stay and keep other beavers away. The culvert will keep flowing freely and the road won’t flood. The huggers won’t be mad at you, the transit authorities will be pacified and since this will last a good long time you might just save some money for next time! Wouldn’t that be a great idea?

“We’d rather not kill them. Most of the time we relocate them to another floodage,” Christianson said. “We have people on waiting lists who prefer to have beavers on their land.”

Christianson said there are non-lethal beaver management methods available, including a mesh wire fencing at the culverts’ outlets. His department prefers to work with landowners and highway departments to find out why beavers build in particular spots year after year.

Maine is obviously a LOT smarter than Martinez. There are people who want beavers on their land! They don’t want to kill them! They even know about ‘wire fencing at culvert outlets’. Wait a minute. What’s that called when you know the right answer but keep doing the wrong thing over and over again and hoping for better results?

I’m sure it has a name.

Bitter Chew

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? June 22, 2012

Saskatchewan is one of the most beaver- ignorant provinces in Canada, and that’s saying something. They have had beaver bounties, beaver culls, and have provoked some of my most acerbic writing. Don’t believe me? Put the word ‘Saskatchewan’ in the search bar on the right and see what comes up. It is arguably true that I am prouder of my ‘exploding beaver‘ riff than I am of almost anything I’ve ever written, so I suppose I owe them that. As remarkably backwards as their thinking was last year and the year before that, I have to admit I’m still surprised that it isn’t getting any better.

Rural Municipality of ML to crack down on beavers

Beavers beware.

The Rural Municipality of Meadow Lake is going after its beaver population, taking advantage of two government programs funded through the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.

Five beaver bounty hunters have been selected, and they will turn in beaver tails from areas the RM identifies as having especially serious beaver problems. A total of $3,500 has been allocated, which will pay bounties on up to 234.4 tails.

The joke is that 234 beavers, of course, can’t ‘beware’ or do anything whatsoever to prevent their slaughter. Nor could you if steel body-crushing traps were buried near your work or home. Come to think of it, you’d have better odds than the beaver, because humans shirk their responsibilities, play hookey, have affairs and don’t turn up where they’re expected every day like beavers always do. Beavers are so reliable we know exactly how to kill them. They are incapable of ‘being ware’. Doesn’t that make this article witty?

The article goes on to list the municipalities that will be funneling tax-payer dollars to pay for all this beaver death. It’s amazing the way Saskatchewan forks over money to liquidate the animals. Of course they COULD use that cash to install culvert protection and wrap some trees and the have some money for next year to spend on parks, senior programs, or school lunches. But where’s the fun in that?

Of course, just as when Regina did the same thing last year, we can expect a population rebound that will send ripples of new beavers upstream, because when you kill all the beavers in an area, the ones you invariably missed will have more food and bigger broods next spring. This means you will do this all again in 2013. What city will be next to try Old World solutions to new world problems? You can be sure you’ll read about it here.

exploding beaver — Exploding beaver population

Good Beaver Reporting from the Bay State

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Massachusetts Trapping Law June 19, 2012

Beavers: A delicate balance along Ipswich River

By Jennie Oemig–GateHouse News Service

Beavers and humans, the two most common creatures known for transforming the natural environment, have co-existed for thousands of years.

Sometimes the modern world of man clashes with the wild world of beavers. Their dams can flood out roads, septic systems, basements and wells. A beaver dam recently put parts of a Saugus golf course underwater.

At the same time, Beavers create valuable habitat for birds, fish and invertebrates.

Thus begins Jennie’s 4 page article about beavers on the Ipswich River in Massachusetts. Although it mentions population growth due to lack of wolves (!) it waits all the way until page four to discuss the 1996 changes in trapping laws. That’s got to be a first for Massachusetts which is usually so busy complaining about the law I have sometimes argued can only say the words “Beavers” and “Voters” in the same breath. It even says that although trapping is sometimes necessary, it is never the answer.

Jim MacDougall, naturalist for the Ipswich River Watershed Association and Topsfield resident, said beavers, along with all wildlife, are necessary, regardless of how big of a menace they can be.

“Every element of an ecosystem is essential,” MacDougall said. “Some species are more influential on the existence of others and beavers fall into that category. When I have to deal with their activity affecting roads and wells, they are a nuisance, but a necessary nuisance if I want quality in my life.”

Jim! You are a watershed hero and a true kindred spirit! I looked him up on the Ipswich River Watershed Association and read that he is a scientists who maintains a firm advising businesses on how to leave a cleaner water footprint. Be still my heart! A beaver fan that teaches others and delivers excellent quotes to the press! Uh, Jim…Ever think of starting a beaver festival in MA?

Obviously there are a lot of beaver believers in the area, because even the [often questionably named] conservation commissions seem to be aware of better choices than trapping.

Aside from tolerance, residents who are experiencing issues with beavers can erect exclosures —popularly called beaver deceivers — to deter the animal from building dams.

A beaver deceiver is a wire cage-like construction that prevents the beavers from damming up brook, stream or river.

Other measures such as lethal removal via trapping, removal or breaching of dams and installation of water level control devices require proper licensing and permitting.

“Our general policy is to discourage dam breaching because it doesn’t work,” he said. “They come back.”

Upon hearing the sound of water escaping, beavers tend to jump into action to promptly rebuild the dam, sometimes overnight. Standley said the best way to deal with flooding caused by beavers is to construct exclosures.

“We encourage properly installed beaver deceivers,” Standley said. The use of beaver deceivers has become a popular method for both controlling water levels and allowing beavers to remain in the area.

Okay there’s a serious naming challenge in this article – a true taximonial terror. A rose by any other name, right? As near as I can discern when they say “BEAVER DECEIVER” they mean pipe through a dam that tricks the beavers into not building it higher (Flexible leveler or Castor Master) (what we have in Martinez) and when they say EXCLOSURES they mean actual Beaver Deceivers or Culvert protective fences. Like this

Admittedly, the folks along the Ipswich River need some vocabulary lessons, but this is a pretty thorough look at beavers and their role in habitat creation and I will be both the first and the last to complain. The article does talk to a trapper who uses what he calls ‘box traps’ to live trap the beavers before killing them. I want to ask does this mean cumbersome Bavarian traps? Or did he meant to say ‘suitcase’ instead of box and is actually referring to Hancock traps? Or maybe he catches them like this? →

I don’t know. I’m afraid some of the language in this article kind of reminds me of this scene from Blazing Saddles:

—-but, grading on the good old Massachusetts MIT curve, this is an EXCELLENT beaver article all in all! It outlines the solutions and the reasons to employ them. Go read the whole thing, and see for yourself.

Beaver Daze

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental June 16, 2012

Today’s the big day for Lega and “Beaver Daze” in Maine. She wrote this week that the name felt apt because she was certainly in a daze herself since the preparations were underway. Sharon and Owen came yesterday and will present today on living with beavers. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall! GOOD LUCK! Win new beaver friends and change hearts and minds!

Gosh, can you remember our first beaver festival? We had maybe 7 booths and fewer than 300 people. Children made beaver tails out of paper and FRO, who was just getting to know us, brought clay for an activity. The documentarian Don Bernier was there filming the “Happy Ending” and the rest of us knew better than to think anything was over. In between snapping photos, Cheryl endeavored to work the video camera for our “Video letter to the Mayor.” The first festival was only three hours long. Now here’s a walk down memory lane!

Painting the Town…

heidi08 City Reports, Educational, Video June 8, 2012

Mario Alfaro-June 5 to June 20

Reception June 8th, 6-9pm

mARTinez Gallery

630 Court Street

Martinez, CA

Whatcha doing tonight? Movie? Date night? Graduation party? Whatever it is, see if you can chisel out some time to stop by the mARTinez Gallery and shake the hand of the man who boldly painted this…

And then this….

And then THIS

Just in case you’re new to this story, Mario painted the mural on Main St, and folks would stop by and ask ‘where was the beaver?’ so he added one, based on Cheryl’s photo from this website. Then the big subterranean civic muscle flexed and Mario was ordered to paint over the mural. He was very upset and also painted over his name. Director of Public works Dave Scola was good enough to speak to the media, but he obviously was just the mouthpiece for those much more powerful – (I imagine someone who owns a block of sheetpile that reaches higher than anywhere in the city). (Maybe someone with a particular resentment for all things castor.) After the chronicle ran with the story the city realized they better smooth things over with the artist, and Mario eventually signed his name again: this time with a very small beaver tail attached to the “O”.

Mario ‘s work will be on display for the month of June, and no one should miss this opportunity to buy this man a beer and thank him for trying to listen to the will of the people and putting Martinez in the news in Florida, Milwakee and Chicago. And by the way if you never listened to this, you really, really should. Come to think of it, even if you did listen to it you should probably do so again, because everyone deserves to laugh this hard.

Sadly, I can’t be there tonight, but go for me, okay? Tell Mario that Beaver people thank him for his effort and remember what a difference he made.Tell him we smile every time we walk past the main street bridge because we know that beaver is hidden under there.

This morning’s image surprised me. When I got it home and on the big screen I realized this beaver is Dad. Look at his very bumpy head, and different colorations. He was going back and forth across the creek up from the footbridge, emerging and returning to what we believe is a new bankhole under the cottonwood tree there. Reed still seems to be in the hole right by the footbridge, but I’ve never seen Dad down this far before. Hmm…