The last few days have produced such positive beaver news that readers would be forgiven for thinking that the battle is over and we won! After five years and copious confrontations, hasn’t the northern hemisphere finally come to terms with the value of the humble beaver? Don’t we all know better now than we did once?

Apparently not. Let’s start with this article from Toronto.

Who or what is killing these trees?

At first, he believed beavers were to blame, “but there is no beaver in that neighbourhood that I’m aware of.” Upon closer examination, he said it appeared that the trees had been chopped down.  Wong suspects the damage may have been done by people walking through the bush to get to the pond to fish. “I assume if they clear the trees around them, their lines won’t get snagged,” he said.

Fallen trees with chew marks by a lake in Toronto are a mystery? Really? I wrote the paper that if they wanted a clue to the culprit they should look on the backs of their nickels. Honestly, why do people assume if they never saw a beaver in the day time they aren’t there? And why exactly would fishermen chop down trees at the same height and haul away all the branches?

It gets worse. Brace yourselves. This next contender is from North Carolina where Earth Day activities are being planned by the Ecological Organization in Hendersonville.  They are asking for volunteers for multiple Earth-friendly projects, like planting trees, cleaning up creeks and weeding community gardens. Oh yes, and there’s this:

with projects ranging from stream bank enhancements to the removal of a beaver dam in a rare wetland.

Removal of a beaver dam on EARTH DAY? In a RARE WETLAND? On EARTH DAY? Sometimes when I encounter ire-inducing facts it is helpful to pause and consider history. It may interest readers to be reminded that the concept of Earth Day was first introduced by John McConnoll at a UNESCO conference in San Francisco in 1969. The following year the city became the first in the world to promote a special day for the earth. Get it? San Francisco is named after St. Francis and St. Francis is the patron saint of animals and as good a symbol of ecology as you are likely to find in the Catholic rolodex. He is remembered for saying famously;

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

Which brings us back to an Ecological Organization calling for volunteers to help remove a beaver dam from a rare wetland on EARTH DAY. This makes about as much sense as handcuffing yourself to an englishman on the fourth of July. (If your idea of protecting wetlands is ripping out beaver dams no wonder they’re rare! Of course I wrote ECO.) Was there a typo? Did the paper misunderstand something? My email was passed up the chain of command to the Executive Director who swiftly wrote back.

He began his email with a reminder to breathe, and let’s just say he endeavored to be  more condescending from there.

Obviously the beavers weren’t an endangered species. And the wetlands restoration cost a great deal of money and they were collaborating with very important groups that said the beavers couldn’t remain, and maybe I could afford to have a black and white view of the world but the complexity of his work required “shades of gray”.

(Oh and he addressed me as an “ecologist” in quotation marks, which I assume isn’t meant to communicate that he is quoting someone else who called me an ecologist but rather that my ecological comments were “PRETEND” where as his were sincere. That was charming too.)

So there is no hope for the beavers at Lewis creek and all the residents of Hendersonville will be taught by a large environmental organization that removing a beaver dam is a GREAT way to protect wetlands. Which alternately makes me laugh maniaclly or grind my teeth, (mostly the latter). When I went looking for information on Lewis Creek I found this lovely image and description:

A small beaver dam creates a crystalline pool that is home to frogs and salamanders.

Well not anymore it doesn’t. Those frogs and salamanders will just have to clear the heck out. People are widening a flood plain and protecting rare wetlands. In fact ECO & its partners are apparently helping protect wetlands so much the nature can barely stand it!

Their stroll, however, lasted about 100 yards or so before the tree-lined path turned to barren land along the banks of a stream.  Grahl, president of the development’s homeowners association, paused to reflect on what the trail — where residents enjoyed walking their dogs each day — once looked like.

“They came in and bulldozed everything,” Grahl said about the ongoing Lewis Creek restoration project. “I don’t even come down here anymore — it’s too depressing to look at.”

That they weren’t originally told full-grown trees would be permanently removed and that wildlife would be killed. They are upset that beavers might be trapped, and they think the traps would be a safety hazard.

Apparently the project caused enough of a stir that it merited a six page article last fall. The man who reminded me to breathe pointed out that the beavers were ‘relocated – not trapped’ and the flood plane needed to be widened.  Obviously residents of the area didn’t understand that in order to protect some wetlands you need to bulldoze them, while in order to make room for saplings you need to rip out existing trees.  “Ecology” is so complex!

You know, the article mentions that one of the major problems the homeowers had with the project boiled down to poor communication skills.

Communication lacking:  One thing both sides agree on is that a communication breakdown occurred throughout the process.

Given our tender exchanges yesterday, I’m shocked.