Category: Massachusetts Trapping Law

The beaver population bed-time story

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Massachusetts Trapping Law June 9, 2013

Once upon a time, not too long ago but very far away, there was a prestigiously educated state on the east coast that was so smart it even put beavers on the class rings of its university. Because the collective IQ of the state was fairly lofty and the populace fairly liberal, it decided it didn’t want to use icky leg-hold traps anymore. So around the time that Clinton was president and the Macarena was popular they passed a law to this effect.

It didn’t take very long before the panic started. “No traps!” they exclaimed in horror. “We will be overrun by wildlife. We will be surrounded by coyotes and drowned by beavers.” But the will of the voters had spoken and the legislators had to do what they said. The state with beaver class rings passed a law saying it wasn’t going to use leg-hold traps or conibears to kill anymore.

(Unless one of 9 conditions were met and everyone knows that they can almost always be construed to be met but that’s a post for another day.)

The fact is that smart watershed-interested folk around the bay state started to get panicked at this news. The beaver population was exploding. There were going to be too many beavers. Even folks who thought the occasional beavers in moderation were good for the planet, started to get panicked about the massive numbers that were predicted.

Flash forward 20 years, when that exploding beaver population all had kits and exploded some more. An educated man writes me to say that the beaver population has returned to the numbers it had before the fur trade. He cites the number of beaver dams in a particular area and assumes a surprising number of beavers per dam which means that by his estimate the population is enormous.

Which is why I reposted this lovely illustration from the 1868 writings of Lewis Morgan “The American beaver his life and works” The illustration shows a series of beaver dams in a gorge. 7 to be precise. That’s 7 dams tended by a single colony of beavers. Which means you can’t infer populations directly from the number of dams built. Beyond this research has reported again and again that any colony rarely gets any bigger than 9 and the numbers are usually less. (Our largest colony in 6 years of observation, with parents, yearlings and kits was 8 at one time.)

This means that if you multiply the number of dams counted by any surprising number you will be grossly overestimating the population of beavers. And alarming the populace with your inflated statistics. And killing more than you need to do.

But, you may ask, if people have been watching these beavers all this time and it SEEMS like more isn’t that proof?

In answer to this question I will direct you to something I wrote on this website what seems like a million years ago now but was actually only June 2008.

The kindest interpretation of this is that people see things in a new way when they are alarmed. There are several less charitable explanations. An example: At my old office I had birdfeeders and a number of feathered visitors. Goldfinches, white and red breasted nuthatches, and downy woodpeckers to name a few. My downstairs neighbor complained about seed husks so we would sweep his porch every week to keep it tidy. During one such sweeping event, the crabby old accountant watched with folded arms and said, “What about all the green stuff. Get that too.”

The “green stuff” in question was pollen from the hundreds of pines in the area and had been on his porch every spring for as long as he had been there, but of course he had never seen it before because he had never looked with this particular set of eyes.

And those, as it happens, are the very same eyes that this state looks at beaver with.

Here endeth the lesson.

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Nice photos from Cheryl last night, who briefly saw one kit and three adults. Here’s mom inspecting the credentials of her photographer.

mombeaver — Mom beaver: photo Cheryl Reynolds

And what I think is her best photo of a green heron yet.

CSI meets Blue’s Clues

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? May 14, 2013

Batesville Mississipi’s crack investigative police team had one onery mystery on its hands. Oh sure, they’d untangled their share of inexplicable crimes. But this was worse. Something about the terrible finality of those missing trees made it worse. Worse than that time that cookie was missing from Ma Topper’s jar. Worse than the time that kidnapper ran off with the baby Jesus from the manger display.

Who in the hell was chopping the trees on court street?

I won’t comment on the collective IQ of an entire police force that couldn’t hazard a guess what was removing trees a mile from the river. I won’t speculate that the entire state has such an abysmal record on beavers that they wouldn’t know how to wrap a tree if their lives depended on it. I won’t even say that wedged as they are between Alabama and Arkansas there must be a regional shortage of problem solving skills to go around. But thank goodness they had the presence of mind to bring in the trapper.

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Meanwhile in Massachusetts…

Mike Sullivan of Beaver Solutions holds a replica of a beaver skull from 10,000 years ago when the rodents were roughly 8 feet long and likely weighed 200 pounds. Today the average beaver weighs about 30-40 pounds.

Don’t leave it to the beavers

Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions, a company based out of Southampton, Massachusetts, spoke to Boxford’s BTA/BOLT on May 1 to offer suggestions for outsmarting those pesky rodents who spend their days building dams and lodges throughout the woodlands of the North Shore.

The flooded or dried up areas that result can be managed by clever humans without trapping and killing the beavers, says Callahan who proposes such solutions as pond leveler pipes for dams and special keystone fences for culverts.

Nice! Educating the masses! Now just guess who gave Mike that skull lo these many years ago as a thank you for endless advice when a certain city was set on killing some beavers.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Three Threads

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? May 2, 2013

It’s not easy being small. Bigger guys pick on you and you never get asked your preferences when decisions are made. But the advantage of being little and unimportant, is that the big predators and raptors go tearing off after the larger game and never notice you. Ask any mouse or compy, it’s hard being little but sometimes it leaves you safely ignored when the big bads come looking for dinner.

This used to be the fate of the State of the Beaver Conference, which existed in a rarely visited other universe where folks actually cared about the work beavers can do. For the most part politicians ignored it, and we could get on with the business at hand without much debate. No more. Ask Senator Coburn who recently wrote the new Secretary of the Interior kindly pointing out how to stop wasting money and keep its doors open.

Coburn also called on the department to do away with certain conferences, including those which are also sponsored by other departments. One peculiar example? A gathering held at a casino in Oregon called the State of the Beaver Conference.

“The State of the Beaver 2013 Conference, held at the Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino Resort Convention Center in Oregon several months ago, was sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the USDA Forest Service, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,” Coburn said.

That’s not exactly true, Tom. The beaver advocacy committee made the decision to list an organization as a sponsor if presenters paid to get themselves there. Worth A Dam was listed as a sponsor. Not because we gave money to the conference, but because we self-transported. Technically we gave money to chevron, or American Airlines, or Amtrak. Fueling the economy. Chalk this up to similar outrage upon learning that the US spent money to study volcanoes. Or Climate Change. Well, you get the idea.

If you’d like to write Secretary Jewell your own thoughts on why the State of the Beaver conference is worth having, it would be nice of you to send them here. For now, we can just waive a fond goodbye to our ‘compy’ status, and get ready for the bigger leagues.

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Congratulations to the other half of Beaver Solutions ‘other half’.

Integrated Wildlife Control partner Don LaFountain has been awarded the 'Wildlife Professional of the Year' award by the National Wildlife Control Operators Association. Elise Linscott photo

NORTHAMPTON – Integrated Wildlife Control partner Don LaFountain loves the outdoors – and after receiving the Wildlife Professional of the Year award from the National Wildlife Control Operators Association, his love and accomplishments have been recognized nationally.

LaFountain has been working to help people and animals co-exist since establishing Integrated Wildlife Control in Florence. The non-profit organization specializes in helping people share habitat, specifically with beavers.

I’ll explain. Don is the business partner of Ruth Callahan who is Mike Callahan’s wife. Small Beaver World.

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My aunt from Oregon sent this clipping recently about San Jose. Not sure which paper it ran in but it’s nice to know we’re not forgotten. Oh and more beavers in towels because you know you need it. I think we should make a calendar.

Massachusetts comes to Martinez

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Massachusetts Trapping Law February 12, 2013

So that tall guy in the middle is Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions in Massachusetts. He came out for some fish passage seminars and went to check out some beaver habitat near Napa and then came to Martinez for a tour and dinner. It was one of those meetings that mean so much and still seem so familiar that afterwards you are saddened to remember that he doesn’t live across the street and won’t be coming back any time soon.

I first wrote Mike in October of 2007. In case you didn’t realize that was a long, long time ago. Before Worth A Dam and before Obama and before our beaver mom died. Our contact armed me with information, made me hopeful and sometimes made me smile. It was often the thing that sustained and fortified me for the battle with the city, and gave me direction and a sense of purpose after we won.

Or, to put it another way; Mike recognized the sheetpile.

So it was entirely fitting to see him reviewing our beaver habitat. Have him scope out Skip’s installation. Spot the new lodge where our beavers are living and drive to our house for dinner. We of course handed over Alaskan Amber and a t-shirt so he would feel at home.

Lory and Cheryl and Jon enjoyed his visit and thought he was an easy-going, affable, force to be reckoned with. We swapped stories about beaver battles, massachusetts law, and flow devices. He had met Sherri and Ted Guzzi of the Sierra wildlife coalition the night before and had made good contacts at the conference.

He talked a little about his ideas for adapting flow devices to make fish passage in very low flow easier. We discussed one way gates and counters that will track the number of fish that use them. The social science side of my brain forced me to suggest that his study should include a control group so that the fish that make it over a flow device with no modifications could be counted too, and he thought that was a good idea.

And now, sitting on this side of the meeting, I notice I am wistful, and feeling like I came to the end of some chapter in my life. Mike was the first glimmer of support that I looked to for our beavers, though he certainly wasn’t the last. The story of the Martinez beavers and the teaching role they had on other communities will continue in ways I can’t even imagine today, but this part of the story is completed. The circle that I never dreamed of starting, that caused me to work harder than I ever had and do things I never had never attempted before, that took me places I could never even dream, that part of the circle has been closed.

Some things never change…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? February 4, 2013

Massachusetts is making news again by introducing bills to ‘unshackle itself’ from the voters trapping repeal of 1996. Apparently legislation that overturns the will of the voters is common in the bay state, because no one’s acting shocked.

Bills to revisit old trapping laws for beavers

As beavers chew through more territory in Massachusetts, several bills before the Legislature this session would revisit a 17-year-old state law barring many methods of trapping and killing these and other types of animals.

The proposals include better tracking of how many beavers are trapped annually and a repeat effort to repeal a state law banning many types of traps, including the leg-hold trap.

What a great idea! Bring back leg hold traps! Hey, why stop there? Why not bring back the guillotine and the rack too! Apparently Massachusetts is so crowded with people that they need easier ways to kill beavers and coyotes. All these pests aren’t going to kill themselves you know. Of course being as its packed with people it’s probably packed with pets too, right? Maybe they better offer one of these while you’re at it…

Catch and release: Dog owners learn how to free pets from traps, snares

HELENA — Michelle Jenicek loves walking her dogs along the creek near her house in Bernice in Jefferson County. She knew a neighbor set traps for furbearers, but it wasn’t an issue for her — until the day her 143-pound dog was caught with his neck in a snare.

Since the entire article doesn’t contain one mention of our old friend Herbie, I have to ask did Mr.Bergquist use up his indefatigable brand? Or is he on vacation, fishing for dolphins in the Bahamas?

The Massachusetts Trappers Association supports lifting the ban. President Malcolm Speicher said modern traps can catch animals without causing painful suffering.

“A lot of people can’t comprehend how the technology has changed, because in their mind it’s the old barbaric method,” Speicher said.

Now there’s a man who’s learned his lines! Not like that slacker from DEC last year who accidentally let it slip that the traps slowly drown beavers and caused Amherst, NY to stop using them! Well, Mr. Speicher hasn’t learned ALL his lines yet. He certainly doesn’t know when to stop talking.

Speicher said trappers want to see other restrictions lifted. For example, trappers are not allowed to keep beavers killed under emergency permits. With beavers caught in regular trapping season, trappers can sell or barter pelts, meat and castor glands used to make bait and some perfumes, but not other parts of the animals.

“I have people that always want skulls,” Speicher said.