Category: Massachusetts Trapping Law

Fall Colors

heidi08 Beaver News, Massachusetts Trapping Law, New Species December 2, 2010

The third grade classes of Las Juntas have some wonderful artists and very inquisitive, young naturalist minds! 60 children and other helping adults were divided into four groups so everyone at Worth A Dam did their job 4 times, which meant that by the end we were fairly well and truly spent. We put the lovely children’s banners above the tile bridge and they fit in perfectly, inspiring some great chalk art which spread from the ground to the benches, (I’m sure there will be some annoyed county workers with chalky bottoms for a day or two, sorry about that). There was a reporter and a photographer from the Pleasant Hill Record, so hopefully they’ll be a nice write up soon.

Here’s a sample of their work, we used one of the metal cutouts donated by Paul Craig to trace the outline of a beaver, but some children just made their own.

I especially like the Egyptian-looking ‘pink beaver’ in the middle of the collage. The children were really attentive and interested, and I was surprisingly merciful to them (and the mayor) and didn’t say that the city at first wanted to kill the beavers just that the city wanted them to go away. It must be the holiday spirit because I was also merciful to a certain sheetpile-protected property owner who was trying to walk through the sea of children and passing up the opportunity to have 60 children ‘boo’ at the same time is easily the most noble act of self control I’ve ever demonstrated.

Still, when the teacher asked if, for a followup project, she should send have the children send letters to the mayor about naming ‘beaver park’ I smiled widely. ( The holiday season only transforms a girl so much.)

Here is FRo’s picture of the afternoon visitor on the lawn! ”

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And in case you need some less child-focused intellectual stimulation for the morning, check out the article by Mike Callahan in the AWI magazine.

When Massachusetts citizens voted overwhelmingly in 1996 to outlaw steel jaw leghold traps, other body-gripping traps, and snares for capturing fur-bearing animals, critics of the law loudly proclaimed that disaster was imminent. Many claimed that the trapping restrictions would cause the state to be awash in beavers and flood waters because they mistakenly felt that trapping was the only effective beaver management tool.

Human/beaver conflicts occur across North America. To understand why, it is important to have an historical perspective. The North American beaver, Castor canadensis, has existed for millennia. Native Americans referred to beavers as “Little People” because beavers are second only to humans in their ability to modify their environment to suit their own needs. Beavers were revered by Native Americans who understood that beaver dams and the ponds they created support a vast array of wildlife.

Curiosity peaked? Go read the rest of the article. It even mentions us!

License to Kill (Easier)

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 24, 2010

Out in Massachusetts the disgruntled folk from the Committee for Resposible Wildlife Management are headed to a lazy man’s victory. The bill making it easier to circumvent humane standards for killing beavers has been approved by the governor and is in its final stages before passage. Just remember, where beavers are concerned the problems rarely have anything to do with reason. (Martinez knows that fairly well through first hand experience.) The original law requiring humane traps passed in the commonwealth back in 1996. It included a list of 9 lengthy exceptions to the rule under which traditional trapping could still be used. At that time, Clinton was president, the economy was booming, and everybody knew somebody that was doing a start-up.

I guess times really do change.

“It’s too hard”

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 24, 2010

The poor sportsman and sore losers club at the Massachusetts Committee for Responsible Wildlife Management continue to bemoan the inadequate list of nine exceptions to the beaver-trapping law. They feel burdened by the remarkably simple standards the law requires them to meet. Just to be clear, when any single one of these conditions are met, beavers can be killed in every convenient fashion. However, in the rare instance when no such condition is present, the animals can still be killed, just not with leg hold or body crushing traps. Apparently its toooooooo hard for their little trapper brains to meet a standard and ask permission, (even though I’ve never read even a single story of any request being turned down).

It seems like every 6 months we get new complaints about the awful flooding caused by the increase in beavers in Massachusetts that blames the crazy hippies who were tricked into banning leg hold and body crushing traps in 1996. To these troglodyte minds, the onerous burden of being asked to spend five minutes completing the necessary request is a bridge too far: they won’t stand for it! Now the powerful lobby has attached more exceptions to the exception list in a rider that slipped in at the end of the house session. It sits politely on the governor’s desk with a name like “protecting babies” or “safer streets” to await his unknowing signature. The Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is asking residents to call and remind the governor that there are already perfectly adequate lethal solutions in place and we don’t need to add more. Perhaps you’d like to join them.

Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions, who is admirably much more even-handed than I, was interviewed about the story yesterday by CBS channel 3 Springfield. Now this is must see TV!

Beaver Tales

heidi08 Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Massachusetts Trapping Law October 24, 2010

Every tale has its heroes and villains right? Well click on the above photo for a slide show of this particular beaver hero at work. Mike Callahan left a career as a physician’s assistant when he got interested in saving beavers near his home. He and his wife started a volunteer association and invited Skip Lisle out for a conference to train advocates in beaver management. The rest, as they say, is history. More than a decade ago, Mike left his PA work behind him, and started the business of “Beaver Solutions” in Massachusetts. He has since installed more than 700 flow devices, and is committed to sharing what he’s learned

Last year, Mike was awarded a grant from AWI to produce an instructional DVD teaching beaver management. He is about four weeks away from its final launch, and I thought today was a good day to remind you. My ‘sent’ file tells me that I first wrote Mike on November 17, 2007 after i learned that I had been appointed to the Beaver Subcommittee. I had about a hundred questions about flow devices, materials cost and beaver behavior. I am very pleased to say that 2.5 years later he has answered those 100 questions, I have about 10,000 more, and consider him a friend. I agreed to help him spread the word about the upcoming DVD because making these tools readily available means that beavers around the nation can avoid threat from the people they inconvenience. The funny thing is, I ended up writing him and not Skip because I couldn’t find an email address for Skip, only a phone number. (In those days I was shy about talking to strangers about beavers). (Wow.) Of course, Skip was eventually hired by the city and went on to become a friend too. Small beaver world.

Water flow control: Some fairly famous urban beavers

I am a resident of Martinez, CA and a member of the subcommittee on keeping our urban creek beavers. I have been in contact with BWW & Sherri Tippie. Our downtown beavers have gotten a lot of press, and may be included in a documentary on urban wildlife, but just to summarize: the state of CA does not allow relocation, our beavers were going to be exterminated, there was a huge public outcry and CFG stepped in to say they would grant a one time relocation permit and hire Ms. Tippie. Residents weren’t satisfied and wanted the city to consider allowing the beavers to stay, which eventually happened after an electric town hall meeting. Now the city will form a subcommittee to consider allowing them to stay and I’m on that subcommittee. I want to make sure the city has all the information it needs to take positive action. I wanted to approach you specifically on the relative drawbacks/benefits of the flexible leveler vs the clemson.

Our creek is small (20-25 feet wide in most places) and normally a trickle by late summer. However it has two flow exceptions that will present unique challenges. It serves as the flood drainage for the town so in hard rains it can get a sudden increase. Also we sit on the upper bay so can have an occasional high tides. When hard rain happens with the high tide we’ve historically had flooding (long before the beavers) and this makes the city very anxious about the dam.

A hydrology report issued by the city raises concern about the increased water behind the dam, and obviously lowering the level is paramount, as is reducing the dam so that when the next rain comes the surge can flow away. I wonder if you can help me identify where to start with this and what device seems most appropriate. It occurs to me this may even be useful to do in steps, with one device to start and another to maintain. Certainly the city does not lack for volunteer labor or financial contributions. I also wonder whether you are ever available for intra-state consultation/visits or can recommend someone who is.

Again, thank you for the fantastic resource and I hope my questions are clear.

Ahhh, memories! You will recognize the center photo as being the lovely image of our own Cheryl Reynolds, who has never been unwilling to share her hard work when beavers benefit! Thanks Cheryl, and thanks Mike! We’re looking forward to the finished product!

They Get Letters…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Massachusetts Trapping Law October 24, 2010

Patriotic and waterlogged Massachusetts is at it again, with this report in the Boston Globe about some pesky beavers flooding the highway and affecting traffic.

Beavers have long battled humans over the flow of water, and they usually end up on the losing side. But a pair of the aquatic rodents plying a patch of wetlands in Lawrence were so crafty that they apparently outwitted state officials, at least briefly.

Apparently the outwitted officials made the atavistic decision to bring in back hoes and destroy the dam. What a novel idea. Go to the source. I bet no one ever tried that again. Gosh, I wonder how that worked for them?

But as often happens in such struggles with beavers, the numbers of which have increased dramatically in the past decade in Massachusetts, the animals quickly rebuilt their dam.

Ohh sorry, you must have the very rare kind of “rebuilding” beaver. That neeeeeeever happens. Tough luck, that. Nice how the author of the article slipped in a mention about increasing numbers due to pesky humane legislation. Hmmm, is the suggestion box empty or does hardworking Mass Trans have another idea?

The smart-thinking officials decided to fight back by sticking a long, plastic pipe through the dam, which accomplished the same goal as before, again draining the road and lowering the water level in the surrounding pond.

Wow! Great thinking! I can’t imagine how that could POSSIBLY go wrong. A pipe is really all you need. Those dumb beavers won’t know what’s draining away and that pipe will totally confuse them. How could that possibly not work? Someone needs a bonus. Good thing he solved it because that’s two days beaver-battling and Mass-Trans is probably really busy and has other things to do. Whew, problem solved.

But the indefatigable beavers weren’t fooled. They ripped off some tree branches and used mud to clog the pipe’s small opening.

What? You’re kidding me! They plugged the pipe? Wow I didn’t see that coming. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you to learn that beavers have enough intelligence to fix leaks. Someone get a white coat out to study these particular brainy beavers. Looks like Mass Trans needs to spend a third day on this, maybe even crack open a book or pick up the cell phone to ask for advice. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but gosh I hope this time is more successful.

But this time, they had to build a cage around the pipe to keep the beavers at bay and allow the water to flow through the culvert beneath Route 114 and into the Shawsheen River.

Whoa! Put up a wind block! You’re blowing my mind. A cage? Wow that is some kind of brilliant. Did it work this time? Ohhh it did. Sigh, three days of work wasted on some beavers, well I’m sure there aren’t any potholes that need filling, faded signs that have to be repainted or overpasses to retrofit. Gosh its too bad this brilliant (but delayed) idea wasn’t available somewhere accessible, so that people could find it out where ever they are, like on the internet…then a person could spend 5 minutes online looking up solutions before they brought out a crew of 7 to use the back hoe.

The article ends bemoaning the sad demise of leghold traps and the subsequent recovery of the beaver population.The beaver-beleagered conservation manager comments on their destructive habits.

“I have never taken as much grief over anything as I have with beavers,’’ Lilly said. “They are very unpopular animals.’’

Really? Never? You mean people prefer mountain lion eating their poodles and rabid skunks biting their house cats and raccoons making a supper of their koi all more than beavers? Hmm. Maybe that’s true. Other animals pass through your property and bug you for a moment. Beavers are true American settlers, and find a place to move in. If their behavior bothers you today you can expect more of it tomorrow.

The whole article irritated me greatly, (and don’t get me started on a journalist who starts FOUR of his sentences with the conjunction “but”). They got a letter which I sent a copy of to beaver friend Mike Callahan. He had two things to say about it; the first being that he does have a contract with Massachusetts Highway but that its a big organization and the left hand doesn’t always know what the right hand is doing.

The second?”Remind me never to get on your bad side”.

I’m curious why paying overtime for Highway employees to “not-solve” a problem is a better solution for Massachusetts than hiring someone who can? Why not consult an expert who can train employees what to do the next time this happens and the completely predictable time after that? Ripping out dams does not work. Sticking in a pipe does not work. Obviously the state doesn’t have access to a library, a computer or a telephone or they would have discovered this prehistoric fact and found out what does.

Beaver problems are solved humanely, cheaply and efficiently every day by experts who know right away that any pipe placed through a dam has to be fenced to prevent beavers from doing what they do best. Mike Callahan of beavers solutions is a 2 hour drive from Lawrence, and could have solved this problem at a fraction of the cost of this precarious three stage attempt. Skip Lisle is in nearby Vermont, and Skip Hilliker of HSUS just a short distance away in Connecticut.

Oh and for the record? The 1996 legislation prohibiting conibear and leghold trapping of beavers listed 9 exceptions for the restrictions in which traditional trapping could be used. Number four was beaver “damage to roadways”. Blaming humane legislation for bad highway management is irresponsible stewardship and sloppy journalism.

Chapter 131: Section 80A. Leghold traps and certain other devices restricted; punishment

The above provision shall not apply to the use of prohibited devices by federal and state departments of health or municipal boards of health for the purpose of protection from threats to human health and safety. A threat to human health and safety may include, but shall not be limited to:

(d) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of a public or private way, driveway, railway or airport runway or taxi-way;

Heidi Perryman, Ph.D.

President & Founder

Worth A Dam

Martinez, CA

www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress