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UPDATE: Beavers Allowed

Heard from Catherine tonight who was pleased with the meeting. Summary available here:

Our friends in Ontario wrote that the beaver issue of St. Catherine’s is up before the City Council tonight. Ahh memories. The primary recommendation was for a “population study” although they didn’t have the funds to execute one. It seems to me that whether you have 2 beavers or 20 beavers the thing you need to know how to deal with problematic behaviors, but I think they’re looking for an “insurmountable” number which suggest trapping is the only way. I’m sure they can find it too, if they count all the secondary dams, or assume that beavers seen miles apart are from different colonies and multiply each sighting by four.

They sent me a copy of the concluding staff report which recommends:

RECOMMENDATION:

1. That the report from the Recreation and Community Services Department, dated October 15, 2009, regarding Controlling the Beaver Population, be received;
2. and that Staff pursue a beaver population study on City-owned lands in the vicinity of Martindale Pond and Twelve Mile Creek through the Ministry of Natural Resources;
3. and that Staff monitor beaver activity on City-owned lands; and further, that Staff be authorized to trap beavers where hazardous conditions are created as a result of beaver activity as outlined in the report.

For those of you following along at home, the report from the Recreation and Community Department describes methods for wrapping trees (wire and sand painting) and the possible technique of replacement feeding to discourage tree felling. At no point does it mention how to handle flooded roads or culverts through the use of Flow Devices or Beaver Deceivers.

Basically the only solution offered for those difficult behaviors is “Count Them” and then “Kill Them”.

I wrote them my thoughts and suggested they contact the reporter who had been interested in the story before, then sent the staff report to beaver friend Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions. Guess what he said?

“They don’t mention flow devices at all!”

Great minds…

He sent these pictures of his job on Friday, at the Audubon Property in Lenox, Massachusetts. St. Catherine’s staff, please take note!

Check out these photos of the primary dam and secondary dam which jon took an hour ago. Flow device is holding strong, and keeping the middle of the dam together!

Our beavers will have a lot of work to do, but remember, they aren’t looking for an early retirement…

Beaver supporters have been reading the weather with worry these last days. By tonight we should get some rain, and by tomorrow there’s a urban creek advisory for flooding dangers and a high wind warning tonight. NOAA tells me that

THE ORIGINS OF THIS STORM STEM FROM A WESTERN PACIFIC TYPHOON NAMED MELOR THAT AFFECTED JAPAN LAST WEEK.

(So our NZ friend was kind of right, that trouble did roll across the Pacific!)

If we don’t get a tree (or telephone pole) blown over somewhere, we can expect some dam washouts and a mess of horrible polluted runoff whooshing past the beavers front door. The first big rain is always the worst, and the slurry seal the city laid on Saturday will not have had enough time to dry and will most likely wash off and sludge down the gutters and into the creek.

Jon was cleaning our gutters yesterday but he’ll be hovering around to keep watch on Tuesday. In addition to natural and unnatural traumas, we’re worried about a sudden bright idea from public works to take out one of the dams to allow better flow or let a tree pass. The best defense against that is a video camera, so if you happen to have rain gear you might snatch a photo or two with your cell phone.

As for the beavers, well, they’re like new landlords: with acquired wealth comes increased responsibility for repairs! Now they will have four dams to fix. We’ll see how they manage that responsibility and how they arrange their priorities. Any bets on what gets fixed first? Last season they emphasized the second one, but maybe this year it will be the fourth? I’ll keep you posted.