So yesterday the Swiss Canton of Thergau was declined compensation from the government for the woeful beaver damage it had sustained. They were seeking repayment for what they claimed were damages to roads and infrastructure from a population of what they describe as 500 beavers.
500 beavers!
Remember the entirety of Switzerland is only around 16,000 square miles (about twice the size of New Jersey). I can’t easily find the water stats for Thergau (which admitedly has the river Ther and some lakes) but the entirety of Canton is only 383 square miles. So imaging a population of 500 is a bit of a stretch. The parties somehow failed to convince the government with their persuasive argument of “We’ll like the beavers more if you pay us”.
I can’t imagine why.
The funny thing is that yesterday when the bad news broke, the paper ran the story with an accompanying photo of two otters. To which I helpfully pointed out that if their photos weren’t accurate how did we know the article was? And lo and behold today it has magically changed to a photo of a beaver.
Lucky for us I thought ahead enough to take a screen capture at the time.
(I may well have few really special uses in life, but saving embarrassing stories about beavers is definitely one of them.)
On to more bad news from Roosevelt Forest in Connecticut, where apparently public works installed beaver deceiver that never worked and now they have no choice but to kill the beavers.
A dam problem
Town trapping beavers to stop flooding in Roosevelt Forest
Some pesky beavers are causing some flooding problems for homes near Roosevelt Forest. So the commission that monitors the town’s only forest have voted to get rid of them, though the decision was far from easy.
Beaver traps have been placed in Pumpkin Ground Brook by Wild Things LLC after the Roosevelt Forest Commission voted last week to approve trapping and killing the beavers, which have caused a nuisance in the forest and threatened nearby homes.
.The town’s Public Works Department had installed a flow device, sometimes referred to as a “beaver deceiver,” into the dam to prevent flooding. But David said the beavers reinforced the dam by putting rocks and dirt in there. Public Works later breached the dam several times. But David said the beavers always fixed it.
“I’m very distraught that this was a solution to eliminate the beavers. I didn’t want to kill them,” said Roosevelt Forest Commission Chairman Bob David, one of five commission members who voted in favor of placing the traps.
At first glance this is the kind of story I hate most of all. A city that did the right thing, and installed a flow device – and a commisioner says he likes the beavers and wanted to keep them! But the darned thing didn’t work and now they have no choice but to hire WILD THINGS to kill them. Ugh.
But lets look closer, shall we? The flow device ‘that is sometimes called a beaver deceiver’ was installed by Public Works. Obviously they had zero input from Mike or Skip other wise they wouldn’t use that inaccurate language. The article implies it didn’t work because of ‘rocks’, what difference would that have made to our castor master? DPW probably made up the technology on their own and stuck in a pipe or a bit of hose. Which the beavers promptly plugged.
And as for the ‘distraught‘ Forest Commission chairman? I was quite moved by the quote last night but this is what I thought of when I reread this morning:
“I weep for you,” the Walrus said:
“I deeply sympathize.”
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.
Well it’s not all bad news. Spring is nearly upon us and beavers everywhere are thinking it’s about dam time. Everywhere people are starting to see beavers break from their sleepy winter fog. This is from Art Wolinsky in New Hampshire who made his first beaver stakeout of the year and was lucky enough to capture FIVE swimming beavers on film and two tail slaps.
This makes me jealous and I would be heartbroken if watching it didn’t also make me SO VERY HAPPY.
