Some pretty sophisticated reporting from Kay Young of WAVY-TV in Virginia. Amidst some exciting graphics and sound effects, she notes that beavers are destroying roads and making dams and ew they’re RODENTS! At one point she even shows the viewer some footage from the living history museum so “you can get a good look at these KIND of cute creatures”.
Then she bemoans the woeful figures VDOT has to spend maintaining the roads by killing wildlife and asks for some help in the local area. Apparently Virginia spends LOTS of its beaver killing money in areas where there is water. Who knew? This was my favorite part of the report:
Some property owners prefer to keep beavers, the dams, and ponds they create. In those cases, when roads are in jeopardy, VDOT and the USDA work with property owners to find solutions.
Those whacky property owners that want improved fishing and duck hunting on their land! I guess there’s no accounting for taste, but some people just INSIST on letting beavers improve water quality and raise the water table. Sheesh! USDA tries to tolerate those whackos as long as it can, but they can’t be held in check forever.
All these beavers won’t kill themselves!
In the meantime, you might drop WAVY a note to let them know there are other benefits to beavers. The single comment to the story offers some insight, from “James” and tells me there are some smart beaver folk in Virginia who recognize a ‘blame the rodent’ ass-cover when they see one!
Beavers know more about flood control than VDOT can ever hope for. They are tring to use the beavers to get them out of the spot light for all the pot holes still out there. Such a shame, blaming wild life, always pointing the finger.
Ah James, I couldn’t have said it better myself!
All three kits seen last night, arriving from completely unexpected locations. (We were having the two larger kits sleep downstream and the little one sleep upstream, yesterday everything was shuffled and the largest was down stream and the other two were upstream). I have thought about giving up trying to understand the family patterns, but I’m not yet ready to throw in that particular towel. In the mean time GOOD LUCK to LORY who is driving to Tahoe tonight to talk with the Kings Beach people. And wow, I just got to preview slides for Ricks presentation at saturday’s conference and its going to be a show stopper!
