You all remember how way back when Skip Lisle came to Martinez and basically saved our beavers? Well lets just say we returned the favor this weekend! I caught a report from the town of Thetford, Vermont – about 60 miles from Skip’s front door. It said that those pesky beavers were damming under a culvert and threatening a road. Recently there had been a decision to stop cleaning the culvert and kill the beavers.
Some residents of a Vermont town are upset with a decision by local officials to try to kill beavers who keep rebuilding a dam that threatens a local road.Every day, workers in Thetford remove the dam that is rebuilt every night near a culvert on the Godfrey Road.The select board voted 4-1 this week to trap and kill the beavers, since town officials says they can’t legally move live beavers and release them elsewhere.
Actually the news story did mention a ‘beaver deceiver’ saying that the city knew about the solution and had sagely decided to kill the beavers first and install the culvert protection later in July. (A decision surely destined for our WTF beaver files). Of course that kind of forward thinking deserved a letter. Or twenty. I wrote the station, the chair of the conservancy, and the select board for Thetford, which is like the city council in an East coasty ‘autonomous collective’ kinda way.
Beaver Deceiver inventor lives 62 miles from town of Thetford
Listening to Jackie Bender’s report of the troubled culvert in thetford is like hearing someone in silicon valley complain that they couldn’t turn on their computer. Skip Lisle is the inventor of the Beaver Deceiver and lives an hour away. There is absolutely no reason to kill beavers now and then make improvements later. The female beaver is likely pregnant, and I can’t imagine a less humane decision. Culverts can be soundly and cheaply protected, and beavers make incredible improvements to wildlife, habitat and water quality.
Mr Lisle can be reached here (I gave his contact info). There is no reason for a major news outlet to not report on responsible solutions and irresponsible failure.
Heidi Perryman, Ph.D. President & Founder: “Worth A Dam”
You never know what kind of ripples a letter might stir in the right hands. I got a series of very interesting responses. The most exciting from the news station, which, from the general manager, to the station manager, to the programming manager, down to the reporter, was interested in this story. They were smart enough to see how this was going to play in the cheap seats and kitchen tables and knew that it wasn’t going to go away. Unlike the select board, which was probably hoping for eactly that. I was notified that they were contacting Skip for an interview yesterday. Here’s the more cheerful report.
One option proposed by locals is a Beaver Deceiver.
A Beaver Deceiver is a special fence built outward from a culvert. The fencing prevents the beavers from getting to the culvert, but still allows fish to move through it, city officials said.The idea is that the fence forces the beaver far enough away from the culvert that the animal apparently decides the effort to dam the stream is no longer worth it.A special meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 7 p.m. for town officials to talk to the community about the beavers.
Aww shucks. Consider it Martinez’s way of paying a debt that we remember every November and every rainy season. Hope you get some good press outta this Skip, and I hope a hundred directors of public works watch the news and learn that beaver problems are manageable.
