Okay, we’re going back to Massachusetts. Hopkinton to be precise, where the waterside homeowners want some beavers dead and can’t possibly wrap their trees or solve their flooding problem by hiring expert Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions who lives an unfathomable 77 miles away from them.
From Hopkinton, MA to Southampton, MA: 77 miles From Grafton,VT to Martinez,CA 2991 miles.I guess a miss really IS as good as a mile, when what you’re missing is information.
Hopkinton woman urges approval of trapping bill
A Hopkinton woman and her neighbors who are unhappy over flooding caused by beaver dams urged lawmakers on Wednesday to pass a bill that would make it easier for trappers to use deadlier traps.
“It’s a big mess for homeowners,” DelGaudio said, telling the room about her own flooding problems and those of her neighbors. Water is rising around septic systems, pools and sheds, not to mention homes themselves, she said, especially in the past four to six months.
But trappers, including Rick Merchant, who spoke at the session, need permission from local boards of health to use traps that kill beavers. A 1996 ballot question made lethal traps illegal and animal rights groups continue to oppose them. The new bill would reverse parts of that law.
Beavers are also causing headaches for homeowners in other MetroWest towns, including Holliston. In that town, trappers only need permission in the off-season to trap using Conibear, the “quick kill,” traps, said Health Agent Ann McCobb.
Just so we’re clear, the rules need to be followed in every city in the state, and the rules say you can still kill beavers just not with crush traps. As inconvenient as it might seem you need to live trap them and then shoot them through the head. Unless one of NINE EXCEPTIONS are met, and then you can kill them ol’ any way you like.
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:
(a) beaver or muskrat occupancy of a public water supply;
(b) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of drinking water wells, well fields or water pumping stations;
(c) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of sewage beds, septic systems or sewage pumping stations;
(d) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of a public or private way, driveway, railway or airport runway or taxi-way;
(e) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of electrical or gas generation plants or transmission or distribution structures or facilities, telephone or other communications facilities or other public utilities;
(f) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding affecting the public use of hospitals, emergency clinics, nursing homes, homes for the elderly or fire stations;
(g) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding affecting hazardous waste sites or facilities, incineration or resource recovery plants or other structures or facilities whereby flooding may result in the release or escape of hazardous or noxious materials or substances;
(h) the gnawing, chewing, entering, or damage to electrical or gas generation, transmission or distribution equipment, cables, alarm systems or facilities by any beaver or muskrat;
(i) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding or structural instability on property owned by the applicant if such animal problem poses an imminent threat of substantial property damage or income loss, which shall be limited to: (1) flooding of residential, commercial, industrial or commercial buildings or facilities; (2) flooding of or access to commercial agricultural lands which prevents normal agricultural practices from being conducted on such lands; (3) reduction in the production of an agricultural crop caused by flooding or compromised structural stability of commercial agricultural lands; (4) flooding of residential lands in which the municipal board of health, its chair or agent or the state or federal department of health has determined a threat to human health and safety exists. The department of environmental protection shall make any determination of a threat to a public water supply.
It’s funny how I have never in six years read a single article that even obliquely MENTIONED these 9 exceptions to the trapping law. I guess they’re too busy writing how miserable beavers make things and how the voters ruined their lives in 1996. They never forget to mention that fact, do they?
The traps are inhumane and indiscriminate, said Linda Huebner, deputy director of advocacy department of MSPCA.
“They can catch whatever animal happens upon them,” she said.
The problem is not that there are too many beavers, but that humans have settled in areas too near beaver habitats, she said.
She said trapping won’t solve the problem permanently. One of several smarter solutions, she said, are flow devices, designed to outsmart beavers so water can flow through dams.
“If the habitat can support beavers, other beavers will populate that site,” she said.
Ahh Linda, we are so happy you’re out there in the trenches! Fighting the good fight. I wrote the reporter too and she said she’s working on a longer piece about beavers and goodness my website has a lot of information and would I like to chat?
Guess what I said.
