Don’t for one minute tell me that things are better for beavers. Because some parts of this world are clinging to their ignorance as dearly as a drowning man clings to a sinking ship. Take Michigan for instance where they say they need to kill more beavers to protect trout.
Too many beavers harm Michigan’s trout streams, conservationists warn
LANSING, MI – Beavers are considered ecological architects, but certain conservationists are worried there can be too many in some areas of Michigan.
State wildlife and fisheries managers recently heard from multiple trout fishery advocates raising concerns about what they argue is an overabundance of beavers living in Michigan’s wilderness. The trouble is that trout species require cold, swiftly moving waters to thrive, but too many beaver dams in a stream may slow the water and raise its temperatures, driving the trout away.
Got that? The beaver dams are slowing the water and making it hotter. You know how they do. Driving the trout away. This according to the conservationists and fishermen in Michigan who unlike the fishermen in 47 other states think that that beaver dams make water HOTTER.
Michigan doesn’t believe about hyporheic exchange.
Interest in hunting has waned in recent years, but the number of fur trappers plummeted. It means animals like beaver have largely flourished in Northern Lower Michigan, where there are no wolves – their primary predator – to keep them in check.
Now officials at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources are being asked to change regulations to make it easier for trout conservationists to trap beaver in the places where the large rodents proliferated so successfully that they’ve negatively impacted trout streams.
More killing! That’s what Michigan needs for its streams! Make it easier to trap!
State officials in recent years updated internal beaver policies, one for agencies like road commissions, and a second for when beaver abundance runs loggerheads with trout habitat.
Beavers can now more easily be killed because of nuisance problems, but greater scrutiny for issues in trout streams to be addressed, said angling advocate Bryan Burroughs, executive director of nonprofit Michigan Trout Unlimited.
It makes dealing with the problem even more challenging, he said, especially since recreational trapping diminished from past decades and beaver-made dams have been stacking up on Up North rivers.
As examples, advocates recently explained to the Michigan Natural Resources Commission that as many as 16 beaver dams built up over the years in a single four-mile stretch of the Upper main branch of the Black River in Cheboygan County. Nine were counted in a one mile stretch of the North Branch of the Manistee River in Kalkaska County.
