It’s hard to learn new things.
Sometimes even when information is presented in the best possible way, and even when you’re paying full attention and come to class early with several freshly sharpened number 2 pencils, you miss the point and the entire thing you are struggling to grasp slips right through your open fingers.
Take this article. for example, from Dariyn Brewer Hoffstot of Pennsylvania’s Pittsburg Quarterly.
Beavers Don’t Get Headaches
In my small and random survey, people know, at the very least, that beavers chew wood, build dams, have big teeth and large tails. That’s about all I knew, until beavers moved into our farm pond. Turns out North America’s largest rodent, Castor canadensis, is a fascinating creature, and there’s a lot more to learn.
My husband first noticed our beaver activity when mowing the field around the pond. The weeping willows he’d so tenderly planted had been felled, as well as cherry and ash trees, the recognizable “V” shape in the wood typical of beaver activity.
Beavers are touted for being nature’s engineers, creating habitats for animals such as moose, deer, fish, waterfowl, otters, mink, songbirds and frogs, among others. “If humans are the world’s most influential mammals, beavers have a fair claim at second place,” wrote Ben Goldfarb in “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.” In his book, Goldfarb asks his readers to appreciate the many benefits beavers bring to the environment. “Beavers are environmental Swiss Army knives, capable of tackling just about any ecological dilemma,” he writes. “Trying to slow down floods or filter out pollution? There’s a beaver for that. Hoping to capture more water for agriculture in the face of climate change? Add a beaver. Concerned about erosion, salmon runs, or wildfire? Take two beaver families and check back in a year.”
Okay so far. The author has suddenly found beavers at her pond. This could be a problem if she’s not equipped. They took a prized tree. And Pennsylvania ain’t the most tolerant place in the land. But she’s a writer, Ben’s a writer. Maybe she’ll appreciate this book and get the message about why she should try to live with beavers. I’m staying hopeful.
But what’s a homeowner to do when beavers build a dam on your spillway, which could cause a pond to breach its bank? Day after day we tore the dam apart; day after day, the beavers built it up again. We put wire around the small trees that remained and then beavers began gnawing on our big, beautiful weeping willow, about three feet in diameter, a tree we especially didn’t want to lose. So I called Samara Trusso, wildlife manager with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, SW region. She said the Game Commission is “hands off when it comes to beavers unless we have complaints.” And of course they do get complaints — 666 in PA in 2016 from farmers, business owners, and PennDot — for issues such as plugged culverts, flooded roads and downed nursery trees. “They can be a challenging species,” she said.
Humans? I agree 100%. You’re right. Humans can be SO challenging.
Tell me this, because I may have missed it in the 9 hundred times I’ve read Ben’s book so far, where exactly does it say to TRY RIPPING THE DAM OUT EVERY MORNING OVER AND OVER AGAIN. That’s such a good technique I’m sure he would have mentioned it working, right? Did Skip Lisle invent that? And where exactly does he say to only wrap the smaller trees and NOT THE ONES YOU REALLY VALUE? I may have missed that in all the excitement.
Neither trapping nor relocating were activities I relished; I prefer to live in harmony with beavers. So I suggested to John Wenzel of Powdermill that we record their activity, hoping some footage of local beavers might be an interesting feature at the Nimick Nature Center down the road. We met at our pond, along with James and Max, who brought cameras and a GoPro, and set up for time-lapse and nighttime photography. But after weeks of checking the cameras, we got no footage. What did we do wrong? Holmes said we “came into their environment and created a disturbance. They didn’t like it.” We should have left the cameras for an extended amount of time without checking them, he said, “wasted some film, burned up some batteries” so the beavers got used to seeing the gear.
I know. Beavers are SO impossible to photograph. If there’s one thing we learned in Martinez after all those years of dashed hopes, is that beavers avoid cameras at all costs. It can be so frustrating.
Oh alright, she’s at least curious and willing to try right? The one thing that helps any one live with beavers is patience. Keep trying over and over. Even if it seems like nothing is happening, don’t ever give up. As long as you can be patient the beavers have a chance.
I will also consider questions posed to me by my friend Susan, who studies shamanism, and who gave me the book, “Animal Speak: the Spiritual and Magic Powers of Creatures Great and Small,” by Ted Andrews. “If a beaver has come into your life, ask yourself some important questions,” he wrote. “Have you been neglecting your most basic dreams? Are your dreams in need of repair? Remember that the beaver reminds us we have to act on our dreams to make them a reality.”
