Urban beavers subject of series opener

The eighth incarnation of the hugely popular Nature in the City speaker series kicks off on Tuesday at the Central Library’s Wolf Performance Hall in downtown London. Nature London and the London Public Library are co-sponsors.

Through six illustrated talks, Londoners again have an opportunity to learn about interesting aspects of our urban habitats. However, too often we simply see streets, bricks and mortar within the city limits there is a surprising diversity of spaces, plants, and animals.

Tuesday’s presentation will be on the theme of urban beavers. Since these animals are largely nocturnal, we see more evidence of beavers’ presence than the animals themselves.While many admire this industrious emblem of Canada, others decry North America’s largest rodent. Outdoor educator Tom Purdy will talk about how these adaptable animals cope within London.

While I have made every possible human effort to establish first contact with Tom, I’ve had about as much luck as SETI so far. The good news is that I contacted Donna Dubreuil of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre and she put me in touch with ‘boots on the ground’ in his area, so to speak. This morning, she sent this:

London Free Press: Gillespies’ article this morning is on Tom Purdy’s lecture tomorrow. In the past, Gillespie has been known to be anti-beaver (largely from info he received from a local trapper.) Gillespie quotes Purdy saying that trapping is the last resort when dealing with beaver problems. He states that beaver deceivers and baffles allow us to peacefully coexist with this amazing animal. The article also references Stanton Drain…

And then she sent the article which contains this. (God, I love having ‘boots on the ground…)

Although some local environmentalists opposed moving the beavers, those animals were moved to the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Rosseau, near Parry Sound, for the winter and will be transferred to the Munsee-Delaware First Nation reserve this spring.

Beavers can ignite strong emotions. I learned that about two years ago when I wrote a column about a licensed trapper who has removed beavers — in lethal fashion — for both private landowners and the City of London for nearly 20 years.

After writing about the trapper, I received a number of angry letters and e-mails, including one from a young former Londoner who, borrowing a page from my description of the lethal beaver traps, wrote that she’d like to see me “trap yourself and find out how it feels to have your vertebrae crushed slowly and painfully while you slip into an irreversible state of unconsciousness.”

Well, that is fairly colorful. Do beavers provoke strong emotions? To be honest, for me ‘beavers‘ don’t provoke nearly as strong emotions as ‘stubborn ignorance’, ‘willful dishonesty’ and ‘puposeful cruelty’ do. But, hey that’s just me. The article also says this:

Although Purdy acknowledges that intervention is warranted in some situations, he says in most cases we can coexist with the flat-tailed chewer. “(Trapping) should be a last resort,” he says. “There are lots of other strategies that should be tried first.”

Purdy points out that beaver dams, which can often cause damaging flooding, can be circumvented by “beaver baffles” or “beaver deceivers.” These devices feature underwater pipes that alleviate flooding while still preserving the dam, which beavers use to maintain a safe watery route to food.

Tom! Buddy! Old pal! Ever think about starting a beaver festival in London?