NEWPORT, Minn. — An unusual culprit is being blamed for wreaking havoc this fall.

The city-owned properties between Cedar Lane and the Mississippi River have seen at least 12 trees up to 75 or 100 feet tall chewed down by beavers, Public Works Superintendent Bruce Hanson said, and many more left half-felled.

“It’s to the point I believe it’s becoming a safety concern,” Hanson said at the Nov. 2 meeting. “So many (trees) are girdled that I believe there’s an urgency to go down there and take care of it. … There are a lot of areas that deal we this … we just haven’t before.”

The city hired trapper Andy Shoemaker to remove the beavers. He said he’s caught six of them so far, and thinks two to four more may be making trouble in the area.

Some of the trees were dropped, but others hung on, possibly ready to drop anytime. Others, when they have been cut down by the beavers, leave “razor-sharp stumps,” Shoemaker said.

One of the critters he trapped weighed 55 pounds. Shoemaker — who’s been trapping for over 45 years — said the largest he said he’s ever caught was 82 pounds. Shoemaker said Newport isn’t the only place dealing with beavers this year, and they seem to be increasing each year. He said it’s possible they came from Fort Snelling, where there is a wildlife reserve that can get overpopulated.

Just for the record Fort Snelling is 11 miles away by land and considerably more by water. It may very well sustain a healthy beaver population, but even if the park closed tomorrow Newport would still get beavers. You know why? Because it is on the Mississippi River and full of water and beavers use that water like highways to get from one place to another.

And let me say, as a woman who has reviewed beaver news for every day for the last ten years, how very very RARE it is for a local paper to run a photo of the dead beavers its trapped to prove it is doing a really, really good job at killing them. Nice choice Woodbury Bulletin. Hiring a trapper and wasting taxpayer funds on a temporary solution is sadly very common, but being ton-deaf enough to post pictures of their work is  not.

Hey I have an idea! Newport could read the writing on the wall. Look at all that water and say, hell we’re always going to get beavers, we better find another solution. You could wrap some of those trees with wire and protect them whether you get beavers or not. And then you could get some local students from the science class at the Junior high to start recording the new species that are using all that coppiced wood.

And saying you have to remove the chewed trees because beavers leave behind razor-sharp tree stumps? Pul-eeze.