I have clearly been watching the wrong commercials. What on earth is the matter with me? Did you know about these?
Why aren’t beavers having picnics in MY backyard?
Or for those folks with squirrel aggression you might like this:
Nut this has to be my absolute favorite. Of course beavers would rather have the sticks.
I Iove this with a fiery passion. Pam is definitely one of us. We need more freelancers in every state!
Do you think it might suffer from a rare form of intelligence immunity?Ontario is going to be nice to wildlife. Except for beavers. Beavers are a pain in the aspen. They hate themselves some beavers.
The City of Ottawa is updating its wildlife management strategy to better handle human-wildlife interactions and protect natural habitats — but the lack of big changes to how beavers are dealt with could prove controversial.
The revised strategy includes measures such as increased public education, enhanced monitoring of wildlife diseases, and new protocols for encounters with large mammals.
Specific changes include partnerships with wildlife organizations and the creation of a “wildlife resource specialist” position to lead these efforts.
But it’s beaver management that’s likely going to be the “most contentious piece” of the report, said Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr, the vice-chair of the city’s environment and climate change committee.
Wait, let me guess. Does your new beaver policy involve a conibear trap and a shovel?
Yeah we know that one.
Wildlife advocates have had long-standing issues with how reliant the city is on using lethal methods to deal with troublesome beavers. When the presence or actions of an animal pose a risk to public health and safety, the city’s service providers can use lethal trapping.
According to the proposed new wildlife strategy, the city will “maintain current beaver management solutions in municipal drains and stormwater systems and evaluate beaver management practices in other locations.”
“Beaver management requests are assessed using a risk-based approach on a case-by-case basis, with beaver trapping considered as a last resort,” the report says.
Beavers are a “complex issue,” Carr said, as their dams can contribute to flooding, negatively impact the city’s stormwater infrastructure and obstruct city drains and culverts. Ottawa’s approach to handling beavers is significantly influenced by the Provincial Drainage Act, Carr said.
The law requires municipalities to keep drainage systems working properly to prevent flooding and protect both farmland and infrastructure.The city employs trappers licensed by Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources as a flood control measure, and the ministry recommends lethal trapping, according to the city’s website.
By ‘COMPLEX ISSUE’ er mean something we want to kill without drawing unwanted media attention. GET IT?
“We are hampered by provincial legislation in terms of stopping [how we trap] beavers,” Carr said.
“I’m hopeful that the new position of the wildlife resource officer … will be able to assist in making some recommendations and work with organizations like the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre.”
Yup. Our hands are tied. We WOULD save beavers by wrapping trees and installing flow devices you know, but that darned drainage law just makes that impossible. Shoot!
I’m so old I remember when we first introduced the centre to flow devices and made friends with Donna.
Donna DuBreuil, the president of the centre, described the city’s approach to beaver management as “draconian.”
DuBreuil said she advocates for a preventative approach that would keep beavers “on the landscape” by installing flow devices, which are currently being used in cities across North America.
The devices prevent flooding, DuBreuil said, while also allowing beavers to continue providing benefits to the environment like preserving and enhancing wetlands.
“Here we are, the nation’s capital, still doing something that shouldn’t have been done for the last 50 years,” she added.
I would think that if a city had to learn the same lesson OVER AND OVER again it would eventually get smarter. Wouldn’t you?
Apparently not so much.
Our friends at Cows and Fish in Alberta have done it again, this time along a popular road in Bragg.
From the gravel on Mountain Road you can see the beaver’s work. There’s pools of water held back by stacks of twigs and branches. And headed into the thick of the woods, more of these animal-made dams.
It’s a pretty sight cast against the West Bragg Creek scenery.
The beavers really settled into the region after the 2013 flood. When these well-meaning engineers move in, they start working. Beavers are a bit compulsive: they hear flowing water, and have to block it up.
And while it’s great for wildlife and fish — fire, flood and drought resilience — it can be a bit of a headache.
“They created one dam which really threatened to flood our Mountain Road,” said Bragg Creek Trails crew lead Michele White.
I’m starting to get a very good feeling about this story. Are you getting a very good feeling about this story?
Bragg Creek Trails has worked hard to carve and keep up trails in the West Bragg Creek Day Use Area. And one of the key roads through, Mountain Road, is kind of like the collector road for all the loops and trails around it.
Quickly, a company was hired to bring loads of gravel and build the road up enough to keep it out of harm’s way. But that fix wasn’t going to be a permanent one. White said it was pretty clear the beavers would eventually dam again.
“The beavers were really industrious. Their families were growing so they were creating more dams,” she said.
At this point, typically the beavers would be relocated, their dams destroyed. It’s a common practice for land owners who see them as pests, easy to remove and difficult to live with.
Um. no that never happens in Alberta. They don’t go to live on the farm, Timmy.
But White said Bragg Creek Trails wanted to find another way.
Meetings between Alberta Parks, The Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society, also known as “Cows and Fish”, and the Elbow River Watershed Partnership started. Together these experts had ideas about how to coexist with the beavers.
They settled on a pond-leveller: a pipe that’s installed upstream, shrouded with metal grate fencing, and wedged into the top of the dam.
Hurray for clever people that solve problems instead of just killing them!
“We want to be able to live alongside of the beavers, let them continue with their good work and then we can still enjoy the landscape from whatever perspective it is,” said the Elbow River Watershed Partnership’s executive director, Flora Giesbrecht.
“From this lens, it’s for recreation and then access for some of the infrastructure and especially in the winter, this road is very popular.”
Giesbrecht has seen some land owners embrace coexistence. Something she and all the groups helping today want to see more of.
Approvals for this kind of thing take time, several years in this case.
Grant money helped buy supplies, but the labour — that’s all volunteer work.
Riparian specialist Kerri O’Shaughnessy with Cows and Fish used the opportunity to teach the volunteers how it’s done.
Letting beavers stick around and do their good work for creeks and biodjversjty. I’m loving this.
As an added bonus, her crash-course will help get the Bragg Creek pond-leveller installed
“We’re doing it as a workshop and a learning opportunity for some interested like-minded organizations that are looking to do similar things in coexisting with beavers wherever they’re working,” she said.
They bend the fence into shape, cut sharp ends off, more bending. Once all the pieces are ready, the contraption is walked to the water, and waded into place.
“So once it’s in, if all goes well, we’re not going to see it at all, it’s gonna be underwater and it’ll be sort of like a permanent leak through the dam,” she said. “That is going to be good for beaver habitat, fish habitat as well as help mitigate the road issue.”
Keeping the beavers. Keeping the road. AND teaching others while you do it
I call that a Win, Win, Win.
