Remember the
‘contest’ they were having in Latvia to find a solution to their pesky beaver problem? They said the beavers were chewing trees (
no!) and tunneling into the bank. They wanted suggestions for how to solve the problem without killing and made the quirky distinction of only taking solutions from locals. Thus our foreign correspondent, Alex Hiller from Germany, decided it was time to vacation in the Baltic region. So he hopped over Poland and Lithuania 1100 miles and just dropped in. He sends these photos and description of his investigations in the field, so I’ll just let him speak for himself. (And yes, that is a Worth A Dam tshirt he’s wearing in the first photo!)
Hi, greetings from Latvian capital Riga, situated at the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea about 300 US-miles south of Finland. For a week now I`ve spent my vacation time to check on proper solutions for a beaver contest launched in mid-June by Riga City Council: The Old City of Riga is surrounded by Old City Canal that stretches around in a half-circle of two US-miles mouthing at both ends into river Daugava. The canal is embedded into an enchanting park alongside its banks with neatly mown lawns, lots of flowers and awesome old trees lining up its whole curved stretch like an water alley.
What was suggested by newspaper articles of mid-June was a UNESCO world heritage site being vandalized by resident beavers that showed up first time two years ago. Instead of trapping out the culprits instantly Riga City Council decided to launch a contest asking its human residents for ideas how to protect beavers and greenery at once.
Arriving in mid-August the only beaver I caught sight of was its image printed on the cover of a book I found in the Latvian National Library, titled in Latvian language “Nature`s engineer – the beaver”, written in 1982 by the late Latvian beaver scientist, Mr. Mártinjish Balodis, ( + 2001 ), well-known in Latvia as “bebrs-Martinjish”. Starting his career with Latvian forest service it were about 60 to 90 beavers in excactly 30 settlements to be found in 1952, nowadays the estimated number of beavers in Latvia has reached about 80 K.
That population pressure brings migrating beavers down the river Daugava to Riga and since two years to visiting Old City Canal. As I was told by well-informed residents, none of the visiting beavers has taken residency so far, mere or less just swimming in and out, unfortunately taking a good bite of bark from unprotected tree trunks and leaving some deep carvings on old trees from unsuccessful clipping attempts.
None of the old trees with visible teeth-markings has lost its vitality. Several trees were wrapped by sturdy wire, but by far not all of them. In Kronsvalda Park covering one third of the length of Old City Canal it were just 27 out of 135 trees standing directly alongside the banks that are being wrapped properly.
Due to massive sheetpiling from the waterline down to the bottom of Old City Canal ten years ago beavers won`t the chance to dig burrows into the steep banksides with its entrances beneath water-surface.
Supposedly thanks to an early e-mail in July from Sharon Brown of Beavers, Wetlands and Wildlife Organization, to Riga City Council, no more inappropriate chicken-wire or plastics fencing could be found on my research as it had been on video-display in June. Nevertheless did I take the chance to hand out Sharon Brown`s letter (painstakingly translated) into Latvian language to a semi-official of Riga, whose importance to environmental issues cannot be overestimated: Dr. Indulis Emsis, the founder of the Green Party of Latvia in 1990, long-term Latvian Minister of Environment and short-term Latvian Prime Minister in 2004.
I was granted the chance to have lunch with him on August 23 and being informed in perfect German language about beaver issues of today from his scientific and administrational knowledge in Latvian forest service. Mr. Emsis offered to hand over Sharon`s letter to the head of contest launching Riga Environmental Committee and member of the Green Party, Mr.Robyn Klavins.
At the end it is similar with tourists and beavers: If you want them to stay, you will have to offer suitable accommodation and food supply.
Alex Hiller
Alex! What a fantastic report from such a beautiful city! Thank you sooo much! That park looks like Disneyland and certainly deserves beavers! You gave them a fighting chance and we’re sending you another shirt!
