There are wonderful things from Canada today, from the western side to be precise. The first is an almost entirely fine article about the Elk River Alliance embracing our flat-tailed friends (if by embracing you mean holding with two fingers at a distance.)
Elk River Alliance makes beavers their friends
Beavers can be a real pain.
The traditional solution is to simply rid of them—but the Elk River Alliance says that there’s a better solution for these animals, who also provide critical benefits to the ecosystem.
The group has launched an initiative called Accepting Beavers and enhancing Wetlands, which is a partnership with the City of Fernie to enhance the McDougall Wetland, as well as the West Fernie Wetland.
ABEW? Seriously? That’s the best acronym you could come up with?
“Beavers are rather vilified creatures,” said Lee-Ann Walker, with the Elk River Alliance. “They create problems for landowners.”
She says that while many see the animals as nothing short of a nuisance, they in fact provide key benefits to wetlands.
The dams act as sediment filters, and habitats for many beneficial insects like dragon flies and even juvenile fish.
“How do we learn to live with beavers and use beavers to our benefit?” she said.
The solution is a device called a pond-leveling device. The mechanism is a pipe that allows water to flow through the dam, with caging around it so the beavers can’t stop the flow.
Well I’m almost a fan. I’ve seen some images of your ‘pipe’ though, and you clearly weren’t trained by Mike Callahan or Skip Lisle or even Adrian Nelson. Still, I’m hopeful.
“It’s a balancing act,” said Walker, explaining that the device manages the water, protects the beavers and satisfies landowners.
The group is also wrapping trees with wire in order to prevent beavers from felling them.
“We’re humans, we have bigger brains than beavers—can’t we outsmart them?” said Walker. “Pond leveling devices are a much better solution.”
She says that as rodents, they’re difficult to eradicate. She says that residents should also avoid breaking out beaver dams not only because the beavers come back and build it twice as large, but because the dams are highly beneficial to wetland ecosystems.
“They’re not doing it because they want to make your life difficult,” she said. “We’re not going to get rid of beavers. Let’s just learn to live with them.”
Is it appropriate to call that advocacy really? Well if saving beavers has taught me NOTHING else its taught me that there aren’t enough allies in the world to be picky. WELCOME ABOARD ABEW! We need all the friends we can get!
This was uploaded yesterday to the Canadian Geographic photography page with the following description. Isn’t it lovely?
Uploaded by James Brohman on 28 Jan 2018
“Beavers play a critical role in creating and maintaining wetlands in North America which many plants and animal species require for survival. Without these masterful animals, much biodiversity would be lost.”
