Tag: Art Wolinsky

Blame the Beaver: The Trilogy

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports June 6, 2014

Beaver connected to cause of four alarm fire in Sherman

“The property owner reported to us that for the last couple of days they had some electrical issues within the building itself,” said Sherman Fire Chief JJ Jones.

Those issues reported include power outages, surges and even noticeable sparks within electrical panels along the walls. Sherman crews had help from twelve different fire departments across Texoma as well as help from Sherman Public Works, Red Cross and Oncor.

“During fire fighter operations one of our officers reported that there was still power to one of the areas so Oncor came back out my fire investigator went back out with the Oncor representative,” he said, “and they did find a tree that had fallen by a beaver- very recently.“

Doesn’t this look like a beaver-chewed tree to you? You know how they always make those nice even blade cuts right before they start a fire? They obviously stuffed themselves on that delicious tree, got exhausted, and went to sleep it off in bed.

While smoking.

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Officials had plan to clear beaver dam under Sunset Harbor Road before washout

Before a beaver dam caused part of a Brunswick County roadway to collapse late last month, state transportation officials knew they had a furry problem inside a pipe running under Sunset Harbor Road.

“The Thursday before this blew out we were meeting with the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” said Trevor Carroll, division bridge engineer for the DOT’s Southeastern division.

The plan was set. Trap the perpetrator and set off a small pack of dynamite to clear the 72-inch pipe.

“Word is out that beavers contributed to this,” Carroll said

Boys with toys. If only they’d had time to use the dynamite, none of this would ever have happened! Of course they couldn’t have installed a beaver deceiver to protect that culvert. Why do you ask? Honestly, Brunswick might want to rethink their media management policy. The entire article basically reads, “We knew it was there, we knew it’d would be a problem, we came up with a solution, but decided to do nothing.”

Never mind that their ‘solution’ wouldn’t have worked anyway. Lets just use their own logic to point out their negligence.

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Letter: County should look into beaver contamination

I would think that looking into the beavers camping out and backing up the water would be a good place to start investigating the bacteria in Strawberry Creek. On the East Coast there is absolutely no swimming in beaver ponds due to a condition commonly called “beaver fever.”

Since there is no other real logical explanation I would hope the county looks into that as a possible source of contamination.

You see this Humbolt County beach got a bad grade from the water advocacy group because it had bacteria. And this letter advices them to STOP looking in the problem and just blame the beavers.

Heal the Bay gave Clam Beach County Park near Strawberry Park the low water quality rating for “potential bacteria sources,” which include “onsite sewage treatment systems, wildlife, domestic animals and vegetation,” according to the annual Beach Report Card. The beach also made the organization’s annual “Beach Bummer” list for the second time, ranking No. 6.

Right. I wouldn’t worry about that “onsite sewage treatment”. I’m reminded of one of my favorite old jokes where the woman sees her husband on his hands and knees in the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” She asks.

“I lost my contact lenses” he explains, and she starts to help.

“Wait, didn’t you lose them in the living room?” she wonders

“Yes, but the light’s better in here.

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Don’t you ever have any good news about beavers? I’m glad you asked. I’ve been saving this lovely treat from our retired engineer beaver friend in New Hampshire. He has been lovingly engaged with a battle with some beaver blocking the culvert in his condominium. He installed a flow device upstream, but now they plugged the pipe downstream. He retaliated by fencing the pipe. And just look what happens.

Awesome footage Art, and I don’t want to bore you with too much psychology but there are very detailed and advanced procedures used for measuring empathy and awareness of point-of-view in toddlers, that if applied to the “helper beaver” would dramatically improve the social IQ of beavers in general. (Not to mention the fact that the adult probably came in the first place because the kit was whining). Someone call the Smithsonian!

What Texas and New Hampshire have in common…

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions May 31, 2014

I had a long conversation yesterday with Kat Milacek and Rhonda Burkhardt-Thomson from the DFW wildlife coalition over the beaver issue in Irving Texas. If you haven’t heard anything about it, here’s a fairly recent report.

They got word of the contract the park issued to take out ALL beavers from ALL wetlands. But when the media started poking around they revised it to say they were relocating beaver only from the pond. (Insert Grinch explanation to Cindy Loo here). Kat and Rhonda started an online petition that got 800 signatures from around the nation, and the park department got so defensive they adapted their own web page in response.

There is misinformation and a petition circulating regarding Irving’s beaver trapping program. The City of Irving would like to correct the misinformation and provide our residents an accurate account of this story.

Yayaya. I’m sure it was all a complete misunderstanding…

Apparently three beavers (one adult and two yearlings) have already been captured and released onto private land. This is less than ideal timing, to say the least. Since kits are probably going to be left behind as they may not be able to dive out of the lodge/bank hole without adult help. My guess is that mom will stay with them as long as she can, but eventually succumb, leaving them alone.

I talked with Kat and Rhonda about solutions, about wrapping trees and getting media, they expressed frustration over how slanted the news was and how many of the park department’s lies it broadcast. Was it worse because they were in Texas? (Hahahahaha) Sadly no, I sympathized. The media is deeply naive and will be believe what officials tell them to the ninth degree. The only things on your side are cute pictures and compelling stories. Which you have so far, so buck up I told them!

Given that three beavers were already captured, I advised that it was going to be better to get the rest as quickly as possible. Try and find out where they were living to make sure none get left behind. In the mean time try and get video or night video and send that to the news station in order to pressure the park to sit down with you and make a beaver management plan for the NEXT beavers that come along. I thanked them for caring about beavers and wished them a hearty good luck!

It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the thought that there are people who want to save beavers in Texas. But I’m grateful for the chance to be proven wrong. It’s a big state, and they need the water. They should all care about beavers. Just look how good that’s working in California! (Not.)

Onto beaver defense in New Hampshire where this great letter was published in the Valley News.

Letter: What About the Beavers’ Ecosystem?

I have lived in the Upper Valley all of my life and for 53 years have traveled 12A, where on numerous occasions the beaver dams have been altered to prevent flooding. I just wonder why we always have altered the beaver dam, a dam that builds a viable ecosystem for aquatic life and waterfowl. We continually use destruction to solve the immediate crisis. I ask the state to propose alternative solutions before the next crisis.

Throughout all the election years of the past, I have listened to campaigners boast about their achievements in passing bills that have millions of dollars set aside to preserve and maintain habitat. Can we apply some of those funds in Plainfield to a solution that allows for a viable Route 12A and a thriving aquatic ecosystem? Upper Valley residents need to say we want a chunk of the money to preserve this ecosystem now! Do you believe that money spent regarding our encroachment on wildlife habitat is better than money spent to preserve wildlife habitat? If so, I ask you to help by writing or calling our state legislators about this issue. Let’s stop responding to a crisis and start finding a permanent solution.

William Monette

Wow! Asking for action at the state level! That’s dreaming big William! I like it! But you might start with your own city or county to get the ball rolling. Why not talk to your neighbor Art Wolinsky who installed a culvert protector a few years back. Now the beavers are building on the other side of the culvert, but he’s committed to solving the problem the right way. Just look at this video from this morning: (watch all the way to the end for essential commentary).

Cheryl was down last night and saw lots of activity but no kits. We’ll all be watching tonight just in case…..

Beavers and Birds: Part MCMLXVIII

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental September 26, 2012

Got an email this week from our friends at Madrone Audubon where Worth A Dam is officially in the newsletter for our October 15th presentation. Brock Dolman will be on first talking about why Sonoma wants beavers, and then I’ll chat about what Martinez did with them. The newsletter described us as a nationally acclaimed non-profit which certainly sounds nice, if a little exaggerate. Well, I suppose someone in the nation has acclaimed us on one occasion or another. Maybe internationally if you count Scotland and Canada?

I was pulling together my talk when I saw this. Art Wolinsky of New Hampshire has been motion-sensor filming his beavers with some amazing results. (visit his website for some tree-chopping infrared footage). The other night the beavers half chewed that big tree. Look what happens now:

And now is as good a time as any to remind you of Steve Zack and Hilary Cooke’s excellent 2008 finding that beaver dams significantly improve migratory and songbird numbers. I exchanged emails with both of them to try and urge them to come present at the beaver conference in January, but I don’t think I was persuasive enough.

Yet.

Green with Envy

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, kits August 13, 2012

Remember Art Wolinsky, the retired engineer who worked so hard with his neighbors to install a flow device at their condominium in New Hampshire? I connected with him through Mike Callahan’s “Beaver Management Forum” on facebook. Now Art’s watching the fruits of his labors and keeping an eye on two new kits that were born this year. Watching this video I am struck with how solitary our only kit is this year, and how vocal the others always were by comparison. I only heard our single kit vocalize once, the very first day we laid eyes on him. Actually I heard him before I saw him. That’s not the kind of sound you forget. It was one of my most favorite things about kits, and the thing that made me originally protective.

I remember standing at Starbucks, so many years ago, gazing into the water at some furry new faces after the city said they should be killed and listening to them mew and thinking HOW could people want to kill anything that makes that sound and then, have the people who want them dead ever even heard that sound? Do they even know about it? And then finally, if I let these beavers be killed when will I EVER hear that sound again?

It’s a grueling Monday morning, so I thought I’d give you something life changing to start your day. Enjoy!

Friends & Foes

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Video May 4, 2012

Do you remember the condominium group in New Hampshire that worked to solve their culvert problems without killing beavers? They had at least one retired engineer on board who was fascinated by the puzzle. He worked with Mike Callahan to chisel out solutions, and recently brought him a donation of Beaver Beer as compensation. Well, encouraged by his success he has now started a beaver blog! It’s called “Sherwood Beavers“. Here’s the story and the first blog entry.

It’s May, so I can’t think of a better time to start a beaver blog. The story is about to get very, very interesting! Art’s profile says he recently retired from teaching schools how to better teach technology. Lets hope he is inspired to keep teaching how to live with beavers! Welcome aboard Art. Great first act! Here’s a sample of what you’ll see soon.

Now for the ‘foe’ part of the title there’s this headline from the BBC:

‘Secret Tay beaver cull plan’ claim denied

Wildlife campaigners have said they fear landowners may be planning a secret cull of beavers living in the wild on the Tay, with the approval of the authorities. The Scottish government insisted the claims are untrue, but said the animals do not have full legal protection.

Ugh. So our hard working champions in Scotland are worried that even though the government has said ‘lets not kill them and study them for now’ they’ve had secret contact with worried farmers and given consent to kill them anyway. Let the farmers take the heat and get the government outta the crosshairs to put the beaver firmly back in the crosshairs where it belongs.

Louise Ramsay of the Scottish Wild Beaver Group said: “The Scottish government’s official position is that it doesn’t consider the beavers to be protected, although it wants landowners and farmers only to use lethal control as a last resort.

“But we have had two separate reports that the Scottish government wants the beavers dead and would like landowners’ support in conducting a cull, but keeping it quiet.”

First horror and then praise! GO LOUISE!!! She is doing such a remarkable job! They’ve been worrying about the protection issue for a while. See native wildlife is protected in Scotland, but evil criminally released beavers are NOT. That’s why I’ve been worried about the meme that the they know the beavers were deliberately released (not escaped) which suspiciously appeared at the very same time the ‘beavers have been spared’ announcement came.

So the original beavers were the result of a criminal act and all the subsequent generations of beavers are therefore not subject to the same protections as innocent wildlife. The sins of the father shall be visited on the sons.

To say this article has created a stir is an understatement. But the Ramsays are being so clever here I honestly can’t tell if they’re terrified or getting ready to say ‘check mate’. I know I’d feel very threatened if I were in their situation, but I’m not from a 1000+ year old prominent family descended from the physician to the king. With the recent panic in Devon when they learned that the discovered beaver wasn’t the LOST beaver, I would expect this to get more complicated before it gets less. We’d better all stay tuned!