Beaver ecology – Worth A Dam

This is a fantastic article about Skip Lisle’s upcoming beaver ecology presentation in Maine. It says everything about beavers you ever wanted to read in print – pointing out their importance to wetlands and wildlife, and challenging folks to be smarter than a beaver and save money by doing it. In addition to all this it permanently lays to rest the age-old question as to whether the man that Martinez secretaries once clustered to the windows to watch install a pipe shirtless has, in fact, matured well.

The answer is, yes.

Beaver ecology talks set for Belfast, Liberty

Beaver expert, inventor and entrepreneur Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers International will speak in Belfast and Liberty on how to install deceivers and other devices designed to protect human infrastructure, wetlands and beavers.

The assumption is that we cannot outsmart beavers so we have to kill them,” Lisle said in a news release. “I’ve spent my life inventing and installing a number of devices that permanently outmaneuver beavers. I’ve helped communities across the country and in Poland save huge sums of money, and wetlands in the process.”

Lisle’s talk will demonstrate how towns can save thousands of dollars by permanently protecting roads and culverts from beavers. He will also cover the history of beavers in Maine, and the essential role they play in creating habitat and maintaining healthy aquatic systems.

“I don’t know how many people understand just how important beavers are ecologically,” he said. “Without beavers, we basically wouldn’t have wetlands. We can coexist with them; it just takes some creativity and commitment.

“Many people do not know that wetlands are one of the richest habitats, with a greater density of life than anywhere else on land,” Lisle said. “We have to approach the problems we have with beavers intelligently. It is our obligation as stewards. But, we also need to be smart with our money. The human and machine hours it takes to constantly repair roads, destroy dams and kill beavers is really a squandering of public funds. And it never solves the problem because beavers will always return to the site.”

Ahh, Skip, you do this so well. It seems like just the right things to say tumble effortlessly out of your lips at exactly the moment when people need to hear them. The reporter covering this story was obviously impressed because got the entire story down beautifully. Come to think of it, it’s kind of amazing that at both ends of the country there will be important beaver ecology discussions happening on February 22. Now if only we could just get some started in the middle.

This has to be my favorite part of the article:

Of the hundreds of conflict sites where he has worked, Lisle has yet to find one he could not solve. Consequently, he has never had to kill, or recommend killing, a single beaver. Skip serves as a selectman in his hometown of Grafton, Vt., where deceivers are a line item in the budget, and all roads are fully beaver-proof.

Did you read that? I didn’t know Skip was a selectman. When did that happen? I need to pay better attention. But in Grafton EVERY ROAD HAS CULVERT PROTECTION!!! This is a beaver utopia that we can only fantasize about. In fact I’m fantasizing right now. If it could happen in Grafton, why not all over Vermont? Or New England? Or the country?

Sometimes I just get that contented feeling of being a child asleep in the back seat after a long day at the beach on the car ride home. The happy adults are in the front seat and totally have everything under control. There is nothing I need to do, and everything is going to be okay. Ahh
Since I don’t need to be mature right now, I’m going to surrender to the very inappropriate impulse to post this for obvious reasons:

In the beginning was the word and the word was with Glynnis and the word was Glynnis.

Glynnis indeed baptized with her water-drought-Alberta research, and her ecosystem research and her waterfowl research, thus showing us WHY to live with beavers, but one mightier (and taller) than her cameth to teach us HOW to live with beavers.

Amy Chadwick of Great West Engineering, left, and Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers International install the flow devices that will allow beaver and the wetlands they create to remain as important components of the stream system.

Skip Lisle of Grafton, Vt., and Amy Chadwick, of Missoula, along with her husband, Howard Williams, have partnered with Butte-Silver Bow County to install three “Beaver Deceivers” at culverts in the creek. The structures, made of cedar and concrete reinforcement wire, take up space so beavers won’t try to dam the whole channel.

The beavers plug culverts all along Blacktail Creek, Chadwick said. The dams can cause flooding problems for nearby residents — Chadwick pointed to sandbags stacked by a home nearest to the creek — and can cost municipalities thousands of dollars to dismantle.

Lisle, of Beaver Deceivers International, has been creating the structures for 20 to 30 years, and Chadwick and Williams are training under him, she said.

For truly this beaver challenge endureth but a moment; in this favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning when the flow device is installed and nature itself rejoices.

The constructed in this pilot project are designed to last at least 10-20 years with minimal maintenance.

Chadwick has been doing watershed assessments and stream and habitat assessments for 15 years. She said beavers are important to a stream’s ecosystem, and recently have been recognized as a stream restoration tool, she said.