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heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now? July 9, 2014

Beaver proves to be nuisance neighbour for Bathurst-area man

Hazen McCrea wants the province to deal with beaver dam blocking a culvert for fears of flooding

Beaver dam blocks culvert by Hazen McCrea’s home

A beaver dam is blocking the culvert that drains Hazen McCrea’s property and he’s worried about flooding if the provincial government doesn’t do something to help. (Bridget Yard/CBC)

The structure is starting to interfere with proper drainage of the 81-hectare property and if the beaver continues construction, McCrea worries about where all the water will go.

But he says every time he calls the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, he gets the run around.

Department officials told CBC News the beaver dam is not in the department’s right-of-way and suggested contacting the Department of Natural Resources.

New Brunswick is on the other side of Maine located about 500 miles from the inventor of the beaver deceiver which protects culverts (Skip Lisle in Vermont). I’m not clear why New Brunswick is so totally unprepared for beavers, except that its very near PEI which is NOTORIOUS in dealing with beavers. Maybe all that helplessness and beaver stupid floated in with the tides?

(Indulgent aside: This is one of my first and favorite graphics in the history of my beaver life. I couldn’t find it at first in my files – but no worries. I just googled PEI Beavers and it was the first image that came up.

Hahaha. I must be very popular in the region.)

Lory sent this photo the other day and it deserves our adoring attention. It also reminds us that it’s kit season and well-meaning rehabbers from Calgary to Kentucky are inheriting the orphaned beavers of a trap-happy world. It turns out taking care of kits is a lot more complicated than most people realize. I do all I can to funnel information to our good friend and adviser Cher Button-Dobmeier of the Abbe-freeland Animal Sanctuary. She has rehabbed thousands of beavers and realizes the mistakes folks are most likely to make.

Cheryl and I have been begging her to write something for the rehab section, but she is resistant. “Every kit is different” she says. “And I don’t want people to feel like they are confident in what to do. I want people to ASK and keep asking, so that we can spot the problems before they become un-fixably fatal.”

It’s hard to argue with that.

Cher Button-Dobmeier, Director

Abbe-Freeland Animal Sanctuary, Inc.

8104 Terwilliger Rd.

Angelica, NY 14709

585-808-3231

Renewable Resource: Castor Envy!

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Friends of Martinez Beavers, kits November 5, 2012

There is a temporary lull this morning in beaver killing articles, so I thought we’d spend a little time talking about a very great injustice in the world that has troubled me mightily lo these many months. I’m not talking about poverty or political rape or climate change or slavery.

I’m talking about something much worse.

I’m talking about this outrage! And people who have things like this in their sinks or bathtubs or living room floors. I’m talking about the fact that they get to pick up this tiny fury wet thing with a flat tail and I don’t. Oh the humanity! I thought I’d share some of the more outrageous examples of this injustice with you today. But I warn you: It’s going to get worse. These graphic images are not for every pair of eyes to behold, and I warn you to use caution and common sense and step away from the screen if you feel a swoon coming on. I don’t want a bunch of letters later whining that you didn’t know what to expect or didn’t know how viscerally you’d be affected. You’ve been warned!

Kellie Ball: Wildlife rehabilitation

Kellie is a friend of BWW who saw our website and thought we should be beaver buddies. She’s was specializing in rehabbing beavers in Texas for a while there. The state cheerfully supplied her with orphans but it was hard work finding a safe place to release them. recalling the “using a can of beans to trap a beaver in Edcouch incident” I believe her. Let’s just say that beaver savvy hasn’t yet trickled down to Texas and leave it at that.

beaver with duck — Kellie Ball: Wildlife rehabilitation

I told you these photos were bad. Who in there right mind would put a rubber duckie in with a beaver? It’s just sick. As if the one wasn’t cute enough without the other. The ‘rehabbers’ (as they like to call themselves) just toss their exploits around like they were nothing. Like everyone had beaver chewing their chairlegs and building dams out of newspaper under the ottoman. Like every porcelain vessel was just waiting for the addition of a beaver.

Adorable — Kellie Ball: Wildlife rehabilitation

This Public Service Warning has been brought to you by the good people of Worth A Dam who have after 5 years only had the privilege of handling sick beavers and dead beavers and want you to know we’re mad as hell and not going to take it lying down.

heidi08 Uncategorized December 29, 2010

“The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say”

— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring)

Yesterday was my official day off. For the past week I’ve been rushing around with Christmas chores, getting dinner for the parents or things ready for the new calendar year at the office. Soon there will be a Worth A Dam New Years dinner to get organized but yesterday was all my own. And I spent it languidly with my very favorite subject.

In the morning I got an email from a wildlife rehab woman in Illinois who had been contacted by another wildlife friend who had taken in an orphaned beaver at birth. She was looking for some help with socialization and long term placement and did I know anybody?

Gosh. Illinois. My only contacts there were the friends of the Lincoln Park beavers and one benevolent reporter, but I didn’t think they could help. I put out a general APB to all the beaver contacts in the country, and one to Canada for good luck. I figured someone might know someone that could help.

Leonard Houston (who has got to have plenty on his mind with the upcoming State of the beaver conference), nevertheless offered to ask a ‘friend’ in the Chicago area. I didn’t think much of it until last night, when I heard that his ‘friend’ was Donald Hey the keynote speaker of the conference and the co-founder of the Wetlands Initiative.

He also is executive director of Wetlands Research, Inc., which manages the Des Plaines River Wetlands Demonstration Project in Lake County, Illinois, one of the nation’s first large-scale wetland restoration projects. He formerly was president of Hey & Associates, an environmental services consulting firm.

So Dr. Hey wrote Len back and said, I be willing to offer that beaver plenty of wetlands and lots of friends if he’s in good health and the caregiver can take care of the paper work! I wrote back the woman excitedly and heard this morning that they are starting the process to get things moving. Imagine, what better life for a beloved beaver than a trip to the nation’s first large-scale wetlands restoration! It’s like sending your daughter to Stanford. I can imagine the tearful goodbye as the foster-mom camps out at the thawing pond to make sure the little orphan is accepted by a colony. Sniff.

They grow up so fast.

In a second burst of good news I heard from the Tri-State Bird Rescue and spoke to Rebecca Dunne Senior Coordinator of the Oiled Animal program. Remember the beaver dam that stopped the fuel-oil spill in South Carolina? She was concerned about the beavers based on what she read and had not been contacted by any local agencies. She said that number 2 fuel oil is so toxic that the fumes make the beavers ‘drunk’ before they even exit the lodge. They have an immediate reaction and are frequently observed acting erratically. (Which is logical, given what a huge neural load their olefactory sense carries – the greatest proportion.) She said she would make a few phone calls to the wildlife agencies involved, but couldn’t jump in without being asked. I said I understood and encouraged her to contact the city who may not have any idea of the risk to these beavers.

I’ll send the info to the reporter and city engineer and see what I can do. Then it’s off to make shortbread beaver cookies for dessert at the fourth annual Worth A Dam Ravioli feast.

One last thing, Eric the beaver is sitting in a Scottish prison with no family this New Years. Why don’t you send him some good cheer?