Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Tag: beaver trapping


 Emily the Trapper is 26, smart, loves animals, and thinks your ideas about fur trapping are all wrong

As a 26-year-old female, Lamb is a rarity among fur trappers, but her work ethic and foul mouth quickly endeared her to colleagues. While some of the fur she harvests is sold for use in the fashion industry, she also works closely with government officials, wildlife researchers and the oil industry to help study and sustain animal populations in the wild

Lamb has always found animals beautiful. She used to spend entire afternoons sitting in the hay feeder on her family’s Sundre-area farm when she was a girl just so she could see the cows up close when they came to eat. After graduating from high school, Lamb decided she wanted to be a veterinarian or a Fish and Wildlife officer. She eventually earned a diploma in Wildlife and Forestry Conservation online, then began an internship with the Cochrane Ecological Institute.

Joining the business as an outsider was a challenge for Lamb. So was being the first and only woman in the company. “You don’t expect a girl is going to be OK with going out and killing stuff,” she told me. Lamb found the physical demands gruelling. “It’s pretty intense work,” she said. “Tearing around with 70- or 80-pound beavers in your backpack for undeterminable distances. And setting traps with poundage enough to break your arms.” There is also, of course, the locker-room talk that comes with being the sole woman in a crew of men. “Trust me, I hear about a million beaver jokes a day,” she said with a laugh. She considers the ribbing good-natured. “Obviously, I am an easy-going gal.”

This is any trapping company’s wet dream. A cute, young, sympathetic girl they can push to the front of the line to put a humane face on their ghoulish activities.  No wonder the paper dedicated 6 entire pages to her story. (No word yet on when it will run a 6 page story on beaver benefits, or the rodent rebound from trapping coyotes, or why wolves help rivers.) There’s no time for fluff pieces like that when we have a cute 26 year old voyageur to write about.

Trappers are rarely paid for these contributions. They do it because they share a common commitment to wildlife understanding and sustainability. This is something Lamb wants the public to understand. “All of us–hunters, trappers, environmentalists, tree-huggers, hippies–every one of us, in the end, wants there to be as big and as healthy a population of wildlife as possible. Period.”

The style of beaver trap Abercrombie and Lamb use is a “body-grip killing trap”–often called a Conibear trap after inventor Frank Conibear–which a beaver springs by swimming into it. The trap is powerful enough to break a person’s arm. “That’ll wreck you pretty good,” Lamb said. The Conibear’s loaded jaws will catch a beaver around the neck and fracture its spine while compressing the carotid artery in its neck. Death comes painlessly and instantaneously.2 “The animal is living his life the way he lives his life, doing what he does every day,” Lamb said. “Then he’s not.”

Why is it that if you say that beavers are good for fish or wildlife reporters have to talk to someone who thinks differently to present a balance – but if you say conibears never make wildlife suffer they just obediently write it down with a flourish? Is there nobody in Alberta who disagrees with Emily? I’m assuming from the 60+ comments that there are. Maybe you could have contacted Dr. Hood for a quote about the impact of trapping beaver on surrounding wildlife?

Furthermore, the selective trapping of overpopulated animals like beavers and coyotes sustains their numbers. Abercrombie “traps out” about half of the beaver lodges on Chip Lake. In this way, he doubles the resources available for the remaining colonies and reduces their competitive stress. “I am keeping the population at a consistent high level on the lake by employing trapping as a management tool.” Abercrombie told me that 10 years ago, without enough trapping on the lake, the beavers clear cut the trees off every island. “They literally ate themselves out of house and home.” Those that didn’t starve contracted parasitic infections due to overcrowding. Eventually, every one of Chip Lake’s 200 beavers died. Now, thanks to Abercrombie’s trapping, about 60 individuals reside on the lake, a little more than half of what he figures the area can support.

You do realize animals move locations right? I mean if they chop the trees in one lake they move to another lake while those trees are coppicing and coming back to life? If you drink all the beer in your refrigerator what do you do?  I assume there are more trees at the lake than there are in Alhambra Creek. Its been 7 years and our beavers haven’t eaten themselves out of house and home or died of tularemia. I’m surprised the Alberta beaver species must be way more greedy.

“As a trapper, this is my responsibility,” Abercrombie said. “I do it as a steward on behalf of the citizens of Alberta. I manage the fur-bearer resource in this area. That’s what trappers do. The government doesn’t do it. The animal-rights people don’t do it. We do it.”

Oh pul-eeze. I can’t stand this much selfless patriotism without a martini. I’m reminded of a certain self-justifying poem by Oscar Wilde.

And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
Oscar Wilde

 


Okay, we’re going back to Massachusetts. Hopkinton to be precise, where the waterside homeowners want some beavers dead and can’t possibly wrap their trees or solve their flooding problem by hiring expert Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions who lives an unfathomable 77 miles away from them.

From Hopkinton, MA to Southampton, MA: 77 miles
From Grafton,VT to Martinez,CA 2991 miles.

I guess a miss really IS as good as a mile, when what you’re missing is information.

Hopkinton woman urges approval of trapping bill

 A Hopkinton woman and her neighbors who are unhappy over flooding caused by beaver dams urged lawmakers on Wednesday to pass a bill that would make it easier for trappers to use deadlier traps.

 “It’s a big mess for homeowners,” DelGaudio said, telling the room about her own flooding problems and those of her neighbors. Water is rising around septic systems, pools and sheds, not to mention homes themselves, she said, especially in the past four to six months.

 But trappers, including Rick Merchant, who spoke at the session, need permission from local boards of health to use traps that kill beavers. A 1996 ballot question made lethal traps illegal and animal rights groups continue to oppose them. The new bill would reverse parts of that law.

 Beavers are also causing headaches for homeowners in other MetroWest towns, including Holliston.  In that town, trappers only need permission in the off-season to trap using Conibear, the “quick kill,” traps, said Health Agent Ann McCobb.

Just so we’re clear, the rules need to be followed in every city in the state, and the rules say you can still kill beavers just not with crush traps. As inconvenient as it might seem you need to live trap them and then shoot them through the head. Unless one of NINE EXCEPTIONS are met, and then you can kill them ol’ any way you like.

The above provision shall not apply to the use of prohibited devices by federal and state departments of health or municipal boards of health for the purpose of protection from threats to human health and safety. A threat to human health and safety may include, but shall not be limited to:

 (a) beaver or muskrat occupancy of a public water supply;

 (b) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of drinking water wells, well fields or water pumping stations;

 (c) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of sewage beds, septic systems or sewage pumping stations;

 (d) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of a public or private way, driveway, railway or airport runway or taxi-way;

 (e) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of electrical or gas generation plants or transmission or distribution structures or facilities, telephone or other communications facilities or other public utilities;

 (f) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding affecting the public use of hospitals, emergency clinics, nursing homes, homes for the elderly or fire stations;

 (g) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding affecting hazardous waste sites or facilities, incineration or resource recovery plants or other structures or facilities whereby flooding may result in the release or escape of hazardous or noxious materials or substances;

 (h) the gnawing, chewing, entering, or damage to electrical or gas generation, transmission or distribution equipment, cables, alarm systems or facilities by any beaver or muskrat;

 (i) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding or structural instability on property owned by the applicant if such animal problem poses an imminent threat of substantial property damage or income loss, which shall be limited to: (1) flooding of residential, commercial, industrial or commercial buildings or facilities; (2) flooding of or access to commercial agricultural lands which prevents normal agricultural practices from being conducted on such lands; (3) reduction in the production of an agricultural crop caused by flooding or compromised structural stability of commercial agricultural lands; (4) flooding of residential lands in which the municipal board of health, its chair or agent or the state or federal department of health has determined a threat to human health and safety exists. The department of environmental protection shall make any determination of a threat to a public water supply.

 It’s funny how I have never in six years read a single article that even obliquely MENTIONED these 9 exceptions to the trapping law. I guess they’re too busy writing how miserable beavers make things and how the voters ruined their lives in 1996. They never forget to mention that fact, do they?

The traps are inhumane and indiscriminate, said Linda Huebner, deputy director of advocacy department of MSPCA.

“They can catch whatever animal happens upon them,” she said.

The problem is not that there are too many beavers, but that humans have settled in areas too near beaver habitats, she said.

 She said trapping won’t solve the problem permanently. One of several smarter solutions, she said, are flow devices, designed to outsmart beavers so water can flow through dams.

 “If the habitat can support beavers, other beavers will populate that site,” she said.

Ahh Linda, we are so happy you’re out there in the trenches! Fighting the good fight.  I wrote the reporter too and she said she’s working on a longer piece about beavers and goodness my website has a lot of information and would I like to chat?

Guess what I said.


There are lies
there are dam lies
And there are statistics.

With one correction in spelling to Mr. Twain’s quotation, this is a fitting introduction to today’s column. Yesterday I received the results of the survey conducted at the four seasons in El Dorado. You’ll remember they were having troubles with beavers a while back and folks contacted us about wanting to keep them. A couple of them even came to Martinez to look around and see our flow device, then visit the beaver festival. They lost the battle with the HOA to save those beavers, but have formed a wildlife group to hopefully change the situation the next time. The HOA kindly responded with the usual survey of attitudes which 104 residents returned.

surveyy

Ugh. I shudder to think what would have happened if Martinez got their hands on something like this. The questions aren’t exactly UNBIASED although the HOA deserves grim kudos for actually saying eradicate and not “remove” or “euthanize”. (Which Martinez used to cloak its ugly truth.) Okay 64 against keeping beavers and 36 for is significant at the p.005 level but the obstacle’s not insurmountable. They only need to change 19 minds. That’s like 10 couples. I’m thinking BBQ and martini’s, maybe in Martinez beaver glasses?

I especially love the part where the HOA asks residents if they will pay to thin the willow after they pay to kill the animal that would trim the willow naurally. Nice! I would start by saying, “Does the fact that you used our HOA dollars to complete this survey mean that if 51  had voted against eradication you would not have killed them next time?” If it does – we have our work cut out for us but it’s work we can do. Can you give me a map of the residences who responded to the survey? How many of them were on the creek?

If the answer is a mealy-mouthed “We have to protect the property regardless of what public opinion says” or something like that, demand they give a refund to residents for the expense of the survey itself (including the time it took them to add these things up), since its clearly a waste of time and of no value to the residents. Offer to do the survey for them next time so it won’t cost residents anything. It’s not as hard as it sounds. I know a beaver-friendly psychologist who would be happy to volunteer some time to put together new questions.

  • Is it better to solve a problem for the short term, or adopt a long-term solution”
  • Would you appreciate more variety of birds and fish in the area?
  • Do you know what a “keystone species is?”
  • Do you think the HOA at Four Seasons is as smart as other communities that have successfully employed humane solutions? Or would it be too hard for them?

Give me a call. I’m sure we can whip something together in no time.

And some more dam lies this morning from the Boston Globe, talking about how rebounding forests on the East Coast have made a wildlife boom.

As forest returns in New England, so do inhabitants

Beaver: Wiped out entirely in southern New England by 1900 with only small remnant populations in northern Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Now hundreds of thousands live throughout New England, including an estimated 70,000 in Massachusetts.

Mind you, nobody has actually COUNTED the number of beavers on the East Coast or West Coast or Barbary Coast since they noticed there were hardly any left! The 70.000 figure comes from the panicked inflated statistics offered when MA Fisheries and Wildlife responded to the voters decision to eliminate crush and leghold traps. As in “OMG we’ll be overrun with beavers. There will be 70,000 in 10 years!”

Nice of the Globe to write that down for them like its a fact. But I’ve noticed before the Globe is very compliant when it comes to beaver dogma.

For the record, MA has 10,555 miles of land of which 25.7 is water. That works out to about 2712 miles of water total, which would mean that there would be about 2 beavers for every mile of water in the state. Which I suppose is theoretically possible, except for the fact that MA is notorious for not allowing beavers in reservoirs or near drinking water, so that’s got to subtract a lot of real estate. Plus some of that water has got to be under towns and concrete, and beavers can’t live there. Not to mention that plenty of beavers in cities and on private land are getting killed every day. So I’m going to hazard the guess that that statistic is inflated. In 2009 the NYT reported the population estimated at 30,000 beavers in the state. Which means that these remarkable animals that take three years to reach sexual maturity and breed once a year have more than doubled their population in four years.

I said the time:

Today, Ms. Hajduk said, there are at least 30,000 beavers, all over the state.

 Wow, that’s a lot. Maybe this whole environmental movement has gone too far. We obviously brought them back too much. How many did their used to be? 29,000? Oh wait, remember those historical trapping records that showed 60 to 80 beaver per mile of stream? I wonder how many miles of stream Massachusetts has. (Gosh the internet is useful. 4320 miles of stream in the commonwealth of Massachusetts.) Lets just multiply that by the low number of 60…how many beavers would we expect if we were back to that baseline? I mean if we had done an even adequate job of “bringing them back” 259,200. Let’s be generous and just round down to 200,000.

 Uh oh. By the most conservative possible calculations, Massachusetts is short 170,000 beavers!

Say it with me now:

There are lies
there are dam lies
And there are statistics.

Great news from Montana where a pilot project for beaver deceivers is being launched and Skip Lisle and Amy Chadwick are at the helm.

Non-lethal beaver techniques for creek

In response to high annual maintenance costs at culverts plugged by beaver, the City-County of Butte-Silver Bow and Mile High Conservation District are sponsoring a pilot project to demonstrate non-lethal beaver management techniques for preventing culvert plugging and flooding of the pedestrian walkway along Blacktail Creek.

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

This is excellent news for Montana. I couldn’t be more certain that they will find they’re saving money installing flow devices instead of unclogging culverts and I couldn’t be happier that Amy Chadwick will be working along with him. We need a new generation of young women working on beaver issues and I want Amy to lead the wave. Unfortunately I can’t find a photo of her but we did meet at the conference and exchange emails. Trust me when I say we want her on our team! And if the name Skip doesn’t ring a bell, why not listen to the podcast interview we did?


Interview with Skip Lisle, inventor of the “Beaver Deceiver”. If he looks familar he should since he was the hero that saved the Martinez Beavers about 4 years ago! (Certain ladies may not recognize him with his shirt “on”.) I apologize in advance for the static on the line, but assure you he’s worth listening to


Subscribe to all episodes in iTunes here.

_________________________________

And another friendly face from this letter to the editor, also from Montana

Trapping: Protection theory doesn’t ring true

Scare tactics are the first resort for folks who have run out of arguments, which is likely why trappers often say that recreational trapping on public lands is necessary to protect us from disease, predators and pests.

The most commonly trapped “pest” species is the beaver. Beaver trapping is generally a private lands issue, so a block management model and trapping by trained authorities are more appropriate solutions than recreational trapping on public lands. More importantly, beaver provide vital services in an arid state like Montana. It makes a lot more sense to employ beaver deceivers (non-lethal devices that prevent beaver from damming sites like culverts), to relocate beaver or to find other creative ways to coexist with them, because they improve retention and filtration of water, soil conservation and riparian habitat.

Filip Panusz, Missoula

Filip! A fine letter like that deserves a thank you and a google search. Felip is the executive director of Footloose Montana, a nonprofit dedicated to trap free public lands.


Get it? Foot ”loose”.  Hmm, smart about beavers and executive director of a  nonprofit with a cleverly sassy name, might be a match made in heaven? Must go, I have a letter to write.


It seems that everywhere else in America (and probably Canada too) it’s beaver killing season. Reports from New York, and Illinois and South Carolina bemoan the dastardly fiends and praise the heroic johnny-come-deadly beaver trapper who saved the town by snagging the culprits. So much so that this is the cover photo in this mornings Lincoln Courier.

Click for Image if you are that kind of person.

LINCOLN —

For residents who live in the Brainard Branch area in Lincoln they can breathe collective relief sighs in regards to the problems they have with beavers.

Lincoln Streets and Alley superintendent Tracy Jackson said his department has continued to tear down many of the dams the animals make and has been battling this since the early spring.

Jackson said he is grateful to the efforts of Troy Hanger, of Lincoln, for his tenacity in wanting to rid the area of this problem.

Hanger, a licensed trapper, says the 62-pound beaver was not an easy catch.

“He avoided me for two weeks. I would put three or four beaver casters out to attract them by scent and I would see the trees chewed but he wouldn’t go near the trap,” said Hanger who started this project on Nov. 5, the first day of the trapping season.

Articles like this make me very discouraged that we will ever get to a more intelligent place in beaver policy. On mornings like today when there are so many stories of carnage that I get to pick and choose between varieties of beaver stupid I worry that it is hopeless and it will never get better. The beaver moon was named because its a good time to remember to kill beavers, and that’s true for everywhere in America.

Except Martinez.

A group of beaver supporters gathered on the bridge near the Amtrak station in Martinez on Wednesday to celebrate the Beaver Moon Credit David Mills

Perhaps it was because it was the night of the Beaver Moon. Whatever it was, two of Martinez’s beavers made an appearance at sundown Wednesday while a dozen onlookers watched. The crowd had gathered on the bridge near the city’s Amtrak station downtown at 5 p.m. under the November full moon known as the Beaver Moon or Frost Moon. About 5:15 p.m., the first beaver swam out from its den along the banks of Alhambra Creek. He disappeared, but a few minutes later another beaver came out, swam near one of the colony’s dams, grabbed a vine and brought it back to the den. The event, organized by the community group Worth A Dam, was designed as a celebration of the beaver community in town.

Worth A Dam. Changing the world one beaver at a time.

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