Feisty? It’s hard to believe that beavers would eat trees in a public park. I mean who do they think they are? Feeding their families in the middle of winter! How could Grand Junction in Colorado POSSIBLY know what to do to solve the problem? It’s not like their sandwiched in between beaver experts with Sherri Tippie of Wildlife 2000 four hours to the east and Mary O’brien of the Grand Canyon Land Trust four hours to the west or anything.
Oh, wait.
Some day the ubiquitous ‘dog bites man’ story is going to be replaced with the ubiquitous ‘beaver bites tree’ headline and then maybe news media will stop reporting it like it’s a shocking development. The only shocking element is that cities that should know better almost never do. And instead of wrapping trees, and relocating family members as a unit, or educating residents, they recreate this scene from Casablanca every time.
This bit of urban brutality was taken from the dashcam of the Bridgeville Police in Pennsylvania. No I’m not kidding, in today’s post-911 world even beavers can expect the surveillance of Big Brother in their more private moments.
“There’s some big beavers down there,” Bridgeville Councilman Jason Sarasnick said.
Several trees have been damaged in the park in the past week, which is located next to Chartiers Creek across from the Bursca Business Park in South Fayette. The beavers caused so much damage to one tree that it fell and another tree had to be removed.
“We don’t have any issues with dams yet,” Bridgeville police Chief Chad King said. “But I drove down there the other day and there are at least a half-dozen trees he’s chewed on, if not more. He’s chewed just about every one.”
One of the critters was seen over the weekend by a Bridgeville police officer on patrol in the park. The police car’s dashboard camera recorded the critter chewing on the trunk of a tree shortly before midnight Sunday.
Borough officials contacted the Pennsylvania Game Commission, but were told that the animals could not be trapped until late December because they’re protected.
Ohh who doesn’t remember waiting impatiently as a child for that late December morning when Santa Clause said it was finally time to kill beavers!Peeking around the doorway in your footy pajamas to see if there were heavy bodies in the conibear under the tree! Fortunately in the meantime EVERY EFFORT is being made to protect these majestic cottonwoods.
In an effort to deter the beavers from inflicting more damage, borough workers wrapped black roofing paper around some of the trunks near the ground.
Wow, Black Roofing Paper! This borough really doesn’t mess around! You know how beavers feel about BLACK! And they hate paper almost as much as they hate what it’s made from! This plan should definitely work! And plus when it rains I bet the paper will add a really interesting dimension to Chartiers Park!
