Pond & Plug

The very best reason to click on the video at the left, sent to me by a beaver friend from the region, isn’t because it has astounding and unparalleled claims of beaver damage. Beaver flooding is pretty unremarkable and much the same the world over. Or for the surprisingly myopic muskrat closeup in the middle – we all know cases of mistaken beaver identity are nothing new. No, the reason you should stop everything and click on the video and tolerate the short ad t’s to see the breathtaking beaver dam of 30 meters long across Buck’s lake in Kingston. For a moment I was so jealous I felt faint. Sigh.

The article is talking about the area of land thats like a liquid-laden right toe of Ontario, but even considering all that water their reported numbers of beavers killed are alarming. 6oo a year. That’s almost Hudson bay numbers. Wikipedia tells me that the entire basin of all of Ontario itself is less than 62000 square miles of water.

Surprisingly, although the number of dead beavers is going up, the number of trappers is going down. The article blames the tumbling price of beaver pelts.

In the 1980s, the trappers council had more than 100 registered beaver trappers. It currently has 30 active members. “There’s no money in it,” Deline said. “It actually costs money to do it,” he added, explaining trapping has become a hobby instead of a livelihood. “The old guys do it instead of golfing.“

“Wanna play a few rounds on Saturday, Ethan?” “Nah, my game is shot since the shoulder’s acting up. Let’s go kill some flat-tails instead!” My disbelief isn’t caused by wondering who in their right mind would find recreation in killing families, (because let’s be honest, it’s probably not the WORST thing these men do to amuse themselves). No, my disbelief comes from the quote. Who would say that? Out loud? To a reporter? Aside from the inhumanity of it I can’t imagine it makes your time appear very valuable. I assume you’d rather get paid for this labor than do it for free. That isn’t going to happen if you describe your services to national media as a HOBBY.

My favorite part of the good ol- boy commentary comes at the end,

“With the beavers causing such problems in Kingston it begs the question, much loved national symbol or public enemy number one? The answer depends on who you talk to.”

Public enemy number 1? Really? It’s good to know that as a nation you can prioritize. The Department of National Defense in Canada reported a budget for 2009 of c$19.5 billion. My calculator doesn’t reach up that high but since it’s your number one priority I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know that you can build a nearly infinite number of flow devices with that amount.

Just sayin’.

So yesterday google alerted me to a story that was trash-talking beavers. I strolled idly over to the website to read the latest in the castorphobe files. KCTB is a comercial radio station in Ontario. Tom apparently fills three hours before noon and has a blog to boot. Guess what he decided to write about on mothers day?

I am not a huge fan of the beaver. They are the only animal along with man that can alter its environment. We’ve had beavers up at the cottage. One constructed a small house across from us in the bay. But, because it’s not blocking moving water, it doesn’t do any damage. And that’s the case with most beavers up North.

My friend Peter in Port Loring is a beaver-trapper. The Ministry of Transportation pays him to trap beavers. Specifically, beavers that block creeks next to roads. The dams cause flooding which washes out the roads. One little beaver can do tens of thousands of dollars in damage. The problem in cottage country is that because of the geography, there are also thousands of potential sites for beavers to wreak their damage.

Hmm. A typical, NIMBY argument. Beavers are okay but just not here. They belong in the wild, not in the urban streams or city parks. In such close quarters they are destructiv and do a ton of damage. Thank goodness I have a friend whose a trapper. All fairly typical.

Well that’s a relief. Clearly you’ve thought this through, Tom. Maybe your trapper friend spent time explaining to you how beaver dams flood roads to pay his mortgage. You probably spent countless hours pouring through the population data and transportation expenditure statistics before you wrote this article or spent any time pontificating about this on the radio. You must know alot about beavers.

One of the reasons they wanted to return the creek to a more natural state was to help the local wildlife. Every fall, we take the girls down to the creek to see the salmon spawning, and anglers are now a regular sight. But, as the creek has been rehabilitated, it seems to have drawn in some predators. Namely, the beaver.

: Konrad Gesner 1551

Inclined as I can be to give beaver-foe the benefit of the doubt, I thought maybe he meant predator like Oregon means predator: as in I-wanna-kill-it-on-my-land-without-asking-permission” variety of predator. Alas no. He meant the real thing.

You learn something every day. I thought they may dine on fish. I should have used the term ‘pest’ instead of predator.

Well, its not the craziest thing I’ve ever heard with the TV off. Beavers “eating fish” and “living inside” the dam are the two most common beaver myths we encounter every day. Of course you are a media personality with access to the air waves fifteen hours a week and I assume thousands of listeners. And you do live in Canada. I’m curious, does it say ‘predator’ on the back of your nickle?

So I wrote my usual ‘here are the reasons why it’s in your self interest to let beavers stick around’ letter, and his response was .

@Heidi – I did not want this to be a dissertation on geography, but for numerous reasons THIS park is inappropriate for these beavers. I am not anti-beaver, but not in this locale. The salmon runs were there long before the beavers colonized this creek. We are next to a protected habitat for wildlife that houses dozens of species of birds. I’ll leave my knowledge of the area as the final word while acknowledging that they can sometimes be accommodated in urbanized settings. However, in Northern Ontario where we have a cottage, I’m not fully convinced you are aware of the landscape. There is a) no shortage of beavers, and b) no need to create wetlands, as that’s all there is. The beaver will long thrive in this type of environment, and so it should. But this creek, in this park, is just not the right spot for a beaver lodge. Thanks for your interest in my blog post, Tom McConnell.

“History starts with me?” “I saw the salmon before I saw the beavers so I know they were here first?” And “we have a lot of wetlands so we don’t need beavers in Ontario?” Never mind the drought years that caused massive impact because Ontario had no preparations for them….never mind that beavers and salmon coevolved and were certainly in your area thousands of years before you were….never mind that your fact-free column contains 513 words and my sober response of 110 is a ‘dissertation’.

You insist you know more about the region than I do? I absolutely agree. You argue you know more about the region than you know about beavers? Once again, I whole-heartedly agree. You must.

—-Leonard Houston’s response was so measured and compassionate that I nearly talked myself out of posting a rant about this bit of beaver bigotry. Then I read the address for ‘contact us’ and couldn’t resist.

St. Catherine’s Ontario!

You remember the grand beaver battle of St. Catherine’s right? Lots of ignorance, lots of public outcry, lots of letters, lots of discussion, and a cautious commitment to try something new. Apparently the whole debate happened without a whiff of media education because Tom lived through the story and still thinks beavers eat fish.

But thanks Tom, because while I was searching for the Gesner image I came across the COOLEST page I’ll share tomorrow. Here’s a light note to start your day from Lory.