Beaverton beaver dam causes park to flood
Nancy Freeman’s home backs up to the park, and her deck has a view of one of the beaver dams. She loves watching the wildlife, and hopes what THPRD says is true.
“So much has been displaced because of development. Our animals, the creatures that were here first, we sometimes forget and want to displace them because they inconvenience us.”
The options are to create a wildlife viewing area, construct a new trail around the flood water or build a bridge over it.
A date hasn’t been set yet, but THPRD says it will hold a public meeting in April to get feedback on the options. Officials have already been hearing from park visitors.
Hmm, the Beaverton story is shaping up to have all the ingredients of a beaver polity. You remember, like we had in Martinez a few years back. I got several emails from the reporter and the natural resource guy yesterday, and there were a ton of responses to the article. Now I don’t like to gamble, but I’m going to guess that there’s a good chance the park will accommodate the beavers. I heard from the park yesterday that trapping them out is NOT being considered.
Readers say ‘Go, Beavs’ as THPRD ponders options for beavers at Greenway Park
The Greenway Park beavers are pulling in some interesting and funny comments from folks, most of whom support the beavers. The comments:
thomasg86 As a frequent user of the park, I have noticed this transition over the last few years. The “main route” is still mostly clear, except when passing under Scholls Ferry Road… a lot of the flooding seems to be on the “secondary loops” north of there. A big attraction with this park system is the eight or nine continuous miles through the heart of Tigard and Beaverton… that’s a pretty cool resource. So if we have to avoid a couple side trails to make peace with the beaver, I’m okay with that.
Jimmy Carter Just change the name to Peopleton and everything will be okay.
kpu7m Long live the beaver state….learn to coexist.
Values Voter Humans have dammed nearly every major river in North America and flooded the homes of billions of animals. Who is the bigger and far more destructive beast?
outersepdx Guess this is the only place where the Beavers (OSU) can get a win??? 😉 I’m guessing it’s duck fans who want to take the dam out.
sangre_naranja Go Beavs!!
I’m thinking we should just sit back and watch this one. It promises to be good.
Ohhh and two stories this morning you might not read anywhere else. The first that a 185 year-old gold beaver coin sold yesterday to a collector in Eugene:
Eugene dealer snares 165-year-old Oregon ‘Beaver Coin’
Nelkin bought the $5 gold coin in August from a private collector, who had paid $257,000 for it at an auction three months earlier.
The coin was made in 1849, a decade before the Oregon Territory became a state.
It’s unknown how many of the Oregon gold coins remain in existence. But fewer than 50 out of the 6,000 $5 coins made in Oregon City in the 19th century have been certified as authentic, Nelkin said.
Ooh a beaver coin valued at over a quarter of a million. That seems about right to me. Beavers are almost as valuable on a coin as they are in your creek! Amazing!
And this last story has nothing to do with beavers (probably), but blew my mind and I know will interest you. Get ready for a fast ride.
Weasel Rides Woodpecker in Viral Photo—But Is It Real?
Can weasels fly? According to an image captured by amateur photographer Martin Le-May, they can if they hitch a ride on the back of a woodpecker.
The picture shows a least weasel (Mustela nivalis) clutching on the back of a European green woodpecker (Picus viridis), likely as a result of a predatory attack gone awry. (Watch: “Hoarders: Acorn Woodpeckers.”)
Le-May told BBC News he snapped the photo Monday afternoon while visiting Hornchurch Country Park in East London. In fact, his presence may have saved the bird’s life.
“I think we may have distracted the weasel, as when the woodpecker landed it managed to escape and the weasel ran into the grass,” he told the BBC.
I know what you’re thinking. Is this a photoshop fake? National Geographic doesn’t think so.
But is the photo now known on Twitter as #WeaselPecker a fake?
Hany Farid doesn’t think so. Farid is a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, who researches digital forensics and image analysis.
Farid said that while the image’s low resolution makes performing a detailed analysis difficult, there are several other factors to consider. For starters, because the weasel is virtually hugging the woodpecker, forging such an image would be extremely challenging.
“This would have required a nearly perfect and coincidental alignment of the two animals in their original photos so that they could be composited together,” said Farid. “This type of forgery is therefore more difficult to create than, for example, two animals simply standing side-by-side.”
The fact that Le-May has posted several other photos of the scene is another indicator that the images are probably real, because it would be even more problematic to consistently alter two or more photos.
Finally, Farid said there doesn’t seem to be any obvious lighting, color, focus, or quality differences between the weasel and the bird.
“Combined, I don’t see any evidence that the photo is not real,” he said.
That is one lucky weasel. And considering he was probably pouncing for his meal, one lucky woodpecker to boot. The photo is one in a million, but honestly, I couldn’t get this song out of my head all day…
