Sometimes I like to play a little game in my mind. I pretend that every city knew already that beavers exist, and that if you kill some more will just come back. I fantasize that everyone knows that beavers are good for fish, and birds and wildlife and water quality and recognize that taking care of culvert problems is best done in a proactive way that takes all those things into account. I try to imagine that every culvert built under every road and every street in the entire state came equipped with a beaver deceiver. It’s not impossible. There are standards already in place that say how narrow the opening can be and what materials they have to use. There are standards in some states that say even that a culvert has to be the same width of the body of water it’s carrying. What if there were a state standard that says EITHER the culvert has to match the width of the stream OR a beaver deceiver needs to be installed?
In my fantasy world beavers would never block culverts or need to be trapped, we’d have more fish and more ducks and more otters and roads would never flood because of blocked culverts and our streets and cities would be safer and government wouldn’t have to keep paying for things that never work.
Or you know, you could just do this again and again.
State Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello, said he is familiar with what beavers are capable of. “I grew up in the county and I know what kind of damage beavers can do,” said Evans. “It can be severe.” Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, agrees that beavers can be a problem.
“I know we do have a beaver control program that we always put money in because beavers causes landowners problems and wash out bridges,” said Moak. But possible budget cuts could affect the funding for beaver control programs, something Williamson says would only worsen the beaver problem.
“For me, if any bill comes through the House to assist in this program, you don’t have to be a CPA to tell that a little money spent through a beaver control program is much less than fixing bridges or roadways,” said Evans.
What’s that called when someone gets you to pay a little bit of money all the time because of a bigger threat coming down the road that would cost you everything? And because of the importance of the threat you never, ever question the payment, just fork over the cash, and you make provisions for the future to keep providing it, and never consider NOT paying it?
While saving money may sound like a great thing, the programs that are cut could lead to severe consequences. Moak said it isn’t normally clear where the funding for programs will end up, but beaver control is normally safe.
“Beaver control money is always up in the air before the end of the session where we know what we’re going to have,” said Moak. “I think we’ve always funded it except for in a few cases.”
Evans said in this legislative session money has mainly gone to big projects. “Most of the money appropriated this year, that’s ‘new’ money has been for big corporations,” said Evans. Evans said it doesn’t take a person with an accounting background to understand that using some money to fund beaver control would save money in the long run.
“For me, if any bill comes through the House to assist in this program, you don’t have to be a CPA to tell that a little money spent through a beaver control program is much less than fixing bridges or roadways,” said Evans.
“It’s all about funding,” Moak said. “It’s the federal government that puts money forward, the state always puts some, but it’s one of those things that takes a back seat when you just don’t have the funds.”
Williamson reiterated the importance of doing something to protect the roads, bridges and private property in Lincoln County and elsewhere.
“It’s very important to do something about the beaver problem,” he said. “The people we have are good, but it’s just too much ground for them to cover.”
So that’s it. Keep the trappers in beer money or deal with millions in repairs. Obviously there’s no alternative. I’m imagining this big bruiser of a trapper looking out into the entire voting block of the Mississippi budget committee and saying…”Pay me now, or this road GETS it!!!!”
Who could resist?
