Chris Bernier – Worth A Dam

Commission wavers on fate of beavers

Though the Select Board didn’t pull the trigger on the trapper proposal at its meeting Monday night, members were told a nonlethal alternative, suggested by a licensed wildlife rehabilitator late last year, wouldn’t work in the estimation of an expert from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Chris Bernier, the department’s furbearer project leader, visited the site in June and quickly concluded that erecting an “exclusion fence” or “beaver baffle” at the culvert would be futile.

According to an email from Bernier, that’s largely because the culvert in question serves as the outlet for nearby Berlin Pond and any permanent structure designed to deceive dam-building beaver would be easily overwhelmed by water flows, require frequent maintenance, or both.

“It is safe to say any structure (baffle, fence or combination thereof) would be readily overwhelmed during even moderate rainfall events,” Bernier wrote, noting his “desktop review” of the upstream drainage area revealed marginal storage capacity and “bank full flows” averaging 229 cubic feet per second.

Now we’ve met Chris before over the years, and his advice has been a mixed bag at best. But I wonder if you can guess what percentage of CDFG wardens contacted about the Martinez Beaver situation warned that a flow device would NEVER WORK. I’ll wait while you think. 50%? 75%

How about 100%.

Okay Mr. Solutions-only-work-on-easy-problems…we understand your hesitation. But Skip Lisle INVENTED the technique you’re dissing, and he happens to live 100 miles from you. (2900 less than he traveled to Martinez to fix OUR problem nearly a decade ago.) Maybe you could, I don’t know, ask his OPINION on the matter before you decide, in your infinite wisdom, with your beaver 101 education that this problem can’t be solved?

At the time, John Aberth — a Roxbury resident, college professor and licensed wildlife rehabilitator — gave the board a crash course in “beaver baffles” and “beaver deceivers,” arguing they would be relatively inexpensive to install, easy to maintain and significantly more effective than trapping.

Swayed by Aberth’s presentation, the board referred the issue back to the commission, which has since obtained a conflicting opinion from Bernier and reluctantly expressed renewed interest in trapping. The request was briefly discussed by board members who did not take any action.

Hmmm, like valiant little salmon trying to swim upstream against a current of bad information. Vermont MAY get this one right with a little more effort. I wrote everyone I could think of and Dr. Alberth for good measure. In the meantime let’s hope that the vibrations of nearby Skip Lisle will shake them into paying attention.

Now for some eye candy.

Mt. Holly — Leave it to beavers to kick off this summer’s popular “Know Your Wild Neighbors” series at the Mount Holly Town Library, Wednesday, July 24, at 7 p.m. Chris Bernier of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department will be the featured speaker at the workshop, which is sponsored by the Ninevah Foundation and free of charge.

Bernier will explain how beavers accomplish their amazing engineering feats: gnawing down large trees to construct dams that create the ponds where they live, and building domelike lodges of branches and mud that are home to several generations and are reachable only through underwater entryways.

The presentation will also cover how the beaver’s work benefits other wildlife, and what to do about unwanted beaver activity, such as a beaver dam that causes flooding. Beaver pelts, a beaver skull and a sample of “beaver-gnawed” wood will be on display, as well as beaver “baffles” – structures designed to control water level and protect culverts affected by beaver dam-building.

Did you catch that? Someone from Vermont Fish and Wildlife will be talking about controlling beaver problems by wrapping trees and installing bafflers. Someone bring me the smelling salts because I may faint. Vermont in particular should know their way around beaver issues better than most. It’s the home of Skip Lisle, inventor of the beaver deceiver. I suppose they are using the term ‘baffler’ just to show their fierce independence. But this is almost encouraging. Almost.

I knew Chris’ name looked familiar. Hope he has learned more about beavers than the last time he was in the news.

Chris Bernier, a specialist with the state Fish and Wildlife Department said the animals are particularly active this time of year. “There’s a lot of busy parents running around collecting food for their young in the springtime,” Bernier said.

Beavers running around in the springtime? You mean like months before their children are born? I’m glad you know there are ways to control beaver problems besides trapping but I hope you leave that part out of your talk.

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However, parents are active protecting young in the summertime. As this Massachusetts couple found out the hard way.

Mass. couple’s dog runs afoul of beaver in Brookline

A couple hiking with their dog in the northwest corner of Brookline near the power lines Saturday, July 6, had an unexpected detour to the animal hospital for emergency surgery after their dog was bitten by a beaver. – See more at: “The owner said the beaver was initially circling, it would go under and come back up,” Monachelli said. “This went on for 30 to 40 minutes, antagonizing the beaver. The owners heard the dog cry out and (discovered) two big gashes on the left front paw, bleeding profusely.”

Ow. Here’s a general rule. Dog owners everywhere jot this down. We don’t let our pets swim with beavers in June and July because they are worried protecting their little kits and will attack an intruder that’s capable of doing harm. Got that?

“The dog was rushed in on a human stretcher,” Monachelli said. “I anesthetized her, sutured and bandaged (the wound) and gave her antibiotics and pain medication. The bite punctured muscles and blood vessels, and there was a lot of bruising, but it wasn’t very extensive.”

Once she was patched up, Gracy was able to go home and is expected to recover. Her owners were unavailable for comment. Beavers are found throughout the area, but are bites common? According to the state’s Fish and Game website, beavers are strictly vegetarian and mainly nocturnal, appearing most often at dawn and dusk to repair their dams and gather food. Mo

Todd Szewczyk, Brookline’s Fish and Game officer, said the beaver was likely just trying to defend itself. “Coyotes prey on beavers,” he said. “The dog was just trying to play, but the beaver thought it was a predator. The two don’t come in contact very often, but (beavers) do meet coyotes pretty frequently.”

I’m glad the dog got better care than the man from Bellarus. And I’m glad the Fish and Game officer saw it in a reasonable way. Let’s hope the owners tell all their friends why its not a good idea to let your dog swim in a beaver pond in the summer.

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I confess I am no engineer, but I truly can’t understand how this works. Maybe you can help me?

SC environmental officials say pond must be drained so beaver damage can be repaired

Property owner Ramona Wesley says the water isn’t draining properly because beavers have built dams on the pond. DHEC officials said the water needs to be low enough so crews can access the holes the beavers have made and fill them in.

Lower the pond, fill in the holes so you can drain more water? What aren’t I understanding? Are they talking about a manmade dam that they think beaver dug into? Are they talking about lodges around the lake they are mislabeling as dams? I only understand it enough to realize it makes zero sense. You might assume the reporters noticed that it was illogical too, but I now know that reporters don’t think at all when they’re reading the teleprompter. Yesterday I heard a reporter read this OUTLOUD on channel 2 with no dawning realization whatsoever.