Town disturbs wetland
The Town of Perry in Wyoming County is facing a fine from the DEC and the cost of the lots of man hours to restore what it damaged. Several acres of protected wetland were drained dry off of Beardsley Road when highway crews opened up a beaver dam while working on a road project.
Why not show this every Christmas? Seems the town of Perry in Wyoming county New York had a road that needed some repairs in a protected wetland. They wanted to get into the culvert to fix it but some hard working beavers had raised the water level and they didn’t want to get wet or install a diversion dam so the highway superintendent just ripped out the dam, killing thousands of fish and destroying the wetland with out ever getting a permit because it would take too long. Trust me, the story gets better. Now Perry has negotiated to pay a smaller fine and if they REBUILD THE DAM and fix what they ruined.
I don’t know about you but when I think of Dave Scola and the Martinez public works crew repairing a beaver dam after it has been ripped out I can’t stop smiling for the rest of the hour. Let’s hope this cautionary tale makes folks afraid of ripping out beaver dams next time.
Need more good news? How about a golf course that appreciates its beavers? Mind you this is in the Yukon where they cheerfully go out of their way to kil them.
Beaver family calls Yukon golf course home
A golf course in Whitehorse has a new group of visitors, and they’re not the types to just putter around.
“Well there’s at least four that we know of. There’s two dominant ones, a male and female that have been here on and off on the property,” Meadow Lakes Golf Course owner Jeff Luehmann says. The guests? Beavers. A family has built a dam in one of his ponds and now calls the water hazard home. The beavers moved in several years ago, and now there’s an entire brood.
Normally, the practice is for them to destroy problem animals. But Luehmann says the critters are doing him a favour.
“What I do is put poplar,” he says. “They feed on that. I also put metal mesh on the trees I want to keep.” “We just took the initiative,” he says.
Quick, somebody get 100 scouts to send Jeff thank you cards right away. I’m sure there are people in the enormity of the Yukon who appreciate beavers, but on a GOLF COURSE??? Wow. Just. Wow.
Only good news today from the Northern Hemisphere, so far covering about 5000 miles from the Yukon to New York, and now to the Bay Area adding another 3000. This is from the Beaver Restoration Toolbox which is being perfected by Karl Malcolm of USFWS. Or would be if the federal government would let people go back to work so he could make final adjustments. I can’t share the whole thing until its official but we were asked for input and I gave him lots of info and the Martinez plug. Ask how happy was I to see this on page 8.
Whew! That’s a lot of good news for one day. I will just end by saying some of the greatest beaver friends are out of work at the moment and living on savings. Michael Pollock of NOAA fisheries, Suzanne Fouty USFS, Jimmy Taylor USDA, Carol Evans BLM. There are a about a million more that have gone 12 days now without a paycheck.
Bad news for beavers. And humans.
