It struck me this morning that in four years of bemoaning beaver stupidity from sea to shining sea I have never written anything about the Dakotas. We’ve visited beaver policy in Texas, Georgia, Nevada and New Jersey but I never had anything to say about the Dakotas because I never read anything about them.
Circumstances being what they are, I have always assumed that was because beavers were so wholly disregarded and eagerly trapped that they no one thought their killing was newsworthy. No one writes about it in the paper when you kill ants in your kitchen, right? But looking at this article now I’m beginning to think there might be another explanation.
Local Wildlife On The Move
This Year’s Flooding Created Changes For Many Animals Along The Missouri River
BY RANDY DOCKENDORF
This summer’s Missouri River flooding has created hardship for residents in southeast South Dakota and northeast Nebraska, but not only for the two-legged inhabitants.
The flooding has forced relocation of beavers, in turn affecting the trees they feed upon, according to conservationists and river observers. The issue of increased beaver sightings came up during last week’s Game, Fish and Parks (GF&P) meeting in Yankton dealing with a proposed bobcat hunting season, according to Ron Schauer, a regional GF&P program manager from Sioux Falls.
Before you reach for your dictionary, GF & P stands for “Game, Fish & Parks” Department. Interesting way to combine interests. I wonder why it is that California State Parks are always broke and our Department of Fish and Game is always funded? Apparently in the Dakotas they have enough money to send staff around counting beavers.
“I did notice a lot of signs of beavers on the two National Park Service Missouri River tours in late October,” he said. “(I saw the signs) on both the stretch below Gavins Point from St. Helena (Neb.) to Mulberry Bend, and the next day from Fort Randall (at Pickstown) to Verdel (Neb).”
“I’ve also noticed areas on the river between Yankton and Ponca State Park where there seems to be abnormally high beaver activity,” said Tim Cowman, director of the Missouri River Institute (MRI) in Vermillion.
Schauer has seen a shift in the beaver population during recent months.
Wow, states that not only count their beaver population, but know where they should be! How confusing! I bet with all these beavers in new places they’re finding new reasons to kill them right?
The beavers have created some unwelcome damage to cottonwoods in their new habitat, Schauer said. “I’m concerned about the big cottonwoods, which are the preferred eagle site for nesting,” he said. “We have those 50-, 60-, 80- and 100-year-old cottonwoods, and it’s not a good thing that we are losing them.”
AHA! I knew it!
Efforts are under way to protect cottonwoods wherever possible, Schauer said.
“I talked to our Pierre staff, and they are trying to protect the trees with fences so the beavers don’t get to the trees,” he said.
Fish and game wrapping trees? I need to sit down. I’m feeling faint. Everything familiar has become foreign. I better keep reading.
The appearance of beavers outside their usual habitat led many people to believe — mistakenly — they were seeing a huge surge in the critter’s numbers, Schauer said.
“What happened on the river is not a population explosion of beavers,” he said. “The river was up so high that the beavers were within the water levels. Anytime you’re talking about water-based furbearers like beaver or muskrat, and you have high water, they may need to move outside their preferred habitat. There may be increased numbers of them (elsewhere), and we have seen that.”
Well, protecting beavers from flooding is a like protecting banks from money. Sure their lodges might be underwater or washed away, but they can usually find some place to hunker. I can’t even think it would matter that much if all their food was underwater, since beavers normally store their food underwater in the winter anyway! Maybe in that much flooding there are shopping carts, furniture and automobiles rushing downstream but wouldn’t they be upstream too? I can’t think of one reason why beavers would move because of flooding, but I’m still in shock so I may not be at my best.
Anyway, go read the whole story. I’m noticing that the paper says its illegal to reprint the story without written permission and thinking wouldn’t it be ironic if after all the mean things I’ve said about every other region in North America I was prosecuted for saying really nice things about the Dakotas?
It’s a mad, mad, world.
