I don’t know about you, but when I was a child I might play for hours with any classmate who started with that magical invitation. Let’s pretend we’re explorers on the moon. Let’s pretend we’re lion hunters on the Serengeti. Let’s pretend we’re butterfly princesses who run a restaurant. I was always a sucker for a good story.
So, apparently, is Nova Scotia.
It has decided to pretend that the reason it had to close Bayswater beach because of E coli this year is the result of a beaver dam across the street. No, really.
Ahh those imaginative folk at the DOE! Not just imaginative, but cost-cutting! An unknown cause of E coli could mean months of study, or new toilets, or heavy fines. No one has to pay if it’s a beaver dam! Well, except for the beavers.
Can beavers carry e coli? Yes, like any other warm blooded mammal. But they have to catch it first. A local tells me that there are houses in the region that release sewage into the beach. And a fish farm near by. I also read that 40 miles away there was an e coli outbreak this year a couple month ago that caught heat because it wasn’t released to the public for 5 days. Hmmm. Too bad they didn’t have a nearby beaver dam to blame.
Nova Scotia officials knew of E. coli outbreak 5 days before public: documents
HALIFAX — Public health officials in Nova Scotia knew they were dealing with an outbreak of E. coli five days before they informed the public about it in early January, documents obtained by The Canadian Press show.
Notes from that day’s meeting, which were released under access-to-information legislation, show that Health Department officials knew there were dealing with seven confirmed cases of E. coli 0157 affecting people ranging in age from 18 to 83.
Gosh that one little beaver dam caused a lot of problems! Thank goodness they’re going to get rid of it! But one wonders, what will they blame next summer? The birds?
Let’s have some good new after all that imaginary silliness. How about bigger megaphone for the ‘bring back beavers’ campaign in England?
Weatherwatch: Bring back the beaver!
Beavers could be one answer to many of Britain’s flooding problems. It sounds a crazy idea – after all, beavers make dams that create their own floods. But beavers build their dams on small shallow streams and rivers, and these mini-reservoirs slow down the flow of water feeding into larger rivers, which helps to cut major flooding during heavy downpours of rain.
The problem this winter with much of the flooding was land drainage, dredging and straightening of rivers that all speeded up the flow of water into rivers and made them more likely to flood.
Not only are beavers good at protecting against floods, but they also provide cleaner water, boost fish numbers and enhance all sorts of other wildlife and also plants. And beavers have another enormously attractive advantage – at a time of severely stretched public finances their hard-work flood control work comes virtually for free.
As Louise Ramsay noted when this article came out, “Well done. I couldn’t have said it better myself!”
