This clip couldn’t be embedded so I had to get it on youtube as best I could. You recognize that’s BEAUTIFUL beaver photo over the reporters shoulder right? That the iconic photo by our own Cheryl Reynolds taken in 2008 of a truly handsome yearling grooming. (Youth are so focused on appearance!) What a fantastic way to start the newscast about citizens demanding to do beaver things differently.
It’s all over the news today, and you have to think about the time the park district is spending answering calls and holding meetings and wonder whether trapping is REALLY less expensive.
Martinez knows how this goes. Why not give our mayor a call? I’m sure he could share some memories. The truth is you had one chance to do this quietly, before everyone knew about the beavers. That chance has passed like morning mist on a hot day. It’s over. Now you have to do it the right way. You can protest as long as you want, like a child refusing a nap, but you know I’m right. Yes, it is 10% more work wrapping trees than paying a hitman. But after you finish adding up the amount of money you’re wasting to defend your ignorant decision to do this the wrong way it’s going to seem CHEAP by comparison. Honestly.
There’s religious music over my talking in this version for unknown reasons, but that doesn’t matter. all of Martinez was SO smart and well spoken at this meeting. nearly a decade ago. I realize that my input hardly mattered. And, in retrospect, to paraphrase Voltaire, if I didn’t exist, I surely would have been invented.
FARGO — Residents concerned with a plan to kill beavers along the Red River will gather at a Fargo Park Board meeting next week to show support for using non-lethal methods to curb the rodents, which park officials say have been chewing through valuable trees.
Kathleen Keene, a member of a local group of animal advocates, said killing beavers is not a sustainable solution because the dead beavers will be replaced by new ones coming in.
The Park Board in April approved an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cull beavers, citing thousands of dollars worth of damage to trees, particularly in Lemke and Trefoil parks.
The USDA’s John Paulson said culling methods include a lethal body-gripping trap and another trap that grabs the beaver and pulls it underwater so it drowns.
Such methods are cruel, Keene said.
“Just think about if your dog was in a trap like that,” she said. “A beaver’s not much different than any other animal.”
Well, yes. They are cruel. But it’s worse than your dog, Kathleen. Because your dog would drown pretty quickly and it will take a beaver upwards of 15 minutes of suffering to die. Kathleen started the online petition that garnered 58,000 signatures. Remarkable enough that Fargo slowed its grinding wheels of beaver killing.
I’m still a little uneasy with this HS advocate.
Dave Pauli, a senior director for wildlife response at the Humane Society of the U.S., is expected to give a presentation to the Park Board at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at 701 Main Ave. on ways to control beaver populations. Keene said she and like-minded people plan to attend the meeting.
In an interview, Pauli said non-lethal methods are more sustainable than lethal ones.
“The Red River is a challenge because no matter what happens to the beavers, there’s gonna be more beavers,” he said. “It’s a flashing vacancy sign if they just remove beavers constantly.”
Non-lethal methods include protecting trees with fences and special paint, or by regulating noise and water factors. There is also beaver birth control.
To be honest, way back in 2007, we spent a great deal of time on the subcommittee worrying about the issue of birth control. The Humane Society recommended immuno-contraception and that charming harrigan that advised city staff recommended killing the father so that the mother would be forced to wait until her sons grew up to breed. The looming population explosion was much on my mind during those days.
But the truth we found was, population growth was NEVER an issue.
Since beavers leave to seek their own territory at 2 we’ve only had the one family. And in 8 years with 24 beavers born in our creek, our resident population has never exceeded 9. Not to mention that out of 24 live births, we’ve had 12 deaths over the years. That’s 50% mortality not counting mom. Someone tell that to Mr. Pauli before he starts handing out beaver condoms, okay?
Another escaped beaver, this time in Kentucky. Makes me wonder if he saw the story of little Choppa making a break for it. You know, a copy-cat beaver crime?
Bill and Shirley Niese are pictured with a portion of Bill’s beaver-related item collection. More than 700 pieces of the collection will be counted at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Farm and Home Building at the Decatur County Fairgrounds during Greensburg’s annual Power of the Past antique farm machinery show. The Nieses believe the collection is the largest of its kind in the world.
Bill started collecting beavers after his Silver Beaver Award from the boy scouts. They just kept coming. Now they’re couple is off to the Indianna county fairgrounds for an official counting to see it their collection of beaver items can qualify in the Guinness book of World Records.
Yesterday was supposed to be a languid Wednesday where I sat around and practiced my talk for SARSAS on Monday. Instead my little desk exploded into beaver central around 1 when someone who had been referred by Brock Dolman wrote me from Winters that they were trying to save a rare piebald beaver that was living in a section of creek going to be destroyed in the name of progress.
I assume you are like me and had never really heard the word “piebald” before, so you might need a short refresher course. The Dictionary definition is “Spotted or patched, especially in black and white.” A pinto horse is piebald. Rarely a hunter will get lucky enough to shoot a piebald deer. And very very rarely we have stories of piebald beaver.
Remember that before the fur trade we used to have all colorations of beaver. Blonde beaver. Redhead beaver. And Piebald beaver. After the population was nearly destroyed that variation vanished. Well almost vanished. Because apparently there is at least one colored beaver left in California.
And, there’s something else you shouldn’t wait to see, if you can see it at all. I’m outing a secret, and am gambling on the goodwill of humanity against stupidity (a big gamble, I know): There’s an extremely rare piebald beaver that frequents this area. Local nature photographer and wildlife expert, Alejandro Garcia, camped out for hours just to get a photo of it, which I’ve seen, and it’s pretty darn amazing. It’s a regular brown beaver in all ways, with a thick white stripe in its midsection like an ice cream sandwich.
Alejandro told me there are only a handful of piebald beaver in existence. I googled it, and aside from some horrific trapping sites based in Arkansas, the only information I could find was from a book written in 1876 by John J. Bowman, entitled, “The Emigrant and Sportsman in Canada — Some Experiences of an Old Country Setter.” Bowman merely says, in a story about his experiences with wild beaver, “I saw one piebald beaver; his back was black, his sides white, and belly reddish.”
That’s it. The sum total of all the information about piebald beavers, almost as rare as a dodo, and, by a miracle of nature, there’s one living in a little pocket of natural habitat along Putah Creek in Winters. What a great mascot this animal could be for our little creekside town. But no. We’re glibly forcing it to “move on.” If you want to get a glimpse of it before it’s gone, don’t wait. The bulldozers are coming.
An ice cream sandwich beaver! How could I not come to full attention! I conferred with the author, contacted some professors at UC Davis to see if we could get some interest, swapped emails with Beth to see if there was anything that National Wildlife Federation could do, called Sarah Koenisberg to see if she might want to film it for her upcoming documentary, and talked with the director I knew at Fish and Game. He pointed me to his counterpart in Winters who, like everyone I talked to, was very interested but wasn’t sure that a beaver could be protected just for its coloration. I reminded him that it was kit season and that there was a good chance that at least one of the kits would have some coloration too. (OMG) And he was more interested.
Now here’s where the story gets very very fascinating.
In our amiable chat he reminded me that beaver were depredation-able and nuisance permits could be issued for their death. I said I understood that very well, and that in fact there were no limits on how many beaver could be written into the permit for depredation. He said, that’s not true. And with no hesitation at all I said come on! I just reviewed all the permits in California for the last two years an there were 51 unlimited permits issued!
‘And he agreed that used to be true but two months ago there had been a meeting and they were told not to issue unlimited permits — then he stopped talking abruptly surprised — maybe that was because of you!
I have zero idea whether it was because of me, but I do know that a third of the permits we reviewed were written for ‘unlimited’ numbers of beavers, and now according to him, none will be. NONE.
I was so focused on finding a way to save that piebald beaver it really didn’t sink in until later. No unlimited permits! I wish I’d asked about that meeting where they were told not to do it. Was it regional? Or with a higher up? Was it time limited? Was there any push back about it?
Of course there were more people to call about piebald beaver, so I had to stop feeling surprised and just feel like I might be able to help. Then there were several forwards about the Fargo beavers and the war room had to redirect. It’s always good to know your work matters. I did what I could for Piebald beaver. And maybe some one will share a photo soon.
Megan Bartholomay, an opponent of the Fargo Park Board’s decision to cull the beaver population to prevent damage to trees, stands near the Red River in Fargo. David Samson / The Forum
FARGO—A growing chorus of animal rights supporters wants the Fargo Park Board to reconsider its plan to trap and kill beavers in city parks along the Red River.
One of the leading voices is Megan Bartholomay, a 38-year-old Fargo resident who believes the board’s plan is barbaric.
“We’re a civilized community living in 2015,” she said. “Is this the only way? What else have we tried?”
One supporter of Megan tracked down Carol Evans from the PBS documentary (it’s always easier to find the emails of government employee!) and she forwarded it to me to see if I could help. I gave lots of thoughts and resources and am eager to see what happens in Fargo. It’s not an impossible battle because there is already lots of beaver intelligence in the state. Just look at this comment I highlighted in 2012 in Fargo from Game and Fish!
“Probably the most economical way of dealing with beaver is wrapping the trees, probably a couple three feet up as high as a beaver can stand off the ground, with chicken wire or some kind of wire mesh to keep the beavers in, they’ll leave it alone.” says Doug Leier with North Dakota Game and Fish.
Martinez knows how this goes. Why not give our mayor a call? I’m sure he could share some memories. The truth is you had one chance to do this quietly, before everyone knew about the beavers. That chance has passed like morning mist on a hot day. It’s over. Now you have to do it the right way. You can protest as long as you want, like a child refusing a nap, but you know I’m right. Yes, it is 10% more work wrapping trees than paying a hitman. But after you finish adding up the amount of money you’re wasting to defend your ignorant decision to do this the wrong way it’s going to seem CHEAP by comparison. Honestly.
HENDERSON, KY (WFIE) -Wildlife rehabilitators in Henderson are now offering a reward for information about a missing animal.
