How’s THIS for the greatest Thanksgiving Beaver Story Ever Told? Leigh Hornbeck, staff writer for the Times Union wrote just about the best account of why to bother installing a Flow Device EVER. (Don’t imagine that’s just post holiday tryptophan-induced flattery, I have become somewhat of a connoisseur of beaver articles and I mean every word.)
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Knock down a beaver dam, the beavers will rebuild it. Trap and relocate the rodents and they will return. Kill the beavers, and if the eating is good, new ones will take their place. To coexist with beavers, you need to use trickery.
Ahh Leigh, what a great start to an article! You have my full attention. Obviously someone had your full attention, and explained the value of flow devices to you in a way that made sense. You listened and put those concepts together in a way that made readers could understand. You are destined for great things. (Move over Cornelia Dean at the NYT because the Leigh should be writing all the beaver articles from now on.)
Andy Fyfe, the stewardship and education coordinator for the land trust Saratoga PLAN, which owns the wetland around the city-owned trail, said he wasn’t interested in killing the beavers to fix the problem. Instead, he gathered volunteers to build a “beaver baffler.” “If you knock a hole in a dam, the beavers will patch it overnight,” Fyfe said. “But if you put a culvert inside the dam and they don’t hear running water, they won’t make the dam higher.”
Nicely put Andy! Saratoga PLAN is lucky to have you! You clearly know how to look out for your watershed and invest your time wisely. I realize they’re using the term ‘baffler’ generically, like we use the term ‘aspirin’. In truth a beaver baffler is a specific device. Still, the term is sometimes used to apply to anything that confuses a beaver, just like the term beaver deceiver is misused all the time.
Fyfe said he used blueprints created by a group of volunteers in the Finger Lakes area when beavers blocked the Cayuga Inlet and threatened a stretch of the Norfolk Southern railroad. Andy Zepp, executive director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, said the “beaver dam drain tube” worked for a year, but then the beavers moved away. David Winchell, a spokesman for the state Department of Conservation, said he condones the idea. Trapping and removing beaver is only a temporary fix, he said.”If properly maintained, this will last longer,” Winchell said. “It’s a reasonable way for beavers and people to cohabitate in the same area while minimizing conflicts.”
‘Trapping and removing beavers is a temporary fix“. Wow. Not one. Not two, but THREE voices of wisdom including one from the DC which is almost unheard of. So Fingerlakes volunteers gave them the plans, eh? I had to try to track them down and find out who was spreading helpful advice. I found these online, which describe the device they installed for Cayuga Inlet mentioned and shows how to make something called the “beaver dam drain“.
Reading their advice you can see it comes from the Department of Conservation’s website which outlines 5 ways to use pipes to control dam height. (I should pause here to note that nothing resembling the flexible leveler, castor master or beaver deceiver is included.) In fact all the culvert fences recommended there are square or rounded, and the entire page reads more like a beaver torture museum, complete with elecro shock fences. They recommend at the very least the annual ‘harvesting’ of children so the populations don’t grow over fast.
Well, okay. You get a letter. And I’ll track down Andy and send him plans for a flexible lever just in case this doesn’t work out. In the meantime it’s STILL a great article. I love the language and the emphasis on long-term solutions. Thanks, Leigh!
Oh and if you have a free moment go check out our friends at Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife! They just launched a smart new website, chock full of useful information (although it could use a link to a certain beaver friend in California!) Go say hi!
