And the third shall be first…

Beaver awareness comes from all kinds of regions. It can come from very unlikely places. Just take Martinez, for example, which installed a flow device even after establishing such a time-honored tradition of bad decisions that we built a refinery and a jail in the middle of town. Sometimes beaver wisdom even comes out of Georgia.

For centuries, hunting was an effective way to limit game populations. But popular opinion shifted as Americans moved to metropolitan areas where animals were seen as noble companions instead of food and pests.

Wildlife biologists and animal-control experts have had to find alternatives to lethal control methods. Options include fences and other physical boundaries, trapping, chemicals used as repellents and poisons and habitat changes, such as eliminating food sources like trash and pet foods and closing off nesting sites. Some neighborhoods are allowing sharpshooters to remove deer to reduce population problems and damage.

Wildlife-damage management, regardless of the problem species, has four basic components, according to Greg Yarrow, a Clemson wildlife professor attending the conference. The problem-solving process includes: problem definition through identification and assessment of damage, an understanding of the behavior and ecology of the problem wildlife species, selection and application of control techniques and evaluation of control efforts.

In case that name sounds familiar, Dr. Yarrow is the inventor of the Clemson pond leveler. The most publicized and promoted flow device out there. There is so much information available on the Clemson that 5 years ago when Martinez gathered to discuss ways to prevent flooding, a family from Lafayette offered to donate one to the city. It has been copied a million times and was basically ripped off by this design, which was recently recommended by fish and game to install for our friends in American Canyon.

Beaver advocates everywhere should be very, very grateful for Dr. Yarrow. We should know that his design taught what was possible and helped folks think about a new way to deal with beaver problems. But they should also remember that when this design was invented ‘Baby got Back’ was the hit of the year, Euro Disney just opened in France and Ross Perot ran for president. Digging out a dam to install a pipe through it is a lot of work and the perforated pipe isn’t nearly as successful as the flexible devices used today in designs like the Castor Master (what Skip installed in Martinez) or the Flexible Leveler (what Mike’s DVD teaches.)

Still, outdated learning is still learning. We should be happy this conference is taking place. Little by little folks are beginning to get the idea that beaver problems can be solved in other ways. Slowly we’re getting more wildlife conferences like this in Georgia, and more comments like these from New Hampshire:

“The youth services director, myself, and the parks and rec superintendent at the time, rather than trap the beavers or having them killed by professional hunters, (we) wrapped the trees with chicken wire to prevent them from chewing the trees; that way it saves the trees, ends the hazards, and the beavers simply move on.”

Just so you know, beavers are way bigger than chickens. But it’s a start!

Beavers near Anderson Civic Center allowed to stay

By Kirk Brown

Photo by Nathan Gray A sign with information about beavers is placed outside a stream off Martin Luther King Boulevard where beavers have built a dam.

Beavers have built a dam in a stream across the street from the Civic Center of Anderson (South Carolina). The dam is near a wooden overlook beside an informational display on beavers that is part of the county’s Recycling and Education Center. Although the nocturnal beavers tend to be reclusive, visitors can enjoy listening to the soothing sound of water trickling through their dam, which is only a stone’s throw from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.The beavers’ new home will be left undisturbed, said Greg Smith, the county’s environmental services director. “It hasn’t become a nuisance,” Smith said. The beavers received a less hospitable reception in the past when they built a dam near the civic center.

Did you ever argue when you were kids who the family dog liked better? And to prove it you and your sisters all called it at exactly the same time and that poor dog just stood in the middle of the living room not sure what to do? That’s kind of how I feel about this article. It has true bright spots of beaver hope and still the sharp edges of fear and ignorance, all in the same place. When I read it I honestly can’t tell if its a victory, a delayed defeat or a dark omen of things to come.

First things first, congratulations Anderson! Leaving a beaver dam in the center of town could become a focal point, an educational opportunity or a demonstration of your civic pride and compassion. It could be a reminder of the benefits of ‘hard work’ and inspire your public works crews or waitresses or teachers to keep trying when odds seem insurmountable. It can remind everyone what can be accomplished when we work together as a team. The dam will trap sediment and organic material, microbugs will move in to break it down, bigger bugs will come to eat them and fish will come eat the bugs….soon new populations of bigger fish, birds and wildlife will be eating at the food-chain you’ve encouraged. That’s pretty good news for a recycling and education center.

Okay, now the rest. Just so you know, beavers don’t live IN the dam. They live in a lodge. Think of the dam as where they ‘work’. Imagine what a difficulty it would be to build a ‘hollow’ dam that a family of five or seven could live in. Of course it would be much, much more vulnerable to washouts. The dams solid base of mud and sticks gives it strength. Your beavers probably live in a bank lodge a little bit up from the dam, so the raised water levels protect their entrances and keep predators out.

“The main problem is the flooding that they cause,” said Greg Yarrow, a Clemson University wildlife ecology professor. A one-foot-high beaver dam can flood as much as 100 acres, which can create problems in timber stands and on farms, as well as threatening low-lying roads and railroad tracks.

Clemson. Clemson. That names sounds familiar. Hmmm. Oh, it must because that was the place they invented the Clemson Pond Leveler in the early nineties. You know, the perforated pipe that goes through the dam and lowers the water level to control flooding? Come to think of it, that guys name seems kinda familiar too. Maybe its because of this at the bottom of the paper.

For further information on the Clemson Beaver Pond Leveler contact Dr. Gene W. Wood, Mr. Larry A. Woodward, or Dr. Greg Yarrow • Department of Aquaculture, Fisheries and Wildlife • G08 Lehotsky Hall, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, (803) 656-3117.

Goodness! Talk about hiding one’s light under a bushel! A reporter asks you about a beaver dam causing flooding and you didn’t think to mention that you invented a proven tool for managing flooding? I know Clemson’s have fallen out of favor because they’re stiff and hard to implement and tend to get plugged up, but you laid the ground work for the Castor Master and Flexible Leveler that followed! Your work pioneered humane beaver management. Call me crazy but I think that’s worth talking about.

(Aside to reporter: it’s possible that since you have an expert on the phone you should ask a question at this point. Something like, “are there any ways to control flooding?” Just a suggestion.)

In Dorchester County, which is northwest of Charleston, public works crews broke up about 200 beaver dams after residents complained about flooding last year. The flat-tailed rodents, which are Canada’s national animal, also have been blamed for causing millions of dollars of damage throughout North Carolina. “They certainly can be very challenging to deal with,” Yarrow said.

Sigh. You see the cause for my hesitation about this ‘good news’. This reporter is very excited about the likely damage these wicked creatures will cause Anderson down the road. He doesn’t spare a paragraph, a phrase or even an adjective for the good work that beavers do for urban streams. I have to wonder if public works really broke up 200 dams in Dorchester County (which Wikipedia tells me is only 577 square miles total, 2 of those being water). 200 beaver dams in 2 square miles? Maybe they broke a 100 dams twice? Or 50 dams four times? I don’t know, what’s the learning curve on useless effort that squanders taxpayer money and has to be repeated again and again in Dorchester?

Well, the good news is that Anderson is keeping its beaver dam FOR NOW. I wrote the paper and the environmental services director just letting them know what options exist.