Hanover highway superintendent gives beaver update
D’Angelo said he has had a number of people contact him who were interested in helping the town trap the beavers, but D’Angelo said he is going to stick with a trapper he has worked with in the past. He thinks there are numerous beavers working on this dam, since it can be rebuilt overnight, and all the beavers are part of a clan.
Because honestly, who hasn’t looked to the Highway Superintendent for a beaver update? I can’t wait for the weather report from the meter maid, the traffic update from Dairy Queen and the fiscal news from the Car Wash. Anyway, what’s wrong with saying that beavers live in a “Clan”? Those Duck Dynasty guys who blow up dams seem to?
I read about Mr. D’Angelo a couple weeks ago but spared you the drama because more important business was afoot. I had hoped, since Hanover is 4.5 hours from the folks at Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife, that some wisdom would eventually sink through. But apparently the soil is mighty parched in Hanover.
Just so you know, beavers live in a COLONY not a CLAN. And the word colony just means FAMILY not extended family of Hatfields and McCoys. And every beaver family whose safety depends on the dam will fix the dam in a single night and by the way that’s been true since the discovery of fire.
Now we head to the opposite coast where the beaver conveyor belt is hard at work:
Volunteers keep Klamath beavers moving
FORT KLAMATH, Oregon — Just like the animals they’re helping, Terry Simpson and Jayme Goodwin have been as busy as beavers.
Simpson and Goodwin, retired biologists who live in Crescent, are members of the Klamath Watershed Partnership’s beaver management team. Over the past two years, they and others on the eight-person team have relocated nine beavers.
When she was a Forest Service biologist for the Chemult Ranger District, Simpson learned how beavers can create better habitat for fish and help farmers and ranchers because their dams and resulting ponds can create season-long flood irrigated pastures. A study in Washington determined beaver ponds created as much water storage as a large Columbia River dam. So, when the Partnership’s beaver team was created, she quickly volunteered.
“I’m extremely interested in helping with beaver restoration, relocation and mitigation,” Simpson said, a sentiment echoed by Goodwin.
I got excited about this story yesterday because I thought it was on the Klamath in California, which would be news because California doesn’t allow relocation. Eli Asarian pointed out that the Klamath goes from Oregon to the golden state, so I dutifully got un-excited. My favorite paragraph in this article is the shortest…
As part of a project involving nuisance beavers in the Sevenmile area near Fort Klamath, Simpson and Goodwin waded into the drainage, where they used shovels and other equipment to replace a wire fence in the creek so water can again freely flow through a culvert under the Sevenmile Road. The dams had begun blocking water flow through the culvert, which could have resulted in flooding that could wash out the road.
I’m going to bet there was no corresponding article when they protected the culvert. I’m glad there’s a Klamath beaver team at all and thrilled they know how to protect a culvert, but I cannot for the life of me understand why moving a problem makes for better copy than solving it.
Do they also rotate the flat tire rather than change it?
