Tag: Hopkinton

Beaver Memorial Day

heidi08 Beavers and Birds, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? May 30, 2016

Home again, home again, and not a moment too soon! We found Mario putting finishing touches on the mural, my attempts at posting on location upside down and the fantastic news that Hopkinton is FINALLY hiring Mike Callahan! Here let me catch you up to date on everything! I’ll sit on my Portland stories a while to let them percolate.

Apparently Dave Scola and some city folks are stopping by on Wednesday to see the final product. Then it’s just sealing the work for posterity. Love the frog and the dragonfly and the way a beaver dam is forever on Alhambra Creek. I couldn’t be more pleased, but I’m still going to try to push for one little beaver kit. Wish me luck.

I think every city should have a beaver mural, don’t you? I love that this mural is literally “OVER THE TOP”.

Now you might remember the city of Hopkinton in Massachusetts, which I was forced to learn how to spell when I wrote about them in winter of this year, or in winter of last year, or in spring the year before that. I wrote the council and one brave responder actually talked with Mike for a half an hour in 2015 before a trapper killed 42 beavers this year. Just go to the search bar and type “Hopkinton” to see how many articles come up on the first page alone. They have been such voracious whiners they provoked me into this graphic in December.

Well, change IS possible, get out your nano tools so we can all measure the progress.

Hopkinton looks to trap beavers, install devices

HOPKINTON — In an effort to reduce flooding on properties on Fruit Street and Huckleberry Road, the town is looking to get approvals to trap beavers and install other measures in Whitehall Brook. The Department has filed a notice of intent with the Conservation Commission to approve a beaver management plan developed by a private contractor, Beaver Solutions LLC.

The plans call for trappings, breaching three small beavers dams and installation of two flow devices.

“The town’s goal is not to eradicate the beaver population but to manage it enough so that we can all enjoy our properties safely,” Burke wrote. Mike Callahan, owner of Beaver Solutions in Southampton, surveyed the area by kayak and foot in March.

“Whitehall Brook is a large stream that drains an extensive area including Whitehall Reservoir,” he wrote in his report. “It can have very high flows and if impounded by beaver dams can flood extensive areas since there is a broad floodplain here.” He said beavers have likely lived in the area for a long time. His report details six dams.

“Three active dams raise the water by six inches to a foot each,” he said. “These several small dams all combine to maintain a higher water level abutting the homes on Huckleberry Road. There are also two very large active beaver lodges in this area.”

He said because there is a good food supply, some trappings will likely be needed. He said beaver trapping season is Nov. 1 through April 15, but a permit can be granted from the Board of Health in the off-season.”There are two large beaver dams and multiple smaller ones,” he wrote. “Ironically it is the smaller dams in the vicinity of Huckleberry Road that have generated the most concerns.”

He said for one dam that is flooding an acre of farmland, he recommends the town spend $3,000 for two pipes to lower the water.

Hurray for Mike Callahan and beaver solutions! And hurray for the working mind(s) that made this happen! Of course they are clinging to the trapping idea, because 42 beavers just ISN’T enough for a city of 15,000 and 1.5 square miles of water. (On the day the terms “Slow learner” were redefined, we can simply stand in awe and watch.) Still, progress is incremental. Maybe when they see how these two pipes work for the long term they will stop wasting everyones times with trapping.

Looks like this memorial day is full of losses and opportunities. We need this I think.

There are lies, there are dam lies, and there are beaver lies!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver-themed merchandise, Beavers, Beavers and water, City Reports, Creative Solutions, What's killing beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? February 5, 2016

Sometimes life in the beaver-biz is very rewarding. And sometimes it just annoys the stuffing out of me. Take this article out of Whinging-ton Ma for starters.

Hopkinton selectmen vote to trap beavers

HOPKINTON — Selectmen have agreed to hire a beaver trapper after flooding became a problem on the recently purchased Pratt Farm and neighboring properties.The board voted 5-0 on Tuesday night to pay for a plan to eliminate the beavers.“We decided we need to protect the town’s land,” Selectmen Chairman Ben Palleiko said in an interview.

Palleiko said the plan will likely cost about $5,500 — $4,000 for the trapping and $1,500 for taking apart seven dams. The board decided on an option known as a kill trap. A live trap would be as twice as expensive and the beavers would be euthanized at a later time, not released elsewhere, officials said.

How surprising! The folk in Hopkinton seemed so darned open-minded and committed to humane solutions! (Not). They have been gunning for those beavers since day one, and they kept promoting their death in the paper until they tipped the argument just enough. I especially admire the duplicity necessary to get this quote from their ‘beaver expert’ printed in the paper.

“Due to the beaver activity, an accurate flagging of wetlands may not be possible at this time, which will stall the work of the team,” she wrote in a letter to the board.The board made its decision after hearing from Malcolm Speicher, a beaver specialist, who has done work in town, including Legacy Farms. The town needs to seek bids for the work.

Speicher said it is only a matter of time before the town’s aquifers feeding to the town’s wells will be contaminated with bacteria from beaver feces.

Palleiko said Speicher believe there could be up to 40 beavers in the area.

Now maybe you’re wondering where they found this illustrious specialist. We are talking about MA, so maybe he’s at Cambridge? Harvard? MIT??? Ohhh no he’s a trapper who happens to specialize in beaver and fisher. So of course he knows all about beaver stools causing bacteria in the water.

Grrrr.

And now this. Things just got real in Mountain House. Now its time to bring out the big guns. Folks were shown Mike’s video about how to solve problems so they tried to think of an unsolvable one. We in Martinez know erosion trumps flooding. That’s why, after Skip’s flow device worked well and no one was worried about drowning anymore, the lawyer sent a letter about the foundation slipping because of unseeable burrows and that’s how Martinez got to buy 350,000 worth of sheetpile.

Obviously, this is deja vu all over again. Officials are now saying the biggest problem is these.

You can guess how true I think this is. Coal mining beavers?

But I think it’s always good to ask smarter minds than mine. Glynnis Hood says that beavers in her research do cause tunnels that collapse and its possible that a bank lodge this big could exist if the beavers have been around for some time. And Mike Callahan says its theoretically possible if there are tunnels inside leading to the water.

But I think if in 10 years of having beavers in Martinez they ever excavated anything like that, the mayor would have personally thrown me in it. Michael Runtz says a bear could do this, but he doubts beaver.

Stay tuned, I’ll tell you when I hear from more folks.

Apparently beavers are going on Broadway now, with Alan Cummings new musical. This made me howl with laughter – especially the leaping ballet beavers at the end. Enjoy!

A few more gifts arrived yesterday, and I’m thrilled for beavers good fortune. The first was some promised plates from this adorable set at thirdhalfstudios. How fun are these?

And the second is a beyond lovely sterling silver floating necklace that arrived from Winterchild. Like this but with a beaver symbol and on a breathtakingly delicate sterling silver figaro chain. I’m not sure I can keep from bidding on this. You definitely shouldn’t.

Make that 101…

heidi08 Massachusetts Trapping Law November 7, 2013

Okay, we’re going back to Massachusetts. Hopkinton to be precise, where the waterside homeowners want some beavers dead and can’t possibly wrap their trees or solve their flooding problem by hiring expert Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions who lives an unfathomable 77 miles away from them.

From Hopkinton, MA to Southampton, MA: 77 miles

From Grafton,VT to Martinez,CA 2991 miles.

I guess a miss really IS as good as a mile, when what you’re missing is information.

Hopkinton woman urges approval of trapping bill

A Hopkinton woman and her neighbors who are unhappy over flooding caused by beaver dams urged lawmakers on Wednesday to pass a bill that would make it easier for trappers to use deadlier traps.

“It’s a big mess for homeowners,” DelGaudio said, telling the room about her own flooding problems and those of her neighbors. Water is rising around septic systems, pools and sheds, not to mention homes themselves, she said, especially in the past four to six months.

But trappers, including Rick Merchant, who spoke at the session, need permission from local boards of health to use traps that kill beavers. A 1996 ballot question made lethal traps illegal and animal rights groups continue to oppose them. The new bill would reverse parts of that law.

Beavers are also causing headaches for homeowners in other MetroWest towns, including Holliston. In that town, trappers only need permission in the off-season to trap using Conibear, the “quick kill,” traps, said Health Agent Ann McCobb.

Just so we’re clear, the rules need to be followed in every city in the state, and the rules say you can still kill beavers just not with crush traps. As inconvenient as it might seem you need to live trap them and then shoot them through the head. Unless one of NINE EXCEPTIONS are met, and then you can kill them ol’ any way you like.

The above provision shall not apply to the use of prohibited devices by federal and state departments of health or municipal boards of health for the purpose of protection from threats to human health and safety. A threat to human health and safety may include, but shall not be limited to:

(a) beaver or muskrat occupancy of a public water supply;

(b) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of drinking water wells, well fields or water pumping stations;

(c) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of sewage beds, septic systems or sewage pumping stations;

(d) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of a public or private way, driveway, railway or airport runway or taxi-way;

(e) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding of electrical or gas generation plants or transmission or distribution structures or facilities, telephone or other communications facilities or other public utilities;

(f) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding affecting the public use of hospitals, emergency clinics, nursing homes, homes for the elderly or fire stations;

(g) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding affecting hazardous waste sites or facilities, incineration or resource recovery plants or other structures or facilities whereby flooding may result in the release or escape of hazardous or noxious materials or substances;

(h) the gnawing, chewing, entering, or damage to electrical or gas generation, transmission or distribution equipment, cables, alarm systems or facilities by any beaver or muskrat;

(i) beaver or muskrat-caused flooding or structural instability on property owned by the applicant if such animal problem poses an imminent threat of substantial property damage or income loss, which shall be limited to: (1) flooding of residential, commercial, industrial or commercial buildings or facilities; (2) flooding of or access to commercial agricultural lands which prevents normal agricultural practices from being conducted on such lands; (3) reduction in the production of an agricultural crop caused by flooding or compromised structural stability of commercial agricultural lands; (4) flooding of residential lands in which the municipal board of health, its chair or agent or the state or federal department of health has determined a threat to human health and safety exists. The department of environmental protection shall make any determination of a threat to a public water supply.

It’s funny how I have never in six years read a single article that even obliquely MENTIONED these 9 exceptions to the trapping law. I guess they’re too busy writing how miserable beavers make things and how the voters ruined their lives in 1996. They never forget to mention that fact, do they?

The traps are inhumane and indiscriminate, said Linda Huebner, deputy director of advocacy department of MSPCA.

“They can catch whatever animal happens upon them,” she said.

The problem is not that there are too many beavers, but that humans have settled in areas too near beaver habitats, she said.

She said trapping won’t solve the problem permanently. One of several smarter solutions, she said, are flow devices, designed to outsmart beavers so water can flow through dams.

“If the habitat can support beavers, other beavers will populate that site,” she said.

Ahh Linda, we are so happy you’re out there in the trenches! Fighting the good fight. I wrote the reporter too and she said she’s working on a longer piece about beavers and goodness my website has a lot of information and would I like to chat?

Guess what I said.

‘Pond’ Beavers, ‘Carnivous Doves’ and other lies.

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Massachusetts Trapping Law, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 6, 2013

About this time every year, (usually a little bit earlier) so many stories of beaver problems clutter the newswires that I begin to despair of ever catching up to report on them. I start to wonder if it all really matters, if there’s any hope of changing hearts and minds, if a wishful girl with a beaver mission can possibly make a whit of difference is this crazy beaver-killing world. Well, I’ll let you know the answer to that question when we get farther along in the story, but for now we’ve got lots to talk about.

Beavers causing problems at Turner pond

Seaman attributed the change in water level to changes in the dam and beavers. Selectman Kurt Youland, who also owns property on Pleasant Pond, said many of the historical beaches around the pond have disappeared. He said there are about six active beaver lodges on the pond, which equates to nearly 40 animals.

Seaman said she has done all she can legally do and has hired a state biologist to trap beavers, raccoons and seagulls. She said it cost $70 to $100 per animal.

You kill seagulls? This is Maine, mind you. And you think you have six active lodges with 40 beavers in a single lake? Well, it looks like the pond’s about a mile across so that seems pretty unlikely. You know what a great way is to tell how many beavers are in an area? To get up early or stay up late and actually watch them for a few days! See who’s living where and who has young. You might even hear them, talking to each other and asking for favors. It could happen. But if you did that you would realize these are very social families who work hard and really care about each other. And then you wouldn’t be so excited to trap them, would you?

You know, I met a very reasonable-looking man from Maine on the footbridge yesterday. He was not very enthused about our beavers and said cautiously, “I’ve seen beavers before back in my home state. But they were smaller. Those were POND BEAVERS not these huge RIVER BEAVERS.”

I tried explaining politely that what he saw in Maine were kits, and that full grown beavers are much larger. I even tried to allow that our beavers do not have to fast during the winter freeze so they might carry a few more pounds. But he would have none of it, what he saw in Maine were POND beavers, a completely different animal.

So I have been muttering this to myself for three days now and wondering that we let people who think these outrageous things drive and vote and own firearms. My mom had a neighbor the other day tell her that “Doves were the most vicious birds, they attack other birds for no reason. You have to get rid of them.”

I guess that’s why we release them at peace ceremonies? To scare are enemies into keeping the truce?

My point (and I do have one) is that half the time (or more than half) people who sound very sure of themselves don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. And they don’t WANT to know, because their mind is made up, and like a double bed in a sleeper car, they don’t want to have to make it again. Reporters do not appear to know this. And they constantly confuse “sounding certain” with “being right”.

Here’s another example.

Beavers a dam nuisance to Hopkinton homeowners

HOPKINTON – MA

A group of neighbors in the South and North Mill streets area have hired a professional beaver trapper to combat what they call out-of-control flooding on their land created by beaver dams.

Speicher has applied to the town for an emergency permit to trap beavers using a kind of “quick kill” trap only allowed with special permission. He met Tuesday with town officials.

Meanwhile, a bill is making its way through the Legislature to permit wider use of quick-kill traps and streamline permitting by putting the state in charge instead of municipalities.

Of course a bill is making it’s way through the legislature. It always is. The one thing that we can be sure of in this world, besides death and taxes, is that a bill is always winding it’s way through the state house to overturn the will of the voters and remove the beaver scourge. Of course, even if it passed handily, it will do no such thing. Because the beaver population is growing whether you use kill traps, suitcase traps, or electric chairs to control it. It’s growing because that’s what successful populations do. Do you think Connecticut or New Hampshire never complain about beavers because they weren’t “tricked” into outlawing crush traps?

Someday I’ll get tired of making fun of Massachusetts for its ridiculously constant whining about the voters in 1996. I’ve written about it maybe 100 times in 6 years, and I received a personal letter from the governor last year regarding it. Some day I’ll give up and realize the state is on a crash course to beaver-stupid and can’t wait until it gets there and can conibear to its hearts content.

But not yet.

Beaver dams popping up in Springfield

In the mean time there’s a nice beaver story from Springfield MA, which very kindly reminds the viewer that tampering with beaver dams is illegal!

“All this time I haven’t seen any, and these beavers are really something new because they were not here three months ago…I hope they don’t touch them just leave the beavers alone. they are a good thing I think,” said Luisa Powers from Springfield.

Maddening

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Dispersal, Who's Killing Beavers Now? June 29, 2013

Naive child that I am, I once believed that the function of a Conservation Commissions, (charged with protecting wetlands and wildlife and developed as a function of the Wetlands Protection Act), was to actually, you know, CONSERVE things. Silly, silly, Heidi. What was I thinking?

Beavers damming in Hopkinton

In this beautiful weather, beaver damming can cause some not-so-beautiful problems if proper precautions are not taken. “Beavers are out there this year,” said Don McAdam, Conservation Administrator. The Conservation Commission’s job is to protect public and private ground water supply, fisheries, and wild life habitats – even from something as seemingly natural as local beaver populations.

That’s right Don, thank goodness the conservation commission was there to protect Hopkinton from all that NATURE. Anything could happen if you weren’t vigilantly at the ready, killing every water-saver that paddles onto your shores. I guess maybe you should be more specific about what you’re trying to conserve? I can just bet there are more like you at home.

Beavers dam culverts (pipes that go under roadways) and can cause flooding if the dam should break or block pipes, said Public Works Director John Westerling. The animals can pollute water, as well, he added.

Just so you know, Hopkinton is literally 70 miles away from Beaver Solutions. Mike could drive over and fix those culverts in an hour. I wrote of course but they haven’t responded. I shouldn’t be surprise. You have to work very hard to be this ignorant so close to MIT.

Beaver caught in Sherwood

Robin is no longer in the hood. After numerous sightings in the Birch Hill Drive area, the land-locked beaver that made the news last month has been caught today at the Mount Edward grocery.

This week store staff were surprised to find the beaver almost up the steps on the way into the store, said Chuck Gallison, wildlife biologist with the provincial government. He said that his department was giving the beaver the nickname Robin, as in Robin Hood of the Sherwood Forest.

I: Photo of a beaver trying to enter the Mount Edward grocery on Mount Edward Road in Sherwood. This photo was taken on Wed., June 26.

I don’t know if I can take many more of these terrifyingly lost dispersers looking for a place to call home. I am so grateful ours have an excellent waterway to travel. You may or may not remember that PEI has a stunningly bad record when it comes to beaver management – prompting one of my favorite graphics of all time. Their head of wildlife argued vociferously with Wikipedia Rick that the animals weren’t native until he produced an 1830’s document that showed they were. Well, I guess this story is slightly better than their usual but it still makes me very nervous.

With no place to go, the animal stayed put until other wildlife staff arrived with a net, then a cage. The beaver is at this moment on its way to a secret but secluded location on P.E.I., far from the network of culverts it had been using to elude capture for months now.

More beaver stupid from the Taos internet story which has apparently gone viral. My inbox was flooded with stories about the delicious crime from places as far away as Germany and Australia. I suppose I can look forward to days more of this at least. If my internet is spared the voracious beaver-appetite I will let you know.

It made me think about how ready the world is to report and repeat bad news about beavers, and what an uphill batter it is to get the real story out. Even Bay Nature has been reluctant to talk about the salmon issue yet, and got forbid the AP should pick up on a story of a flow device working! I am reminded of an old John Donne poem…

Now if you’re like me you need something nice after all those irritants. Beaver friend Glenn Hori was down the other night to photograph two kits and five adults. Enjoy!