DOWNERS GROVE – Beavers have been busy building dams in Lyman Woods this summer, spurring a debate between the park district and a resident about whether the park district should interfere with wildlife in the woods.
That happened earlier this month, when dammed water flooded the soccer fields of nearby Midwestern University, according to the university’s director of operations Kevin McCormick.
“There was probably 2 to 3 inches laying across the soccer fields,” he said.
Midwestern University called the park district, and district workers cut three notches in the woods’ second beaver dam to allow water to pass.
Ahh, the old dam-notching trick. Only slightly less effective than duck taping the fuel pump, or replacing windows with cardboard. Why choose a longer term solution when an easy fix will suffice? Better yet, it will inevitably fail and then you can go back to those beaver-hugging fans at the dog park and say, “We tried a compromise and it didn’t work! Shoot, I guess we’ll just have to kill them.”
Remember this is Illinois where a cynical person might say you could fit all their beaver appreciation and knowledge into a teaspoon and still have room leftover to sweeten your coffee. I wrote them about the appropriate use of flow devices but I won’t hold my breath that things will move in the enlightened direction.
Goodness Gracious! ROGUE Beavers? You mean beavers doing something atypical to their species and threatening our very existence? What are they doing? Robbing grocery stores or threatening old women at ATM’s? Carjacking? How terrifying! What an awful threat! Thank goodness the paper was here to tell us about it. Let’s read more.
Beavers have taken up residence under boat docks and damaged or killed trees and shrubs along the shoreline.
Um, that’s it? Where’s the “Rogue” part? I mean don’t beavers normally take trees? Isn’t that like the bottom of the pyramid chart on their four food groups? I’ll keep reading. Maybe the Rogue knocking-over-convenience-stores part is down further in the article.
Mike Castleman knows firsthand. He lost a large shrub and two mature trees in a matter of days. The beavers stripped the bark from his trees to a height of about 3 feet off the ground.
“From what I understand, these trees are dead. This guy killed them,” Castleman said. “I got some pruning spray to seal them and chicken wire to protect them, but everyone who sees them says they are going to die.”
The beavers also reduced a 20-foot-high bush in his yard to a bundle of pointed sticks.
Pointed sticks! That can’t be good. Weapons maybe? Crude hand to hand tools for their eventual world domination? Or planning ahead for a great deal of vampire slaying? Either way, it’s never a good thing when your enemy starts the battle with a bit pile of sharpened sticks. Remember Lord of the Flies? Gasp. Were they sharpened at both ends?
This so rarely happens. Unless, of course, your enemy is a beaver.
Well I’m sure you know about that. I’m sure you studied what beavers TYPICALLY do before you made an effort to describe these particular beavers behavior as ROGUE.
Yep. Looks pretty typical to me, except the paper describes these trees as Shingle Oaks which aren’t beaver favorites by any means. I can only assume this means your lake has a dismal riparian border, no willow or aspen and hardly any vegetation to speak of. No wonder you’re so worried about the trees.
Well, the paper says some residents are wrapping trees and some are talking about trapping. Any other solutions on the table?
Removing beavers is only a temporary solution, according to “Missouri’s Beaver, a Guide to Management, Nuisance Prevention and Damage Control,” published by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
“Once a colony of beaver establishes its territory in a pond, lake or stream, it is virtually impossible to make it move somewhere else through the use of nonlethal techniques,” the manual says. “It is sometimes possible to enjoy beavers in the area while still preserving property.”
Virtually impossible! Better tell all those crazy beaver relocators that they are wasting their time! The sad thing is that Missouri PROBABLY gleaned this little “factoid” from the fact that when you move beavers out new ones move in. Which, by the way is what happens when you kill them too. Better to bear the beavers you have than fly to other’s you know not of.
In case you want a solution besides wire and tar and traps, read here about sand painting the trunk. You’ll be surprised how it helps tame “Rogue” beavers. Oh and get together with your neighbors and plant some willow so that the trees can coppice and regrow. Your bird population will thank you for it.
Ken Cook of Carol Stream, Illinois “doesn’t want to live” with chicken wire around his plants. Beavers are chewing trees, and the neighbors are worried they could fall on a house. They’ve tried coyote urine, and have been known to throw fruit at the offending rodents. They keep coming back. Almost like they think it’s winter and they need to store food before it freezes. The nerve. Those trees could fall on a house! (Never mind that the beaver wants the tree to fall the other direction.) Ken’s working with village manager Joe Breinig to bring in trappers.
When the issue first came to light, village officials sought advice from professionals on how to handle the situation “They recommended chicken wire and we’ve gone out in some of the public areas and done that,” Breinig said. “However, these beavers seem to be more aggressive than one might normally expect. The amount of damage seems to be pretty significant.”
Ahhh the rare aggressive beaver! Say no more. I’m sorry for your misfortune. You mean you have beavers that really really want to eat? Gosh, those kind are the worst! Tough luck. The reported temperature for Carol Stream Illinois today is 18 degrees. These beavers are working on their food cache that will feed a family when the ice gets too thick to break through. Imagine if you had to go to the grocery store today and buy enough food to last until spring? And what if you did that, and stocked up your pantry, and then someone moved you 15 miles down the road to a new house? Well not actually to a house. Just dumped you in the water, with no shelter and no pantry?
“We’re trying to do this somewhat delicately to not offend anybody,” Breinig said. “There are those who take the position that it’s a living animal and you try to do what you can and those who want them killed. We try to go the first route and not kill them.”
Mr. Breinig, lets be perfectly blunt here. It’s December. You’re moving a family out of their territory away from their waterworks and food storage and into a place where they have nothing. You are going to kill them. There is no way that 5 beavers can find a new place to live and a new pond deep enough to keep from freezing solid and lay in enough food to keep their family alive for three months. You’re killing them, you just aren’t being obvious about it.
“I don’t want to live with chicken wire around my plants,” Cook said.
Well there you have it. Who could expect a man to suffer so? So what if beaver habitat improves the watershed and increases bird and wildlife? Wrapping trees is a hardship no man should endure. It’s like another “trail of tears”. Of course if you were going to do it, I wouldn’t recommend chicken wire, since beavers are lots bigger than chickens. I would recommend 2×4 steel gauged wire. They make it in green for the visually sensitive. Or maybe a man of your delicate sensibilities would prefer to use the sand painting method described here. Choose a color that matches your precious trunk, mix in some sand, and paint the base with the grit. The texture will be unattractive to the beavers, and they’ll look elsewhere.
What am I saying? Just go ahead and kill them. Merry Christmas.
