We have entered the lazy end of summer months where folks around the country have finally stopped complaining that beavers are chewing trees and haven’t yet started complaining that beavers are flooding their roads or ball fields. It’s a beautifully silent and news-less time, what columnist Jon Caroll once described through a conversation with his cirque-de-soliel-trapeze-artist-daughter as the ‘dead spot’:
“I guess you realize that all the tricks start at the dead spot,” she said, somewhat more impatiently than would have been ideal in a daughter.
“I don’t even know what the dead spot is.”
“Sure you do. It’s at the end of the swing, you know, when the swinging bar stops moving in one direction and starts moving in the other. Like when you’re highest on a playground swing. The whole idea is to use that change of momentum to create the trick. If you do it right, it’s really easy.”
I don’t know what trick we can create with this particular dead spot, but it’s a nice breather, and I wonder if it’s getting longer than it used to be because more folks are learning more things about beavers? It gives us a chance to follow up on the Amherst story I wrote about earlier with this email I received last night from Sharon Brown:
BEAVERS: WETLANDS & WILDLIFE EXPERT CONSULTS WITH AMHERST ABOUT BEAVER SOLUTIONS
Animal Advocates of WNY offered to bring a Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife, Inc. consultant to Amherst and it happened on August 24th!
Owen Brown, President and engineer from Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife, met with Robert Anderson, Amherst Highway Superintendent, and Ray Lytle, Crew Chief, at the Amherst Highway Garage.
The three men discussed the Amherst beaver situation. Dr. Brown showed them successful non-lethal alternatives with brochures and diagrams. He gave them the video: “Co-existing with Beavers”; and explained which parts of the video would be useful to them.
Brown was taken on a tour of the Ellicott Creek area bike path and memorial trees. A search for beaver dams was fruitless. They also checked on miles of drainage ditches and Brown explained how to beaver-proof two large culverts.
The meeting and tour was two hours well spent.
Owen Brown said, “I came away with very positive feelings. Mr. Anderson and Mr. Lytle seem to understand the value of using lasting solutions without killing the beavers.”
Valerie Will said, “Animal Advocates of WNY is very appreciative that Amherst’s Highway Superintendent and Highway Crew Chief were willing to take the time to meet with Dr. Brown and to learn about the humane alternatives successfully used in other areas. Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife’s experts are much respected all over the country for their knowledge of and work with beavers. We are grateful we could help make such a visit happen here.”
Nice! Thanks Owen & Sharon for helping make a happy end to this beaver drama! Endless pressure, endlessly applied! There was only one other story about beavers in the entire media today, and it was an introduction to a neighbor who described what she enjoyed about living in Andover Michigan.
Patch: What is your favorite memory that took place in North Andover?
Anya: Right here in Jasmine Plaza there is a small creek that runs adjacent to our parking lot. As I was heading out to my car one evening this spring, a beaver came right up to the edge of our parking lot and started chewing down a small tree. It was quite special to experience that right outside of my clinic.
Enjoy the quiet and lets hope the dead spot lasts another few days!
