I have always considered Ross the most knowledgeable about beavers on the gang of five. And he and Lara are definitely tied in my mind for beaver good will. Maybe this quote is a miscommunication, a giddy on camera misspeak where you just say something you didn’t mean because it sounds good. I’m going to assume that he knows that beavers are herbivores and don’t make fishing trips.
Then again, our council got lots about the beavers wrong. They thought they were going to cause a flood, cause mosquitoes, block the steelhead, destroy the creek and collapse the bridges, breed like rabbits, etc. So maybe this is just par for the course.
I particularly like this video because it was filmed about 24 hours before I got sick – which is like remembering that there is a healthy woman somewhere inside me slowly making her way out. Or getting a letter from a dead friend that was mailed before they passed. It’s a glimpse into a world I once traveled in and theoretically will again.
In the mean time, the world has not gotten any wiser about beavers, and needs me to pay attention again.
Fur dealers could trap beavers under proposal
Beavers can be trapped now, but the measure would allow fur dealers to trap, something that has been outlawed at least as far back as the early 1900s.
“It is a law that we don’t need anymore,” said Scott Harbaugh, director for the trapper association’s northern Lower Peninsula region. “It was to keep the fur buyer from adding more beaver to his lot by using the bag limit of another seller, but now we have no bag limit on beaver trapping.”
Before it was removed in 1983, the limit was 25 beavers per person, said Adam Bump, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources bear and furbearer specialist.
DNR officials requested trappers push for a law change.
There are no exact statistics for changes in beaver population, Bump said. They are difficult to track, but the population is now healthy and has grown considerably since the prohibition against fur dealers trapping was made.
Trapping keeps the population of each animal down so they don’t overpopulate and end up with diseases that can spread to humans, Harbaugh said.
A small beaver pelt can be worth around $20 and a large one about $50, said Dale Hendershot, president of the trappers association.
“Most people just do beaver trapping as a hobby because it is kind of hard to make a living off of it,” he said. “However, those that do make a living off of it trap multiple species and make supplies as well.”
Trapping beavers with no limit to keep down a population that no one has ever counted. Kill as many beavers as you want just ’cause. Mind you this is the state where the great lakes themselves have a ‘microbead’ problem with little bits of silicon killing loons and fish. Beaver dams could probably help catch some of the runoff of the feedings streams and improve the invertebrate community, but never mind. Don’t worry about that. Just change the law so its easier to kill more beavers.
“We don’t need a bag limit to appropriately manage the population so it would be an easy way to allow a few more people to get out and trap beavers if they wanted to,” Bump said.
Sigh.
There were several packages of donations when I got home. This one made me smile widely even in the hospital. The brooch is from owner Jordan Kentris of HexagonInc in Toronto, Canada. “Our eco-friendly brooches are made from sustainably harvested wood and packaged in 100% post consumer recycled materials.” Go check out their many cheerful designs from birds to crowns to beavers here, and think how nicely this would match your blue and gold Worth A Dam shirt! Thanks Jordan!
