I just got to the part of the new season of Lemony Snicket where the orphans are discovering that in addition to being disappointing, life is complicated.

“People aren’t either wicked or noble. They’re like chef’s salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.”

Lemony Snicket

Which I thought I’d mention because it’s also true for beaver news too. Sometimes it’s rotten. Sometimes it’s adorable. And sometimes it’s both at the same time.

Enjoy your salad!

Amid skinning demos and pelt-handling contests, trappers focus on future

New Brunswick trappers have come out of the woods and off their trap lines to gather for the annual convention of fur harvesters in Fredericton. Dozens of trappers are meeting throughout the day Friday and Saturday to celebrate the industry, discuss techniques and swap stories.

Skinning demos, round-tables, trapping seminars and pelt-handling competitions run throughout the two-day event, centred on trading techniques, updating the industry for the modern age and guiding the next generation of trapper.

But the main focus is teaching.

Oh PUL-EEZZE.

Do we have to honor the noble trapper every winter? I understand that it’s a living and may even be occasionally necessary but there is no way on earth that you are going to convince me that getting all these men together to play at mansplaining’ trapper in public has education as its focus. Men do not show off out of the generational goodness of their hearts.

Hrmph we need something very cute to get that out of our teeth.

Edmonton wildlife rescue seeks bigger pool for growing beaver

An Edmonton-based wildlife rescue is looking to the community for help finding a new pool for its resident beaver, Sawyer. WILDNorth animal hospital has been caring for the seven or eight-month-old beaver since it was found on the side of the road near Wetaskawin in September. But now, the rodent has outgrown its current pool.

Awww so cute. That is probably my favorite age of beaver. They are such fun to watch.

Note that both stories are offered as if they were completely unrelated to each other. As if trapping has nothing to do with orphans. And the awww factor was enough to justify the lives of the few they missed.

Quest for dams, lodges reminds us of beavers’ impact

On some of our country rides when we find ourselves with free time, my husband Fred and I see beaver dams and sometimes lodges near the road. On a recent excursion we decided to stop, walk through the woods along Bloomery Swamp and look for a beaver dam that we knew was there. Fred was familiar with the area, since he frequently fished there during his youth.

Taking in the surroundings of the woods, listing to birdsong and trying to avoid briars and maneuver rocky inclines, we talked about what we know about beavers. We know that beavers are sometimes called a “keystone species,” one that has a large influence on the environment.

So far so good. Where’s the salad?

We also know that beavers can be destructive and cause great damage to farmland and personal property. Flooding of farmland is a problem that farmers have to deal with sooner or later. We know of farmers who have found it necessary to destroy beaver dams in order to restore their land to a condition suitable for their purposes. A problem with destroying dams is that beavers get busy — true to the beaver reputation — and build a new dam within a matter of days.

Well that’s certainly glass half-fullish. But on the other hand…

On the other hand, the dam-building habits of beavers contribute greatly to the restoration of our precious wetlands, which provide a habitat for numerous plant and animal species, such as birds, fish, frogs and any number of endangered species.

Well there you have it. A true chef-salad of beaver attributes and reports.

There never as many as you want, but there are good things written about beavers most days if you look for them. Daniel Handler was right. We are all a mixed bag. But if we’re lucky our own nutritional value will be at least half as high as the beavers.

Beavers are back and thriving but not everyone is happy

They are an unusual, characterful species, and far from liked by all. Humans aside, beavers are the best loggers on the planet. Their dams, which they build to protectively raise water levels around their lodges upstream, enliven local ecology by coaxing in species which prefer slow-moving water, like dragonflies and frogs; in doing so, they can also alter the flow of rivers – always a contentious issue in land management.

So when, 10 years ago, a small group of beavers either escaped captivity or were illegally released, the colony they set up on western Scotland’s River Tay swiftly attracted the attention of naturalists and landowners alike. A few years later, in 2009, another set of beavers appeared, this time in the Knapdale Forest, Argyll, where Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) oversaw a government-sanctioned trial reintroduction, prompted by EU legislation supporting native species. Both colonies thrived.

At the heart of the problem is the beavers’ habit of damming drainage channels and burrowing into flood banks – actions that can lead to the destruction of crops in waterlogged fields. Some members of the National Union of Farmers Scotland have also argued that the rodents spread disease and negatively impact upon other species’ wellbeing. As a result, 21 Tayside beavers were shot in the years following their arrival – a legal act in the eyes of the law, as beavers are not a protected species, but one that led the SNH to bemoan the decision to reach for a gun rather than attempt to deter the creatures by other means.

One of those is “beaver deceivers” – pipes which, when thrust through a dam, change the depth of the water surrounding the lodge. It is a rudimentary technique, but it is sometimes enough to send the beavers packing. “They’re not the brightest of animals,” chuckles Dr Martin Gaywood of SNH.

And the scheme’s success is spurring others on: the Welsh Beaver Project recently announced a proposal that will support a repopulation in parts of Wales.

“A landscape with wild beavers re-established is wonderful to experience,” says the project’s coordinator, Adrian Lloyd Jones. Whether local farmers will share his enthusiasm remains to be seen.

Yes the farmers like to complain about beavers, though they love to plant things on that really rich soil beaver dams made for them. Too bad articles like these can’t also interview the dragonflies, or the salmon, or the river otters to see how they feel about the animals. It’s important to get every opinion, you know.

I was glum on Friday, but Saturday was beyond heartening. I had friends that marched in Florida, Atlanta, DC, Missouri, Austin, Wyoming and Colorado. Not to mention all over our own state blooming like pink flowers, including a local march in Walnut Creek that was really well attended. The next time you need cheering up you should really put on a pink pussy hat and should watch this a couple of times.