City of Renton is dealing with beaver problems
Apparently beavers chew cottonwood trees! Who knew? After most of the horses were gone Renton closed the barn door and wrapped some of them, but sooooooo tightly. (They better not dare grow!) Why are these horrid rodents attacking the trees now? I mean it’s not like beavers survive on wood in the winter and plants in the spring and summer. It’s not like the head of the urban forestry department should know anything about coppicing, or beaver behavior for pete’s sake.
And it’s not like Renton is 40 minutes away from the smartest beaver county in the entire nation.
They got a letter, but I’m not holding my breath for these beavers. In Washington State you have to work hard to be this beaver-challenged. Sigh.
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Life as Performance Art
By Fr. G. Corwin Stoppel
I was doing a bit of archeological work in my closet during a recent snowstorm and unearthed a “Beaver Stick” carved by the late writer and historian Grant MacEwan.
MacEwan believed beavers were nature’s perfect animal. He wrote often about how industrious they are, look after their families, balance work with play and more. To be presented with one of his Beaver Sticks was a sign of honor and friendship.
I’d never heard of Grant MacEwan before so I visited wikipedia. He was a Canadian politician who became a well written historian and instructor after his retirement. MacEwan continued to be physically active, and was not known to waste any time. He believed that if you were awake you better be doing something. In his eighties, he still rode horses, hiked and walked, outpaced reporters while on morning jogs, built a log cabin and chopped logs with an axe.
He sounds pretty formidable, and to imagine a pro-beaver politician in Ontario makes me a little dizzy. Fr. Stoppel goes on to disagree with his praise of the animal:
As much as I appreciate Dr. MacEwan’s dedication to this species, it may have been shortsighted. All that hard work and industry comes when beavers build dams to create small lakes deep enough for their lodges. But after a few years, the ponds behind the dams start to fill with everything coming down river.
Eventually the water level drops and the lake turns into a pond, then marshland. The water flow was impeded and could not keep draining because of silt. The result oftentimes is flooding.
Yes, its horrible when beavers turn perfectly reasonable streams into functioning meadows. The geologists at USFS hate it, which is why they wanted to use beavers to do just that in the Sierras and needed to prove they were native to do so. (Which started the basis for our whole papers! Memories).
Well, it’s not the worst thing to remind Michigan that SOMEONE used to like beavers. They need about a million more reminders. Thanks for the history lesson!
I have no more donations to show you for the silent auction at the moment. Find me some! And wish me luck. First day back at the office post-hospital today.
