‘Tis the season to get lost in corn. As summer comes to an end and harvest season approaches, fields across Quebec have been carved up for your enjoyment. Several corn mazes have already popped up across the province. But Éco-Odyssée in Wakefield breaks the mold.
There, you can embark on a journey through a sprawling water labyrinth, wandering between marsh and forest.
The maze is actually inspired by the beaver.
“The concept of the water maze came to” founder and beaver specialist Michel Leclair “from the beavers that he worked alongside for 35 years,” the Éco-Odyssée website explains.
“The beaver, upon settling in a habitat, digs a network of underwater canals that are similar to a labyrinth. This network allows it to move around throughout the entire year in order to find food and wood to build dams.”
This looks entirely delightful. The only sentence that confuses me is “beavers dig a series of Underwater canals“.. Underwater? Were you expecting viaducts instead?
Michel LeClaire has been working with beavers since Reagan was president. Both Mike Callahan and Skip Lisle traveled to Canada once upon a time to learn from him. I do not think every single one of his ideas holds true today but he is page one on the story of human adaptions for coexistence.
His latest invention looks absolutely magical. So very much better than a corn maze.
What I want to know is Who decides these things? What all-powerful overseeing force determines how every reporter is going to talk about beavers in every region and every country with the flick of a finger? Is there some giant war room where multiple screens determine the headlines on every news source in the hemisphere? I guess it could be something as simple as a press release, but maybe it’s a whole underground beaver cabal string-puller we don’t even suspect. Case in point:
This chunky national symbol has Hamilton Animal Services to thank for seeing him through to Canada’s 150th birthday.
The service responded to a call on Tuesday reporting a beaver wedged in a wrought iron fence. In their news release, the agency said they suspected the animal tumbled part-way through, but then found itself unable to wriggle its winter-heavy posterior between the bars.
Animal services officer Sarah Mombourquette freed the portly beast with the help of fast thinking and a common household ingredient – a little bit soap slicked him up enough to slip the rest of the way through
While beavers don’t hibernate, this adult male was clearly carrying a bit of extra weight after a less-active winter season. Slightly above-average temperatures across southern Ontario this past winter may have helped him along in packing on the pounds; the winter of 2015/2016 saw an epidemic of fat squirrelsthanks to milder weather giving them more access than usual to food through the winter months.
After the rescue, animal services transferred the beaver to Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge in Jarvis, where he’ll spend some time recovering from his injuries before being rehabilitated and released back into the wild.
“Conservation efforts have led to a healthy beaver population and in honour of Canada 150, Hamilton Animal Services is thrilled to give this beaver a happy ending,” said Paoila Pianegonda, the city’s Manager of Animal Services. “We believe that no beaver should be left behind.”
Even if his behind is what got him in trouble in the first place.
Ha ha ha! Get it? Because he’s a pudgy beaver! Right? We all know beavers are skinny and fluffy little rabbit sized rodents with long tails. Because the warm winter meant that the beaver was awake and eating all winter. Like YOU you lazy couch potato. Because under normal conditions a beaver would easily pass through a wrought iron fence.
Sheesh.
First of all, I hate to break it to you, and forgive me for interrupting your little castor fat-shaming session, that isn’t a fat beaver. It’s a grown up beaver. Maybe not even grown up. Maybe a disperser. You forgot how big an adult beaver is because we killed them all. Second of all, beavers get THINNER in the winter not fatter. The winter freeze means they have to live off the food they stored, so as the winter drags on the is less and less to eat. Third of all, even if there was a very, very warm winter and the lucky beaver could go get fresh food all the time because the water was never frozen, there is still no reason he would put on more weight in the winter because he would be doing the same things he normally did.
Instead, of accusing that beaver of sloth, I wonder, if you could for a moment, just remember back to the days of your childhood where you were certain that your head would easily fit through the stair banister railing, or your brother’s headboard, or the fence slats in the garden. Do you remember what a shock it was to find that not only could you not get through, which you had been certain you could do, you could even not get back out? Your friend Whitey tried to pull you out and failed, then your brother and finally your dad. Do you remember how lonely and cold it got waiting for the fire department to come and set you free?
As horrific. terrifying and humiliating that fateful day was, aren’t you glad there wasn’t an international headline the next morning saying it happened because of your pudgy head?
With me it was my right thumb. And a very inviting and mysterious hole inside the handlebar of my highchair where the tray table usually snapped in. We didn’t have enough chairs at for our big (Catholic) family for me to sit on one at the table for a while, so I stuck with the highchair longer than most. I remember my mother telling me, when I poked that inviting opening curiously, “Don’t put your finger in there!” Ah, whose life wouldn’t have been different if they had listened to that advice?
So obviously I never got my thumb stuck in the whole one night after a particularly unappetizing dinner. And I never had to tell my parents the awful truth after all the plates were cleared away. And my father didn’t have to try vasoline and finally ice to ease it out. What I can assure you, is that my 2 year old thumb was not pudgy from winter, and I certainly wasn’t happy about those long hours I waited for the swelling to go down so I could get it back.
Something tells me that beaver wasn’t either.
On to wiser things. (And pretty much anything is.)
Believe it or not, the bagpipe player who helps out at the festival found this in his Canadian nature news feed and shared it with me. Small, small world. This is the Michel LeClare workshop we talked about earlier.
There is a lot of beaver news to catch up on this morning. I got behind on earthday and let our usual beaver-ticker slide. It’s monday and I think we should start with the good news and grim our way down the ladder from there, okay? (And yes I know that ‘grim’ isn’t a verb, but it just seems right today.)
Long time readers of this website might remember that a while ago Washington passed a ‘beaver bill’ that allowed them to relocate problem beavers in the Eastern (driest) part of the state. (Our beaver friends Joe Cannon and Amanda Parish of the Lands Council worked on that.) It was a pretty big deal at the time and was a struggle to pass. Well, on Thursday the governor signed into law a change stating that beavers could be relocated in WESTERN Washington as well.
This is Chompski, a beaver relocated in Bodie Creek outside Wauconda, Washington in 2012. (Chandra Hutsel / Courtesy of state Rep. Joel Kretz)
Western Washington beavers who are trapped by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife can be relocated to a more opportune location west of the Cascades, a bill signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee Thursday says.
The department has had a program to relocate nuisance beavers it traps in Eastern Washington for several years, with the restriction that they can’t be shipped over the mountains to the “wet side” of the state. The program started when Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, thought some of the toothy rodents that the department was already trapping might be sent to land owners that were trying to improve their water tables by impounding creeks or streams.
This year, some Western Washington landowners decided they wanted to try it, too. The original bill took Kretz several tries to make it through the Legislature. This bill passed the House 98-0, and the Senate 45-1.
It was 2012 when the Eastern law finally passed – years after it had been promoted and voted down many times. In fact in 2005 a bill allowing it was vetoed by the governor of the state. What a difference 12 years makes, eh? I guess the state is finally recognizing the good things that beavers do for fish, water and wildlife. Now they just need to learn to leave the beavers where they are and change the people instead – making them use the tools that will let them to coexist.
Another dozen years maybe?
Meanwhile in Canada the “Beaver Whisperer” is teaching folks how to manage beaver conflicts using a ‘baffler’. Mostly good news, although we’re not thrilled by his protege’s statement that beavers damage water quality.
Learn how to manage beavers and create a peaceful co-existence on May 11 at the Beaver Management Workshop, hosted by the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority (NBMCA) and Friends of Laurier Woods.
NBMCA staff install a beaver pond leveller known as a “beaver baffle” summer 2015 at Laurier Woods Conservation Area.
“Beavers can be a benefit and a bur
den,” explains Troy Storms, NBMCA’s Supervisor, Field Operations.
“They help maintain important wetland ecosystems. They create habitat for themselves, as well as several other species. But they can damage vegetation, farmland, municipal infrastructure and water quality,” he added.
This workshop includes a morning presentation by “beaver whisperer” Michel Leclair, followed by an afternoon field trip to Laurier Woods Conservation Area to see a “beaver baffle” in action.
Two steps forward one step back. I’m pretty sure that even if beavers are important to other species damaging water quality is kind of deal-breaker. That’s what we call very bad advertising. I’m sure he’s referring to the bogus concern that they cause ‘beaver fever’ which we all know MUST be true because it rhymes. I wish someone was on hand to talk about how much they IMPROVE water quality or how their dams act as a filter to remove toxins and nitrates from the water.
Is it too much to ask?
Finally a very ugly story from North Carolina where they believe they proudly have discovered that beaver dams can be destroyed with a machete.
LINDEN — Flooding across from a neighborhood near Lake Teresa has greatly diminished after members of the community and other helpers tore down beaver dams nearby. Bob Hathcock, who lives on Canal Street, said the swamp that had formed in a wooded area between the street and a field off Lane Road near Linden has gone down.
“I’d say it’s down two feet and still draining,” he said.
He described the work as a community effort that involved four neighborhood residents and three people who live elsewhere. “We got out there with axes, shovels and machetes, and started busting things up,” he said. “The people kind of enjoyed it.”
Hathcock said the destruction of three dams, including one that was about 200 feet wide, did not reduce the swamp near the neighborhood. When a fourth was tore down, the water started receding. It went down even more after a fifth dam was removed.
“Everything is flowing out now,” he said. “We are so relieved.” Hathcock said eight beavers have been trapped. Some weighed more than 50 pounds each, he said.
“We’ve still got traps out there,” he said. One person managed to catch a beaver the day after he put out a trap, Hathcock said. “He was like a kid at Christmas trapping that beaver,” he said.
Hathcock said several companies offered to deal with the problem, but were going to charge up to thousands of dollars. The USDA charged the residents $25, he said.
How much do I hate this article? Let me count the ways.
So Jimbob and Billybud got all their axes and pitchforks and ripped out 5 (five!) beaver dams to make the water flow again. (Just because he lives on Canal street, Bob never expected there to be WATER on it.) Remember that this is a state we gave countless FEMA dollars in drought relief a couple years ago, but never mind, because who needs to save water anyway? Now it’s free like aMurica! Never mind the dying fish, frogs or the wood duck hatchlings whose nests are now too far from the water to make the jump safely. What matters is that 8 beavers are dead, the folk had fun destroying their wetlans and someone celebrated Christmas early.
I am curious though, if folks ripped out the dams and trapped the beavers themselves, what exactly the USDA was charging 25 dollars for?
In case you were busy or want to see a section again, the entire program is online:
It’s how I got this very special screen grab that whizzed by at the end.
I’m was already happy because I noticed corrections I had made to the script that were actually incorporated! In fact, I don’t think there’s a single thing incorrect in the entire documentary, which is both awesome and rare! Last night I admired Glynnis presentation of science, loved Suzanne and Carol’s wonder at the beaver improvements in Nevada, enjoyed Michel LeClare better in this american version, and was touched by Michelle Grant’s beaver rescue that remained perfectly untouched from the Canadian original. Sherri Tippie stole the show though, and I’m still getting emails from beaver civilians who adored her presentation. This supports my theory by the way, that saving beavers ultimately isn’t about changing minds with science, it’s about touching hearts.
Sherri made such a splash that she’s on Grist today
In case you needed it, here’s something to celebrate: You now live in a world where the sentence “I’m a hairdresser and live beaver trapper” has been uttered in earnest. Sherri Tippie is just an ordinary Colorado jail barber who happens to love beavers – so much so that she’s become one of the top live trappers in North America.
But do not for one second presume that she’s some granola-crunching, Tom’s-of-Maine-using hippie:
I am a hairdresser, honey. I like HBO, I want a toilet that flushes, OK? I do not camp out, baby.
You and me both, girl! To witness Tippie tenderly cradle a squirming water rodent as if it were her own child, watch the video above.
There’s another affectionate article from Bloomberg Business week of all places! I’m expecting more to follow.
A Colorado hairdresser with a fondness for large rodents is doing her bit for climate change, and so can you. Sherri Tippie is the nation’s champion beaver relocation specialist and the sight of her wrestling them into carriers adds to the fascination of “Leave it to Beavers,” which airs tonight at 8 p.m. EST (check local listings) on PBS’s Nova series.
Having nearly died out as hats in more formal times, the beaver seems determined to survive. I trust the encounter of a pathetic moose and an angry beaver will go viral.
The show’s timing is pretty great: Last week, the National Climate Assessment report affirmed that climate change is a fact that can’t be blustered away by simple radio hosts, grandiose columnists and the Washington servitors of the coal industry.
Beavers deploy every cell in their equally tiny brains keeping America fertile and driving developers crazy. In the Rocky Mountains, their structures filter billions of tons of water. When a drought dried out big stretches of Nevada, the beaver-managed areas remained nice and green.
I love to think of all those business men reading about beavers. I’m eager to learn more about the reactions people had to this, so I’d love you to send me your thoughts. I’d be happy to collect and share them. In the meantime, I’m one happy camper.
I weeded out the bad news yesterday but today there’s an extra helping. Let’s start with Gatineau Park. If that sounds familiar it should – it’s where Michel LeClare invented the limitors that became the basis for flow devices used by Mike and Skip.
Over the last few decades, the National Capital Commission has learned to live in harmony with the park’s beaver, which number more than 1,100 in 272 active beaver colonies, according to a 2011 air inventory.
Where possible, the NCC favours an approach of coexistence. Last fall, the CBC’s The Nature of Things profiled the innovative efforts of Michel Leclair, a former NCC conservation officer who has designed and installed more than 200 water control devices that have helped minimize the beaver’s destructive impact.
The NCC uses lethal force most often at 56 of its 154 monitoring stations in Gatineau Park, where it takes a “zero tolerance” approach to the presence of beaver. “Basically it’s the areas where if a dam was to break or rupture, it would present the biggest problem in terms of public safety and infrastructure,” said Emily Keough, an NCC spokesperson.
Ahh the noble NCC. I believe their motto is “We’ll allow ourselves to get credit in the documentary for living with beavers, but we still want permission to kill a few.” How exactly are these zero tolerance areas marked so the beavers know not to build there? Are their signs or caution tape?
It occurs to me that some judiciously applied castoreum might do the trick. (A beaver won’t build there if they believe someone else already has) – but don’t let science interfere with your trapping party. I can see you’re on a mission. Well, a coMISSION.
How about this inscrutable news item from Kentucky? (Where’s Ian when you need him?)
Bruce Ward of South Mayo Trail in Pikeville shows a beaver he killed on Monday. Ward said the beaver was becoming a nuisance in the area and after contacting Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife officials told him he could harvest the animal. The beaver, Ward said, is 55 inches long and 15 inches wide.
Where to begin? First of all, how exactly was the beaver bad? Was he hanging around with the wrong crowd? Do you mean the beaver was successful, and built a dam that held back water? Just in a place you didn’t like? And second of all, why is the fact that Bruce couldn’t solve a problem so he decided to kill it instead, news? I mean, is it news when someone catches the mice in their pantry? Or steps on a spider on the sidewalk? If these minor wildlife infractions don’t rise to the level of news, why does the death of the allegedly ‘bad’ beaver?
Could it be because you know better? Or could it be that you’re glancing over the state line at your neighbors in West Virginia saying, my god we had really better take care of the things that take care of our water!
This morning’s donation is from Northwoods Carvings and hand carved walnut by master carver Marc Degagne in Canada. Can’t you just feel the smooth weight of this water-saver when you look at it? Thanks Marc and Claire! I know this will be a popular item.
And I sang this song all the time when we won the beaver battle in Martinez! Thanks for everything Pete.
