Let’s say, (and why not?) that you have a younger brother who  never ever studies for his spelling tests. They’ve tried to persuade him with gold stars and candy bars. They’ve tried scolding. They’ve even told him he couldn’t play outside until he studied and he sat dreamily at the kitchen table making car noises for hours without learning anything,

Yet one day, without any threatening, coaxing or nudging he sits down at the table saturday morning and starts copying them out. His actual spelling words! No doodles or car noises, He does it three times over and over and marches into class monday as confident as a new boy. You are SO proud!

Everyone makes a big deal of how proud they are. mickey mouse pancakes for breakfast and his favorite peanut butter and banana sandwich packed for lunch. And when he comes zooming through the door at the end of the day and shows off his test, you keep right on smiling.

1. kat      2. sleepe      3. todae     4. rihgt     5. wak

Because, as in all things, how you commit to getting ready to do the thing, is more important than what you actually do at first. He is learning the system. It can improve over time. What he needed to do was to really try. To get into a habit of applying his effort, The rest is just a matter of getting the details. Right?

Now tell that to Tennessee,

Two beavers removed from Sinking Creek wetlands

The challenges of urban wildlife management in Murfreesboro came to a head recently when two beavers were lethally removed from the Sinking Creek wetland system after their dam caused water to rise over park paths and creep closer to nearby homes and businesses.

City spokesman Mike Browning confirmed the beavers were removed after efforts to lower the water levels did not work.

“The parks system is trying to do everything they can to enhance and make sure that the habitat in that wetlands area is strong,” said Browning, citing an increase in herons, frog habitat and some plant species.

Wait, what? A city spokesman from Tennessee saying there’s new wide life habitat because of the beavers and they tried to lower the water levels? Is this a trick?

“We wanted to try to work with the beavers,” Recreation Superintendent Rachel Singer said. “It was high priority on our list, to work with these beavers and not just to go in and remove them right away.”

The Parks and Recreation Department began monitoring the water levels and dam size in November of 2017. Since the department has a contract with the United States Department of Agriculture, the following April Singer brought its Wildlife Services division on board to help.

Ohh you crazy little brother. Copying your spelling words for the first time. Bringing in WILDLIFE SERVICES of all people to HELP SAVE BEAVER. Hold on, I’m laughing too hard, I can’t type. Shhhh,

According to an emailed statement from Blaine Hyle, a wildlife biologist at the USDA, the first attempt to fix the problem was a pipe through the dam to keep water flowing. Beavers discovered and destroyed the pipe, called a pond leveller. Wildlife Services began regularly breaching the dam after installing two more pipes, carefully hidden from the beavers.

“They didn’t find it and they didn’t clog it, however we just could not get the water levels to recede,” Singer said. “There’s several properties along Highland that were concerned, the actual road of Highland (Avenue) was a concern … We just looked at every option that we could to try to work with the beavers, and determined that unfortunately there wasn’t anything more we could do.

Wouldn’t you pay all the money in your pockets to see that pipe? I’m sure it was the thickness if a quarter and the reason the beavers didn’t plug it was because it was not draining enough water to bother them. Raise your hand if you really think that just because WS put in something they called a pond leveler it actually was one.

When I was four, for example, I told my sister in all seriousness that I could fly.

Justyna Kostkowska, a member of Friends of Sinking Creek Wetlands who lives near the site, wishes the situation had been handled differently, and more openly. Her group organized to preserve the wetlands in 2017 when condos were proposed for the area. The group’s membership includes environmental consultants, an environmental engineer and a biology professor.

“The place was flourishing. There were more birds, there were more fish, the water was incredibly clean. Beavers manage wetlands incredibly well and are a sign of a healthy ecosystem.” Kostkowska said. “So, we were very thrilled they were there.”

I take back everything I was thinking about Tennessee. Justyna is clearly a kindred spirit. She has a Ph.D. and wants to save beavers. We could have been sisters! She’s just not as suspicious of wildlife services as me, which is a perfectly normal thing to be. Knowing what I know now I would never NEVER NEVER trust them to solve a beaver problem without resorting to trapping.

Friends of Sinking Creek Wetlands found out the beavers had been killed only after noticing a path had been mowed to the area and the water drained.

“We contacted the city manager and the mayor. They told me that beavers had been removed according to USDA protocol,” Kostkowska said.

Instead, the beavers were removed earlier this month by Wildlife Services using “industry-approved body grip traps.” The total bill from the USDA for 29 site visits, materials and lethal removal was $3,517.

Wow! That’s a lot of money to fail! Let me be absolutely clear Justyna,, Wildlife Services didn’t kill the beavers and your city didn’t lie to you and avoid letting the truth out as long as they possibly could because you live in Tennessee. This isn’t a state problem This isn’t a southern problem. It could have happened exactly like this anywhere in the nation. It would have happened in Martinez. if we hadn’t done ever single thing we possibly could to make it otherwise. And even then it was partly luck.

No, all cities lie about beavers, WS kills beavers. Its practically their raison d’être so to speak, and it takes valiant and sustained effort to interrupt that, even for a little while. I will try and make sure you have all the resources at your fingertips before this happens again,

And Justyna?