Oh alright. Vanesso Petro whose boss is Jimmy Taylor at USDA says that as far as she knows the position is specific to predators and will not include any beaver work. Never mind that in Oregon beavers are categorized as predators!!! The positions are to stop predators that threaten live stock. Which, last time I checked, no one accuses beavers of doing. But I guess theoretically if beavers flooded some ranchers field that might be perceived as threatening live stock, and a smart supervisor might say that installing a flow device would provide a long-term solution to protect them? Hmm….
It’s been two good years of beaver news ever since Ben published his book. But we should remember that not everything is rosy. We should all be grateful for articles like THIS that remind us how truly grim things can get when you leave the warm circles of beaver academics. Take this article from upstate New York for example.
Nate Kennedy: Give trapping a try this year
Last fall when I ventured off to a local rod and gun club to take the New York State Trapper Education Course, I wondered what the day would have in store. I considered the various motivations that would bring one to fur trapping, and I thought of my own motivations for taking the course. The “reasons” to trap are varied, and all positive if you ask me. Personally, I connect with the tradition of it all. Much of this country was discovered and built by fur trappers, and that history and lifestyle lives on today.
If you hunt or fish much at all, you can understand the allure of a new outdoor pursuit or hobby. Another season. Another adventure.
An adventure! You know, like joy-riding or serial killing. Why not try trapping? And, as this article specifically recommends, trapping BEAVER. Because you can!
Here are some reasons why you should give trapping a try:
- Outdoor recreation and exercise
- Conservation and wildlife management
- Tradition and history
- Economic benefit
- Wild game and wild fur
Nate makes sure to embellish each snappy heading with a little paragraph explaining what he means but I’ll spare you most of the effusive prattle. Let’s just zero in on number 2, shall we?
He notes that buying a trapping license or gun folds back funds into the conservation programs themselves, And then adds pointedly:
Wildlife management is one of the largest motivations for trapping. Managing certain species like beaver, muskrat and coyotes can be a great service to landowners, farmers and others who may experience the negative impacts of overabundance. A healthier population can benefit the species, the ecosystem, the landowner and the trapper alike.
Now now. Any advocate worth her salt could have written those exact lines for him. We know the three lies trappers repeat better than they do. This keeps the population healthy! This maintains a balance! This helps farmers!
There is a powerful scene in Never Cry Wolf where some old inuit leaders stop over and sit at the fire for a night. The old woman tells him a creation myth and the young grandson translates. She says long ago there were no predators and so many caribou that the people called them ‘lice’. They reproduced so much that the young ones got sick and the land got trampled. The spirit of the old woman returned to a hole in the ice and asked the creator for a tool to cut the sickness from the herd.
And the amaguk was born. Amaguk: wolf.
It’s way way better when she tells it, with her thick slow native speech and the firelight showing her glowing timeless face. But this will do for our purposes. It does well enough that you will understand when I say that little Nate with his conibear, and all the little Nates he encourages are still no amaguk,
Trapping for sport is very akin to Fantasy Football. You don’t actually do the work, or the training, or learn a skill. You just capitalize on the work of others and pat yourself on the back for doing so by saying you’re HELPING. Which, of course, you aren’t.
When you trap beaver out of an area, and their pond falls into disrepair because there are no little engineers left to tend it – that means there is no deep water for the trout, no meals for the otter or blue heron, and no breeding pools for the frogs and dragonflies. You didn’t help conservation.
You defeated it.
Nate is a rifle instructor at the Cornell school of 4-H in Seneca. He holds a master’s degree in environmental communication from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Which means he attended the very school where Dietland Mueller-Schwarze taught and did research for years. If the name rings a bell its because he’s the author of the FIRST beaver book that changed everyone thinking.
So he should know better and might get a letter.
Speaking of long term solutions to beaver issues, I made this for Mike yesterday to remind folks to enroll in the first-ever East coast beaver conference.
