I had a long conversation yesterday with Kat Milacek and Rhonda Burkhardt-Thomson from the DFW wildlife coalition over the beaver issue in Irving Texas. If you haven’t heard anything about it, here’s a fairly recent report.

They got word of the contract the park issued to take out ALL beavers from ALL wetlands. But when the media started poking around they revised it to say they were relocating beaver only from the pond. (Insert Grinch explanation to Cindy Loo here). Kat and Rhonda started an online petition that got 800 signatures from around the nation, and the park department got so defensive they adapted their own web page in response.

There is misinformation and a petition circulating regarding Irving’s beaver trapping program. The City of Irving would like to correct the misinformation and provide our residents an accurate account of this story.

Yayaya. I’m sure it was all a complete misunderstanding…

Apparently three beavers (one adult and two yearlings) have already been captured and released onto private land. This is less than ideal timing, to say the least. Since kits are probably going to be left behind as they may not be able to dive out of the lodge/bank hole without adult help. My guess is that mom will stay with them as long as she can, but eventually succumb, leaving them alone.

I talked with Kat and Rhonda about solutions, about wrapping trees and getting media, they expressed frustration over how slanted the news was and how many of the park department’s lies it broadcast. Was it worse because they were in Texas? (Hahahahaha) Sadly no, I sympathized. The media is deeply naive and will be believe what officials tell them to the ninth degree. The only things on your side are cute pictures and compelling stories. Which you have so far, so buck up I told them!

Given that three beavers were already captured, I advised that it was going to be better to get the rest as quickly as possible. Try and find out where they were living to make sure none get left behind. In the mean time try and get video or night video and send that to the news station in order to pressure the park to sit down with you and make a beaver management plan for the NEXT beavers that come along. I thanked them for caring about beavers and wished them a hearty good luck!

It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the thought that there are people who want to save beavers in Texas. But I’m grateful for the chance to be proven wrong. It’s a big state, and they need the water. They should all care about beavers. Just look how good that’s working in California! (Not.)

Onto beaver defense in New Hampshire where this great letter was published in the Valley News.

Letter: What About the Beavers’ Ecosystem?

I have lived in the Upper Valley all of my life and for 53 years have traveled 12A, where on numerous occasions the beaver dams have been altered to prevent flooding. I just wonder why we always have altered the beaver dam, a dam that builds a viable ecosystem for aquatic life and waterfowl. We continually use destruction to solve the immediate crisis. I ask the state to propose alternative solutions before the next crisis.

Throughout all the election years of the past, I have listened to campaigners boast about their achievements in passing bills that have millions of dollars set aside to preserve and maintain habitat. Can we apply some of those funds in Plainfield to a solution that allows for a viable Route 12A and a thriving aquatic ecosystem? Upper Valley residents need to say we want a chunk of the money to preserve this ecosystem now! Do you believe that money spent regarding our encroachment on wildlife habitat is better than money spent to preserve wildlife habitat? If so, I ask you to help by writing or calling our state legislators about this issue. Let’s stop responding to a crisis and start finding a permanent solution.

William Monette

Wow! Asking for action at the state level! That’s dreaming big William! I like it! But you might start with your own city or county to get the ball rolling. Why not talk to your neighbor Art Wolinsky who installed a culvert protector a few years back. Now the beavers are building on the other side of the culvert, but he’s committed to solving the problem the right way. Just look at this video from this morning: (watch all the way to the end for essential commentary).

Cheryl was down last night and saw lots of activity but no kits. We’ll all be watching tonight just in case…..

Living, working with beavers

Granddaughter Hayden asked, “What does ‘pesky’ mean?”

I’d just commented about “those pesky beavers” on our way to observe a Harris Center beaver-deceiver project in Stoddard. I said it means rascally, as in little rascal beavers that are outsmarting humans.

Beavers at the Fremont conservation land in Peterborough have been outsmarting me for a month now. Hayden, Carl and I were going to observe installation of Phase II of the Harris Center beaver project. The beavers had thwarted Phase I.

I like this article from Francie Von Mertens for the Ledger-Transcript in New Hampshire. She is enough of a nature appreciator to understand that beavers mean good things for birds and wildlife and a plucky problem-solver and writer.

We like beavers. They’re one of a handful of “keystone species” that benefit a wide range of other wildlife species.

So far so good. The wildlife center wants to live with beavers, and knows why they’re good. It even knows about beaver deceivers. Although I’m getting the feeling they think that any pipe stuck in a dam is a deceiver.

My new routine became an early morning visit to the dam to unclog the two beaver-deceiver pipes. It took the beavers one night to figure out the pipes, as well as the other small breeches I made in their dam to keep the water level down.

Mud, sticks and grasses patched each breech and clogged each pipe.

Each morning I cleared the two pipes and remade the breeches. Once I slipped on the muddy dam and fell in. I pictured the beavers finding that hilarious. I did begin to worry that the beavers were having to spend too much time undoing my work and might not have enough time to forage.

Full marks for effort I guess, and raw commitment to the beaver ideal. I can’t imagine our city would be interested in doing the right thing if it had been forced to endure even one night of failure. But you aren’t responsible for re-inventing the wheel here, and there are very solid plans for how to do this already in place. You could use them. Sometimes letting smart people do their job makes YOU look smart.

This Monday, Carl, Conservation Commission member John Patterson, and Eric Masterson from the Harris Center installed Phase II at the Fremont modeled after the Phase II system installed at the Harris Center’s Robb Reservoir property in Stoddard.

It’s a long stretch of 12-inch culvert pipe embedded in the beaver dam. It reaches well out into the pond and is circled by a wire cage that will be very difficult to clog.

Gosh. Did it look something like this? I just contacted beaver friend Art Wolinsky in New Hampshire so I can send the author his way and he said just exactly what I thought. “Phase II should have been Phase I!” Well they got there eventually. Obviously even now the author has a hard time imaging that these efforts will succeed.

As a diversionary ploy, I just might keep up my morning routine at Fremont with hopes the pesky beavers won’t associate the new thing in the middle of their small pond with the humans messing with their damworks.

I give up. The writer is just too adorable. I can’t even be sarcastic. Go ahead and do the morning routine or rain dance or whatever you want. Those beavers (and all the wildlife that depends on them) are lucky to have you!