Ottawa-Carlton Wildlife Center

: What we did today!

Yesterday was a rocket ship of explosive activity! Wild Kingdom and Cockpits and Squid Disection and Duct tape wallets and Zip Lines and Rock Walls and Scuba Diving and Girl Power and lots and lots of pink! Rows and rows of tents, many of them pink, in the fair grounds where camping was allowed. Face paint and s’mores and llamas and circuit boards and floating sharks and astronauts in spacesuits. Words fail me. In the middle of all this someone came to invite us to display at Green Kids day on the Microsoft campus and I honestly wanted to laugh, “are you kidding?”

There was a moment in this massive wave of a day where I looked at Cheryl in a panic and said “THEY JUST KEEP COMING!!!!!!!” And it seemed liked that most times, clusters of girls in matching shirts with badges and bracelets and eager faces. Most of them enormously polite with thank yous and questions, with an endless stream of exhausted moms (and a few dad’s) shepharding them to through the many booths, waiting patiently while they painted with pine needles or drew in black lighting or added wildlife to a flag.

Imagine this scene over again at least a thousand times….

Three top conversations of the day would have to be

the mom who grew up in Sonoma who said her Dad had tried to save beavers on their land 10 years ago and is going to send me a photo of him standing by tree stump they chewed.

the woman who had gone to the beaver festival and said her daughter had painted a tile and STILL HAD HER TAIL!!!!

The woman from the San Joaquin watershed council in Fresno who said that she had called fish and game many times about protecting trees and was outraged that they had never told her about wire wrapping or sand painting!

I’m sure there are others that will come back to me as the sensation creeps back to my vocal cords. In the meantime, this came when I got home. The entire issue is about beavers and wetlands.

And an excellent conclusion to Thomas Knudson’s piece on Wildlife Services this morning with information about non-lethal methods. Other than the fact that I am fiercely disappointed that it doesn’t mention flow devices to control beaver problems, its a very good read! Next time, right Tom?

Our beaver friends in Stittsville Ottawa just got some very good news. Seems the day they were planning a street protest (including a giant costumed beaver)of the announced beaver killing the good mayor decided that they might need to look at actual options.

OTTAWA — Beavers living in a stormwater pond in Stittsville’s Paul Lindsay Park have been given a reprieve, city officials announced Thursday.

The city has backed down on intentions to trap and kill the beavers living in the pond near Abbott Street and Shea Road. The announcement was made the same day that a protest has been planned against the plans.

“We have heard in recent days that people would like us to have a second look at how we protect the integrity of our flood control systems and we are listening and acting,” Mayor Jim Watson said in a statement released Thursday morning, hours before the planned noon-hour rally at the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument at the corner of Elgin and Lisgar streets.

Hooray for tenacity and compassion! Hooray for actually using the internet(s) to do research and find solutions! Hooray for the folks who’ve been occupying Paul Lindsay Park at night to make sure the city can’t bring in trappers under the cover of darkness! Hooray for wikipedia Rick who put the Martinez Beaver story on the encyclopedia and got them thinking of solutions in the first place and Hooray for Mike Callahan who gave them advice and fed the info to the right people! And Hooray for the very nice CBC documentary producer who demonstrated interest in the story and probably scared the snot out of the mayor!

Hooray also for the Mayor and the Councillor Shad Qadri who even though they weren’t ready to hop on the beaver train eventually had the good sense to get off the tracks!

This is a case where there are a couple hard working women at the forefront, including artist Anita Utas who I mentioned before and Donna Dubreuil, the co-founder and president of the Ottawa-Carlton Wildlife Center. Well done, ladies! November is a fine month for heroically saving beavers at the last possible moment!

Councillor Qadri (who couldn’t be bothered to write me back when I told him about options) just wrote and asked me to share the city’s press release (aka “call the dogs OFF!“)

Thank you for your e-mail message. The following announcement has been released today. Please pass this information on to whomever you feel would be interested.

Lindsay Pond beaver trapping halted

Ottawa – Mayor Jim Watson and Councillor Shad Qadri today announced that the City of Ottawa will accelerate the development of its Wildlife Strategy. At the same time, the City will halt trapping activity in the Lindsay Pond area.

“We have heard in recent days that people would like us to have a second look at how we protect the integrity of our flood control systems and we are listening and acting,” said Mayor Watson.

Staff has proposed that the Wildlife Strategy include a re-evaluation of the City’s beaver management practices, including a development of a risk management evaluation process for responding to conflicts between beavers and infrastructure, such as municipal drains, culverts and storm water facilities.

“I am pleased that the City Manager has been able to act on my suggestion to explore alternatives,” added Stittsville Councillor Shad Qadri. “Flood control is a critical program for my ward and I am hopeful that we can find a way to protect residents from flooding and enhance our handling of wildlife at the same time.”

While even the most progressive experts in wildlife management acknowledge that lethal trapping of beavers is sometimes necessary to protect critical infrastructure and private property, the City recognises that advances in beaver management practices and technologies provide a range of alternatives to lethal trapping. The City recognizes that many of these alternatives are also more protective of aquatic and wetland ecosystems.

Again, I understand your concerns and I thank you for the opportunity to address this issue with you.

Regards, Shad

Oh and to celebrate we saw three beavers last night munching in the annex around 7:30. I haven’t seen three together since our kits were little!