IN WHICH AN ENTIRE CONTINENT SAVES BEAVERS

heidi08 Who's saving beavers now? April 26, 2018

We are in a golden moment in time when all of a sudden all across the Northern Hemisphere folks have decided to save their beavers. I can’t imagine what’s caused it or how long it will last, but I’m going to bask fully in this bright sunshine as long as I can. Last night I got a frantic email from Atlanta Georgia with a man who was worried that the beavers who moved into the pond at his apartment complex would be hit by cars on the busy road beside them!

He said that he had seen one walk near traffic and wondered how he could help them. There are big stretches of the south where I couldn’t recommend a single beaver friend, but luckily he wasn’t too far away from The Blue Heron Nature Preserve so I introduced him to director Kevin McCauley. The wild part is, Kevin had JUST received a photo from a friend about a beaver in traffic.

Hopefully it’s the same one and they can figure this out.

Eek! Don’t you just love his little raised paw? Like an old italian grandpa shaking his fist at at kids driving too fast.

This morning there was a report from 841 miles away in London Ontario where a woman was upset to find beaver traps at her favorite park.

Worried someone’s dog could be injured or killed by the traps, Dupuis is questioning why the Ministry of Natural Resources is using the fatal devices to kill beavers in their natural habitat.

“It’s barbaric,” she said. “They’re not telling anybody about it.”“Twelve traps were set in the water, along the edge of the pond, well away from any trail or access point and marked with flags,” Kowalski said, adding the trapping is scheduled until the end of the month.

“You can put them in some place like a river and let them find their own territory. They don’t have to be killed,” said Salt, the founder of Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Centre in Mt. Brydges. “We don’t have an overpopulation of beavers in Southwestern Ontario.”

Located on the Thames River, the Komoka Provincial Park is known for its hiking trails, wildlife, diverse plant species and scenic views.

Just imagine what it will be like when everyone cares about the beavers near their home town. A girl can dream can’t she?

Victory in Amherst

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational August 21, 2012

Amherst no longer killing pesky beavers

This weekend I received a phone call from Amherst New York where they were getting ready for their own city council meeting about the plan to trap beavers gnawing memorial trees. She wanted advice for how to present their opposition and how to offer reasonable solutions. Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife was on the case as well and had been talking to the council and reporters. Well today there’s good news:

Amherst to stop trapping, drowning beavers

The Town of Amherst will no longer trap and drown nuisance beavers in response to the public outcry against what one animal rights organization called “tax-funded torture.”

At the board’s meeting Monday, representatives with the Animal Advocates of Western New York and Animal Allies of Western New York criticized the town’s “inhumane” treatment of beavers and said they would be glad to work with the town to find non-lethal methods for dealing with the tree-taking dam builders.

Whoohoo! Great work all! I was told the meeting was a 3:00 pm and hard for anyone employed to attend, but obviously they made it work. I remember how excited we all felt after the November 7th meeting, lo these many years ago, and I’m a little jealous of the enthusiasm they must be enjoying right now! They even had their own nay-sayers to play the comic villain of the melodrama:

Some Amherst residents who live along the water, however, say they didn’t have any issue with beaver trapping. Lenora Canna, a North Forest Road resident whose property backs up to Ellicott Creek, said she had three trees worth hundreds of dollars taken down by beavers since she moved into her home 17 years ago.

She asked the town for help last year in getting rid of the beavers damaging her private property and the town refused, she said. So she began wrapping her trees in barbed wire and hired a trapper with her own money. He placed a trap out in her backyard and caught a large 55-pound beaver within a couple weeks, she said. Damage has been mitigated since then.

Canna said she’s sorry the town is ending its own trapping practices. Beavers are active all year long, and have damaged both her trees and bushes, she said.

“They are a nuisance,” she said. “They are a glorified rat as far as I can see.”

Boo! Hiss! Throw popcorn! I love the scene where the villian ties the beaver to the railroad tracks and then it gets rescued just in time! Ohhhh wait, wrong movie! Still, what a great end to a fantastic tale (tail?) and it all started because of a very interesting verbal slip from the DNR employee who went on camera accidentally mentioned that trapping was humane because the beavers ‘drown’.

Obviously he never got the memo that said in bold letters “Always lie to animal rights groups by saying that conibear traps INSTANTLY CRUSH the beavers so they feel no pain’. Maybe he was sick that day. Maybe he had just stepped out. Maybe he is a Worth A Dam secret supporter. Whatever the reason once he said ‘drown’ – for an animal that can hold its breath for 15 minutes – the jig (as they say) was up!

With these changes, she said, “people can come to the park and think of the beauty and peace of the park and not think of the beavers struggling to get to the surface and drowning.”

Once again, a thundering round of applause and a very deep bow for Amherst and for Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife! Congratulations from all your friends in Martinez!

From Sea to Shining Sea

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, In the News December 2, 2011

Today’s beaver business takes us from the latte strewn streets of Seattle to the briney lobster traps of Maine. We are coast to coast here at all-beavers-all-the-time. Check out this delightful up “aren’t we noble” update from Seattle’s publicly owned power company. Apparently in addition to providing electricity City Light also purchases and preserves wetlands to protect salmon AND BEAVER!

With this acquisition, the Endangered Species Act Early Action Land Program is now responsible for over 2,712 acres to date, protecting fish habitats (mostly for Chinook salmon, but also protecting beavers, bull trout, steelhead and other species) and from pollution and destruction.

Take a moment to remember the trouble we had keeping LADWP from helicoptoring in to scrape out all the beavers in the Owens Valley and imagine what it would be like to have a power company bragging about saving beavers! The mind reels.

As we pass over the united states at a great speed I will just stop briefly over Minnesota to say that the reporter of the Humongous beaver article wrote me a kindly letter yesterday, ( which was surprising since I am fairly sure I was not trying to be kind). I thanked him and wrote back that there are precious few beaver advocates out his way and if he ever wanted to join the club we’d save him a seat.

Okay now onto Maine, where they celebrated the end of leftover turkey with the charming old trapper who never did it for the money and just wanted to be out in nature. Remember him?

Maine Meets Martinez Beavers

It is unfortunate that Maine doesn’t know any other way to teach its children about nature; how to make them responsible and manage wildlife, other than by trapping. Since beavers create wetlands, augment fish and bird populations and increase wildlife, allowing these animals to maintain their habitat would improve the region’s game count rather than deplete it.

For the record, there are plenty of old-time trappers who have learned new tricks about humane wildlife management, and who make a better living solving problems than killing them.

Heidi Perryman, Ph.D., president and founder, Worth A Dam, Martinez, Calif.

Light a Single Candle – Make that two!

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere April 20, 2011

Weighing only about one pound each when admitted, the beaver kits grew up together at PAWS Wildlife Center. By the time they were released, they had spent more than a year in PAWS’ care.

As the beavers matured they practiced their construction skills. All of the wood around the hide box in the background was placed there by the beavers.

After they were placed in the lodge, the beavers came out to explore. Having had minimal human contact at PAWS, they were wary of the people who were there to wish them well. Everyone soon left so the beavers could explore in peace.

A floating lodge that staff built is serving as a temporary home for the beavers. PAWS Wildlife Facilities Caretaker Jim Green and Wildlife Rehabilitation Manager Dondi Byrne get the lodge ready at the release site.

How cute is that floating lodge! Is it just me or do you WANT one? I bet our beavers could use one of those….it’s not a luxury. When Leonard and Lois Houston relocated some beavers in Oregon last year one of the families was eaten by a moutain lion because they hadn’t time to build a shelter yet. There’s a lot of stupid news in beaver world this morning, with North Carolina undertaking some statewide genocide, Alabama paying for tails and Province deciding to “lower” the beaver population. Before we have the spirit to tackle all that stupid, I though the PAWS story would give us something to smile about.