Yesterday we talked about the ecological wisdom of Nanaimo, but not all B.C. can boast such foresight. Just three hours away on the other side of Vancouver, the town of Pitt Meadows has a lot to learn about beaver management.
Beavers busy in Katzie Slough
The City of Pitt Meadows has moved to remove several beavers who dammed a section of the Katzie Slough before they cause a flood.
City staff usually discourage the beavers from building by tearing down their dams but this particular colony has been persistent and refuses to move on. “They build their dams, we tear it down. They build their dams, we tear it down,” says Evans.
Thoughtful Pitt meadow has apparently been using the very advanced beaver management technique referred to as “T.O.&O.”. (Trying over and over.) I believe it was developed in the 30’s by Dr. Was ‘Ted’ Effort. Too bad the city has that rare breed of “REBUILDING BEAVERS”. That almost never always happens.
Being so close to FBD they must have heard of flow devices and know something about their use. Hmm, they probably have a completely resonable sounding explanation about why that wouldn’t work in Pitt Meadow, You know, something that makes it clear they did their homework but the lesson just didn’t apply to them.
“They are bad for us in Pitt Meadow because of our shallow drainage system, because everything is so flat. Every time they build a dam, it has huge impacts on our drainage system because it just backs everything up.”
Ahhh, nicely done sir. I fondly remember the sage advice two city managers ago explaining to the public that he knew all about flow devices but that they wouldn’t work in our special Martinez conditions. Still information has a way of getting out because look at the last paragraph of the article.
Animal Welfare Institute says a preferred option and a better long-term solution for dealing with beaver and human conflicts is to work with existing beaver in the habitat.
Beaver pipes can be installed in dams to control flooding, while road flooding can be controlled with Beaver Bafflers. There are several humane alternatives to protecting trees from beavers, including surrounding trees with cylindrical cages, coating them with a sand/paint mixture, spraying them with repellents and/or placing low fences around them.
You don’t say.
Now let’s head east where the Scottish Beaver Trial earned high acclaim in the Nature of Scotland Awards this week.
Scottish Beaver Trial: The Scottish Beaver Trial sees the first ever formal reintroduction of a mammal species anywhere in the UK. In itself, this is a major innovation and a remarkable step forward for conservation, driven by a committed and expert partnership. The project has been meticulously planned, carefully developed and comprehensively monitored and has rigorously followed IUCN principles. It is clearly a leading example of the way such programmes should be designed and delivered.
However, it is not just the environmental aspects that make this project so special and remarkable, but it is the whole integrated approach to the reintroduction, including education, tourism and the wider social and economic benefits as well. The partnership brings together multiple disciplines and multiple perspectives in an original and highly successful way. The project has been taken forward in the open, with a focus on inclusive engagement with local communities, experts, supporters, doubters, and the media.
The beaver is what is known as a “keystone” species, and has been recognised as a major ecosystem or environmental engineer – one that by its very presence and behaviour can transform riverine habitats into much more diverse and natural ecosystems. This has consequent benefits to a wide range of other species, and also the potential to impact on the delivery of other ecosystem services, such as natural flood management, water quality improvement, recreation, education and tourism. Taken together, this is about a sea change in the way we approach conservation at a natural ecosystem scale, and the way we involve people and communities in enjoying nature and the services it delivers. Bringing the beaver back home to Scotland has been an outstanding achievement.
Very well put indeed, I could hardly have said it better myself.
