SKIP LISLE WORKS HIS MAGIC IN MAINE

Apparently Skip Lisle isn’t retiring quietly onto the deck with a scotch and soda sipped from the arm of his adirondack chair. He’s continuing to travel to other states and save beavers, this time in a Peat bog in Maine.

Beaver Deceiver: Device aims to mitigate Rail Trail’s dam problem

SPRINGVALE, Maine – For years, beaver dams have caused flooding after high watershed events along the Rail Trail abutting the wetlands of Deering Pond, but the installation of a new device on site is expected to help resolve the issue for decades to come.

Skip Lyle, the founder and owner of Beaver Deceiver International, traveled to the community on July 30 and worked with Kevin McKeon and Steve Mallon, both of the Sanford-Springvale Trails Committee, to install one of Lyle’s custom-designed flow-control devices at Deering Pond’s culverts within the Hall Environmental Reserve. Lyle, of Grafton, Vermont, is a conservationist, builder, biologist, inventor and entrepreneur.

“My goal is to protect any threatened property while at the same time maximizing ecological and hydrological value,” Lyle said.

No word yet on why a reporter who looked up Skip’s website still failed to get the correct spelling of his name. It’s L-i-s-l-e. We learned to spell in Martinez. Why couldn’t you in Maine?

“If they hear it, if they see it, if they feel it, they will try to stop it,” he said. “They can’t help themselves. It’s a natural thing that they do.”

Lyle said his devices are effective anywhere between 30 and 40 years and are a more practical, long-term and humane alternative to trapping and killing beavers. Trapping in the area also is risky for the trappers themselves, McKeon noted.

“This is a peat bog,” he said. “Unless you know the area pretty well, you could be walking along the shore of Deering Pond and all of a sudden you could find yourself chest-deep in muck. It’s a pretty dangerous area for trappers to be trapping.”

The entire installation of the Beaver Deceiver cost about $2,900, according to Trails Committee Chair Lee Burnett. The committee will cover the expenses, with hopes of being reimbursed through the state’s Municipal ATV Grant program, Burnett said.

Mousam Way Land Trust funded a video production of the installation as part of the organization’s goal of increasing the awareness of how people exist within their environment, McKeon said. WSSRTV, the broadcast station out of Sanford High School and Regional Technical Center, produced the video and is currently editing it for availability soon.

Good for Maine and hurray for Skip! I went searching for the video of this installation but it hasn’t been released yet, but while I was hunting I found this video of Skip’s presentation at BeaverCon in Maryland this year was just uploaded. I didn’t know this happened. How smart. What a fantastic look at the history and evolution of the beaver Deceiver. Don’t miss it.

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SKIP TO SOUTH BURLINGTON

heidi08 Beavers May 15, 2020

It’s a good day for beavers, and Lord knows there are few enough of these that we should take the occasion to celebrate when it comes. We were notified by the fish and wildlife commission that we received our grant for the mystery at the beaver pond, with an additional year to use it by so we can roll it to next festival, knock wood.

Some 60 NGO’s in England wrote a unanimous position letter to the powers that be demanding that the beaver campaign be sped up because beavers were so awesome for the country (which they are), friend Derek Gow’s book is for advance copy sale on Amazon and Skip Lisle was on the news for doing what he does in Vermont again and saved some beavers in Burlington.

BEAVER ADVICE FALLS ON THE OPPOSITE OF DEAF EARS

heidi08 Beaver Book, Flow Device Installed January 5, 2020

Good morning! I’m late today because we were kind of busy yesterday. Cookies made. House completely rearranged. Shouting occurred. Let’s just say the chocolate wasn’t the only thing that was “tempered”. ba-dum-dum. But now its beautiful and we have the whole morning together. Let’s share and tell our way to victory, shall we?

This one from Portland, Maine.

Letter to the editor: Trapping not the only way to manage beavers

I’m writing in response to the Dec. 27 letter about wildlife populations and self-regulation, specifically beavers. The letter caught my attention because I’ve been reading “Eager: The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter” by Ben Goldfarb.

Hey we know him! What did you learn when you read our friends manifesto?

The book also discusses the idea of cultural carrying capacity, which is the number of animals that humans can tolerate. The level of tolerance comes from how much conflict arises between people and the animal, in this case beavers.

No one wants their property flooded or water contaminated, but is trapping the only answer?

I’m sure hoping you say it isn’t.

According to Skip Lisle, the answer is no. Lisle has a master’s degree in Wildlife Management from the University of Maine, and he worked with the Penobscot Nation to find ways of peaceful co-existence with beavers.

Lisle discovered, as have many others, that killing beavers is not an effective long-term solution. It’s better to find non-lethal ways of ending conflicts with beavers, which led to his company Beaver Deceivers LLC (https://beaverdeceivers.com). He provides flow devices and has invented other tools to prevent beavers from damaging private and public property.

This is a helpful reminder that instead of trying to get rid of animals, we should be looking for ways to live peacefully with them.

Erica Bartlett

Wonderful Erica! Well said and well read, as the saying goes. Now we ourselves in Martinez hired Mr. Lisle to put in one of them there contraptions and it solved our issue for 10 years. That was ten years we didn’t have to pay trappers or think about flooding in our creek. Ten years of more wildlife and better fish in our creek. Ten years of no new beavers moving into our creek.

Hey, that sounds almost like a solution!

LET’S TALK ABOUT “BEAVER MAGNETS”

heidi08 Attitudes towards beavers, Beavers and Culvert Protection, Dispersal October 11, 2019

October is the month I said I’d work on my booklet about urban beavers for BeaverCon 2020. Some pages are going better than others. But I finished Skip Lisle’s piece on culverts yesterday and am very happy with how it looks. He very kindly wrote something up and said it was okay to share on the website too. If the print is too small to read in this image double click on it and it should popup as an insert.

I especially like the idea of culverts being the most ideal damming site EVER made. It certainly explains their popularity. And don ‘t you just love the phrase “Beaver Magnets”? I had to try my hand at making a graphic for that. Skip has a talent for naming things, I’ll say that much.

I’ve been working the back cover too, using images from friends we met over the years. What do you think? I want it to seem like they’re getting beavers whether they like it or not and encourage them to start thinking of long-term solutions.

I have a few other states I want to add to the mix but I think that gets things started. I’ve also been working on the community education and response pages, maybe ultimately as a centerfold with Amy chalking beavers as the background. These took a while to make but I’m quite fond of them.
Today I’m working on something Mike Callahan wrote about using levelers to control pond height. I was thinking I’d like an urbanish friend to write something about protecting trees. know Sierra Wildlife Coalition has done a lit but I’d love to show off beaver-mindedness in another state. Maybe Jakob Shockey or one of the groups he’s worked with? Any ideas spring to mind?

RESPECTFUL SPITE FOR BEAVERS

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Flow Device Installed September 3, 2019

Because the beaver isn't just an animal; it's an ecosystem!

Tag: Skip Lisle