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

You knew it would happen. One day, someday a state fish and wildlife agency would pay to install a flow device. It was inevitable. But what state? When?

The question challenges regular readers of this website to pub their thinking caps on. Jon did a good job guessing first Utah (NO) and then Washington (Also No). But think about it. If you’re a state agency and you’re agreeing to do something a beaver advocate has been riding you for YEARS to do, you have to find a subtle way to agree with them and piss them off at the same time.

It’s got to tell them you thought of it ALL by yourself – without their help.

Like if the city of Martinez said they were going to save the beavers better and differently before Heidi Perryman and all those meddling people got involved. They had it all worked out.

If you agree with my petulant premise them the answer is obvious. The State where the inventor of the Beaver deceiver has lived all his life. It can only be Vermont.

State installing water control devices on beaver dams

MONTPELIER — To prevent flooding on nearby roads and private property, Vermont Fish & Wildlife staff have installed 11 water control devices on beaver dams this year throughout Vermont.

Known as “beaver baffles,” these devices allow some water to pass through the dam without breaching it and destroying the wetland.

Fish & Wildlife staff expect to continue to install additional beaver baffles throughout the state this year. The baffles are one of many techniques employed or recommended to landowners to minimize beaver damage to property or trees. Other techniques include using fences to protect culverts, or placing wire mesh or special paint around the base of trees to prevent gnawing.

“The wetlands that beavers create provide critical habitat for a variety of wildlife such as waterfowl, songbirds, frogs, turtles, otters, and moose. These areas can also absorb extra water during rain events and clean pollutants from water, so we work hard to preserve these wetlands,” said Kim Royar, wildlife biologist with Vermont Fish & Wildlife.

Oh that’s right. We’re using Skip Lisle’s knowledge and experience, and even his techniques, but we’re calling it our OWN name. We’re BAFFLING those beavers = not deceiving them.

Never mind that the term beaver baffle is already used for a flow device in Canada with a completely different design. Never mind that beaver deceiver is a PERFECTLY good name and you have a local man who invented for pete’s sake. JUST NEVER MIND.

With funds granted from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and generated by waterfowl hunters through the Duck Stamp Program, the Fish & Wildlife Department has installed more than 300 beaver baffles in Vermont protecting over 3,000 acres of wetland habitat since the program started in 2000.

“We receive roughly 200 beaver complaints a year,” said Royar. “Several staff members respond to these complaints, and one technician is dedicated solely to addressing beaver conflicts from spring through fall. Despite these efforts, other management techniques must be used. We also rely on regulated, in-season trapping to maintain a stable beaver population so Vermonters continue to view beavers as a valued member of the local ecosystem and not as a nuisance.”

Landowners with beaver problems can contact the Fish & Wildlife Department for assistance at www.vtfishandwildlife.com. They can also contact private contractor Skip Lisle at www.beaverdeceivers.com.

Money from duck stamps to pay for beavers! What? That makes sense. Are you sure its what you meant to do because it is absolutely logical. And state agencies controlling wildlife are so rarely that?

What I love the utmost MOST about this article is that even though fish and wildlife is pointedly ignoring Skip, and the project itself ignores Skip, the reporter doesn’t. His or her very last line mentions his name refers you to his website. There is no byline on the article. So whoever you want to angrily call and complain it can’t be done. But it ends as it should with Skip’s information. So fucking there.

Well god bless the stubborn little green mountain state for doing this. And god bless stubborn little Skip Lisle for making it unavoidable, It had to happen and it’s only fitting that it SHOULD BE VERMONT. We should all have some maple syrup, cheddar cheese and Ben and Jerry’s today to celebrate.

Oh and if one day California wants to piss me off by installing flow devices and calling them Worth A Darns they can be my guest!

Finally Robin of Napa forwarded this amazingly urban beaver tweet from Hinge park in Vancouver. I can’t embed it but follow the link. I swear its worth your while.

A break from our regularly scheduled programming this morning to bring you this Canadian beaver stopping to smell the…bushes ??❤️
Hinge Park, Vancouver pic.twitter.com/wU8BHPj4OD

— Kelly Canuck? (@KellyCanuckTO) October 21, 2018