Wild and Scenic Film Festival

How many surprisingly-heavy dead beavers does the media have to report on before we cease being surprised?

APALACHIN, N.Y., Dec. 27 (UPI) — A New York man says he got a surprise when he retrieved his animal trap from the Susquehanna River to find a record catch — a 70-pound beaver. Bryan Lockman of Apalachin said the monster beaver was in one of several traps he set last week.

“This was only the second day I’d ever gone trapping,” Lockman, 18, told the (Binghamton, N.Y.) Press Bulletin. “When I saw how big it was, wow, it was unbelievable.”

My goodness, such success on only your second day of killing! You must be very proud. Enjoy the champagne. In the meantime I would like to have a conversation with the Department of Natural Resources out your way.

The average adult beaver weighs 35 to 60 pounds, with most coming in at around 40 to 45 pounds, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said.

I’m just curious, but how exactly do you determine the average weight of an adult beaver? I mean, how would you know they were an adult in the first place? You obviously weren’t there when they were born. You probably aren’t testing their reproductive organs. Why wouldn’t you call a 35 lb beaver a yearling or a sub-adult?

Apparently people are very surprised that big animals are big. Who knew?

Oh, and guess whose parents are driving him to Martinez on his way to the Wild and Scenic Film festival where he will be the youngest filmmaker entered? He just had to see the home of the Martinez Beavers! Here’s his recent beta test for ipad and just in case you think this is easy a behind the scenes look at how he made it!

It’s that Christmas time of year again when children press their noses to the glass looking for reindeer, mailmen carry a heavier load and people blame beaver dams for washing out and causing flooding for no reason whatsoever.

Take this story from Mousam lake in Maine where winter drivers found a low spot in the road impassable.

On Friday, Dec. 2, motorists traveling a short distance from Route 109 on Route 11 faced a dangerous situation when water cascaded down the hill toward Mousam Lake. Striking a low point in the road, the water quickly made the road impassable with water topping the guard rails on either side as flooding occurred. Washouts along the shoulders of the road did nothing to slow down the deluge of water and debris headed for the lake.

Horrors! A washout! What happened? Tell us the culprit of this dastardly deed!

The flood was caused by a beaver dam being breached on property abutting Simon Ricker Road, draining much of the swamp which covers many acres on either side of that road.

The damn dam! I guess it has been a rather mild winter. 38 in Maine this morning. Martinez certainly knows a beaver dam could break if there’s too much water action. Check out the very next sentence.

The action was allegedly the result of some earth-moving equipment being used without a permit having been issued by the Town of Shapleigh.

As in – some genius with a back hoe ripped out the dam and sent the pond it maintained spilling down the hill and into the road below. Merry Christmas to you, too! Maybe he wanted to kill the beavers and thought they lived in the dam. Or maybe he wanted to ruin the dam himself so that the winter storms wouldn’t be a risk. Of course the beavers winter food was stored under that pond and now they’ll have nothing to eat when it freezes.

So the flooded road wasn’t really “caused by” a beaver dam washout at all. It was caused by this guy.→

Why isn’t THAT the headline?

Well, maybe you need something cheerful to look at, a feel-good story after all that beaver blame. Check out this live action video from Ian Timothy which he used for creating his Beaver Creek Footage. I think he prepared this for the film festival he is headed for in January. Seems Beaver Creek episode 4 was accepted to the Wild and Scenic Film Festival. It will be featured Saturday January 14, and the entire lineup looks amazing so you should check it out. (Tickets are cheaper for the whole event if you buy them before the end of the year.) He and his family plan to fly into SF for the event and drive to Tahoe after stopping by in Martinez to meet our very own beavers! I will be busy most of that weekend doing something I’ll talk about soon, but you can bet our Tahoe beaver friends will be there to give this beaver hero the welcome he deserves!