Are you sitting down? Are there children in the room? You may want to shield your eyes from this horrific and dystopian glimpse of a future no city should have to endure. Consider yourself warned.
Ew! Ew! Ew! I bet that creek stretches for miles with low dam after low dam stepping its way through the carnage and ruining all that potential drought and future FEMA money! Thank goodness Mr.Hammonds was on hand to alert authorities to the damage. I’m sure it could have gotten much worse.
Beaver solution sought
Austin Acy and Dwight Chavis have been hired by Saddletree farmer Ronald Hammonds to bust down dams and get rid of beavers that have built as many as 32 dams along a two-mile stretch of Saddletree Swamp between Saddletree Road and Mount Olive Church Road. Chavis said that he recently got rid of 28 beavers in one day near the dams that Saddletree property owners say need to come down to prevent roadways from flooding, bridges from being destroyed, farmland from being turned into fields of mud, and trees that could be harvested from being drowned
No one can say exactly how many beavers call Saddletree Swamp home, but that the number has increased following recent heavy rains in Robeson County.
“It’s out of control,” Hammonds said. “We need some help to bring these beavers down to a manageable level. I’m not against beavers. When controlled they are good for the environment. But what is happening concerns me. I don’t want to leave behind for my grandchildren an environment that isn’t in good condition. We have to take care of our environment.”
After which, Mr. Hammonds shook his cane and angrily added, “Get off my lawn!”
This article provoke a rage in me as few can manage, it not only merrily reports on the deaths of hundreds of beavers, it has a photo of the plucky trappers shooting at one. Mr. Hammonds is such a miscreant and angry reverse-lorax, that he even makes USDA seem reasonable by comparison. And that’s saying something. But this is the part that still has my jaw dropping.
David Wallwork, who owns property near Saddletree Swamp, agrees that controlling the local beaver population is necessary to protect the beauty and integrity of the swamp.
“This is a beautiful ecological area with an abundance of wildlife,” Wallwork said. “We will not only help property values but help the ecology and environment in Robeson County by controlling this rodent.”
Saying that the presence of too many beavers is ruining the all the ecology and wildlife in the creek is like complaining that too much sand and water is ruining the beach. It’s like saying that your forest has too many trees, or you couldn’t see anything when snorkeling because they’re were too many fish blocking your view.
Must I go on? It’s the comment of someone who understands nothing whatsoever about the natural world. Nothing!
“The commissioners are concerned about beaver problems and are addressing them,” he said. “For the past 18 or 20 years they have been participants in the Beaver Management Assistance Program.” According to Benton, the commissioners are currently paying $59,000 a year to participate in the Beaver Management Assistance Program, including $4,000 to join and $55,000 for manpower and equipment to remove beavers and destroy dams.
Benton said that he has worked on 42 projects throughout Robeson County since June, removing 160 beavers and 50 dams. “There is a mess in there,” Benton said, referring to Saddletree Swamp. “The swamp is overpopulated with beavers.”
For a mere 64,000 dollars you can maintain your current level of ignorance. But if you want to get even stupider it’s going to cost you. If you pay a bounty as well, you can hand out money to more idiots who will help you deplete the streams and wildlife. Your practice in the past has been to cut off a tail as proof, but why not just take a soil sample from the dry stream, or a photo of where the fish, woodducks and the otters aren’t. That will work fine,.
What a surprise. I commented on this site yesterday to helpfully point out the daylight coming through the many gaps in their thinking, and today that comment is gone! They must have taken it down to treasure it always and keep someplace safe.
Grr.
