The good news is that we managed to link up individual talks at the summit so if you click on any speakers name you go directly to their presentation. This should help get the information out there. Already both days have been viewed more than 100 times. That’s good news, right?
Day One – Individual Session Video Links
› Michael Pollock NOAA Fisheries› Ben Goldfarb: Author “Eager”
› Rick Lanman, Historical Ecology Center
› Jeff Baldwin, Sonoma State
› Trina Cunningham, Maidu Consortium
› Karen Pope USFS
› Marjorie Caisley , CDFW
› Michael Callahan, Beaver Institute
› Kevin Swift, Swift Water Design
Day Two – Individual Session Video Links
› Emily Fairfax, Cal State Channel Islands
› Nina Hemphill, BLM
› Bob Pagliuco, NOAA Fisheries
› Bethany Johnson, Collins Pines Timber
› Joe Wheaton, Utah State University
› Susan Charnley, USFS
› Betsy Stapleton, SVWA
› Kate Lundquist
› Audrey Taub & Cooper Lienhart
Meanwhile they’re still killing plenty of beavers out there. Take this headline from Quebec.
Flood-causing beavers must be ‘eradicated,’ says mayor of Quebec town
They might be a beloved Canadian symbol, but beavers are being anything but patriotic in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, Que.
There are roughly 800 beavers and 200 dams in the small western Quebec municipality, located about 100 kilometres east of downtown Ottawa, according to Mayor Tom Arnold, who said all those dams are causing major damage.
“We’re talking about approximately 35 square kilometres of our municipality, right now, that’s under water because of the beaver,” he said. “The damages are extensive.”
Oh pulleeze. Do we even need to read this article to know what it says? I don’t think so. I’m fascinated by their numeric count of 800 beavers. How exactly did they come up with this number? I’m guessing by assuming that ever day has 4 beavers maintaining it. Of course the internet tells me that the entire area has only 127 square miles of water acreage, and since colonies need to live 2 miles apart that means the entire area can only have about 63 families living there, assuming it’s at full capacity. Which means there are about a quarter of the beavers the mayor says are there.
Which is a nice racket. Because when they calculate they need to get rid of 800 beavers and pay the trappers for that many, the fact that they’re overpaying by a factor of four probably never gets discussed.
According to the mayor, it’s also causing property values to drop, particularly if sections of land are deemed unusable due to flooding.
While the municipality already allocates an annual budget of $10,000 for both trapping and installing water level control devices, Arnold wants more flexibility from the province to manage the animals.
“It’s a problem that we have to get rid of,” he said. “The beavers have to be eradicated.”
He sounds like a nice man. Why can’t I ever meet a nice man like that?
