Well give it up to Williamstown Vermont, which is a whopping 90 miles from the home of Skip Lisle the inventor of the Beaver Deceiver. Not only did they show determination to look a gift horse in the mouth but they voted to refuse the horse entirely. That’s some civic planning they have going there.
Williamstown board backs housing development, balks at ‘beaver deceiver’
WILLIAMSTOWN — Fox Woods Estates got a virtual thumbs up from the Select Board Monday night. Beaver baffles? Not so much.
The latter decision involved Protect Our Wildlife Vermont’s offer to install a “beaver deceiver” designed to prevent industrious beavers from clogging three large culverts that run under Industry Street.
One of the simple structures, which typically involve a few wooden posts and some sturdy wire fencing and a stretch of plastic culvert — would cover the three side-by-side culverts on Industry Street that beavers have made an issue in the past.
Town Manager Jackie Higgins told board members representatives of Protect Our Wildlife Vermont had scouted the site and the organization was prepared to invest up to $2,500 on building the structure they contend would keep the culverts from being clogged and water flowing freely.
An added upside — particular if you’re a beaver — is there would be no need to trap the animals just because they can be a nuisance.
The Select Board wasn’t sold.
That’s right. Never mind that the Protect our Wildlife was willing to foot the bill, and never mind that they had already done the research and looked into the costs of a flow device at that particular site. never mind that they woudn’t have to fly the expert in 3000 miles and pay for him to stay at the local best western, this fine city decided it won’t allow itself to be led around by the nose and dragged into winning solutions when years of practice have proven it could fail perfectly well on its own.
Not because members objected to one of the structures being installed at no cost to the town, and not necessarily because the town would be on the hook to maintain them for the next 10 years.
The bigger concern — one expressed by Selectman Matthew Rouleau and echoed by others — involved a requirement the board sign a memorandum of understanding essentially waiving the town’s right to enlist the assistance of a trapper in the event the beavers aren’t baffled, or the baffles just don’t work.
“I don’t have any problem with them trying these baffles, I just don’t want to sign off that we can’t do anything about it if it fails,” Rouleau said.
Chairman Rodney Graham said he shared that concern.
“If we’re in a flooding situation and the baffles cause the water to back up enough so it actually floods somebody’s property, are we going to be liable for that?” he said.
So rather than pay every year for the half hour of manpower it would take to have Bob from public works clean out leaves from the fence, they decided in their infinite wisdom it was better to keep hiring trappers annually and renting that backhoe from the good folks in Brookfield.
Rouleau said he believed the answer to that question was “yes” and while he wasn’t opposed to experimenting with the ‘beaver deceiver” and was hopeful it might actually work, he wasn’t prepared to take trapping off the table.
Board members agreed to invite a representative of the nonprofit organization to its meeting next month to explore whether the memorandum of understanding could be adjusted to address their concerns about liability.
Mr. Rouleau added regally, “The beaver itself is an ugly creature, but it may kiss my ring if it likes”
My goodness these people don’t know a good thing when its handed to them on a silver platter. with a fork and several pairs of chopsticks. Well you gave it the college try, you know what they say about leading a stubborn-ass select-board horse to water. Just because you brought it right to the thing it needs most in the world, and your state is FAMOUS for the man who invented it, and you’ve researched it for years and know for a fact it would be the solution they thirst for, you can’t make them drink.
Or to use the famous quote from the Algonquin Round table:
Dorothy Parker was once asked to use the word horticulture in a sentence. “You can lead a horticulture,” she replied, “but you can’t make her think.”
Assuming that article left a bad taste in your mouth as it did mine, this is the ultimate palate ceanser This is the winning trail cam video from Betsy Potter in New York, I made me happier than any single thing in 2020. For obvious reasons. Your welcome.
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