Apparently this was such an unexpected calamity in Woodinville that there are no fewer than 20 articles on the subject this morning. Traffic stopped because of an actual beaver blocking an actual culvert! That never (always) happens! I suppose this beaver built his dam far inside the culvert, where it was harder to remove. (Pretty smart actually. More privacy AND protection). Valiant Washington Transportation Crews worked all day using grappling hooks and security lines. Reporters stood by faithfully reporting on their every progress. “He’s inside the pipe. We have first contact”.
Honesstly, you would think they were free climbing El Capitan’s Dawn Wall.
At least its not as bad as Hamilton, Ontario where, out of the blue, unexpected beavers are suddenly taking established trees for no reason at all!
MAHONEY: A trail of beaver dam-age
The beaver finds many trees at hand. Along the Waterfront Trail, for instance. So now we have a problem; not so horribly divisive as, say, the one-way/two-way street debate over which Hamilton families have torn themselves asunder, but it’s a puzzler. We’re losing arbour by the harbour-ful.
“He’s incredible,” says John Smith, half admiringly, half resentfully, pointing out a bare patch in the beautiful screen of trees between trail path and water.
“Look at the gap he’s cleared away.”
I count 12 stumps in a four-metre stretch, but everywhere along the trail one finds ample evidence of the beaver’s xylophagic efficiency (sit back down; it means “wood-eating”).
Beavers chewing trees in winter? Say it isn’t so! I mean you cover the beaver beat for a few years, and you think you’ve hardened to the horror of it all. You think nothing can penetrate that thick skin you’ve developed after all the damage and brutalization. But then something like this happens and just throws everything into chaos.
First the culvert, and now this!
There must be some way to solve this problem. Some clue to a solution. But where? The article kindly mentions that walkers like the beavers so killing them isn’t an option. But what else can they do? If there was only some indication of a solution that they could go on, just some hint or shred of evidence of what might possibly work,
Too bad the article was only published with this ole’ photo.
