MAKING SPACE FOR WATER

heidi08 Beavers May 13, 2024

This was a nice new creation by the Beaver Trust in the UK. They are doing a bang up job of promoting our little flat tails. Enjoy.

STILL LAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

heidi08 Beavers May 11, 2024

I’m so old I remember the first time I posted about the beaver problems in Milford. And the last. Funny how they don’t seem to be getting any smarter or more accurate.

Milford’s Complicated Beaver Dam Removal Plan Moves Ahead

MILFORD, MA — A group of large and industrious semiaquatic rodents have touched off a complicated legal and environmental project in Milford.

A group of beavers recently constructed a large dam across a culvert that passes under Alder Street in Medway just west of I-495. The dam caused Stall Brook to overflow, flooding Maple Street in Milford, which is about a 1/2-mile from the dam as the crow flies.

Milford Town Engineer Elizabeth Mainini went to the Select Board Monday seeking permission to approach the Medway Conservation Commission about removing the dam. Medway is requiring Milford to take responsibility for any damage to either Alder Street or the culvert while performing the work. Milford previously received an emergency beaver/muskrat removal permit from its neighbor to the east.

Yes those darn beavers making homes for themselves in your culverts. Boy I bet if you installed protection for your culverts in 2011 when I first reported about this you’d be fine and safe now. Too bad.

Although small — typically about 3 feet long, and can weight up to 65 pounds — compared to the size of municipal government, beavers routinely cause headaches in communities across the state. In 2021, a beaver dam broke near Warren, flooding the entire downtown.

Yes beavers are smaller than city planners. Good point. They are also distinguished from engineers by their work ethic.

They have one.

Massachusetts has strict beaver laws (yes, that’s what they’re called) that spell out how and when beavers can be captured, and where they can be moved to. Local boards of health are the only entities authorized to issue emergency removal permits outside the annual trapping season between November and April

Trapping and removal is often the best solution for a beaver problem, according to state wildlife experts. Destroying a dam can trigger beavers to simply rebuild, and they can do it in a few hours.

Um. You do understand that when they say REMOVAL they mean killing right? Beaver relocation is illegal in Massachusetts.

Those beavers were “removed” in exactly the same way as Cricket went to live on a farm

According to Mainini, the town has already captured and removed the beavers, leaving their empty dam in place. The structure, which is about as high as the roadway, can still cause flooding in its vacant state, she said.

She sounds so knowledgeable doesn’t the? Even without beavers living IN the dam it can still cause flooding. I bet your concerns are as valid as your information about where beavers live. No wonder you got permission to kill some already.

The town will also have to hire an environmental consultant to oversee the dam deconstruction. If removed too fast, pooled water behind the dam could cause more flooding, Mainini said.

“If you remove too much too quickly, that can absolutely cause a great deal of damage,” she told the select board.

Here’s the thing. Are we really talking about a culvert here? I have never read about blockage removal in a culvert causing a washout. But I suppose in theory its possible. I think you are just making things up and the reporter is copying them down because why confuse the issue with ACTUAL INFORMATION.

LOVE YOUR TERRA MATER

heidi08 Beavers May 10, 2024

Wow this new film from Terra Mater is almost perfect. I was pleased to see our famous photo featured but stunned to hear my own language clarifying that beavers don’t live in the dam, the dam is where they WORK.

I’m sure I’m not the only human to come up with that particular phrase but you would be startled to learn how RARE it is to hear.

I can’t find single thing to disagree with except for the sentence at the end that says now we know better and reintroduce beavers by horseback. Actually horses are notoriously spooked by beavers. That’s why the parachutes were used in the first place.

Enjoy:

A YEAR AT A BEAVER POND

heidi08 Beavers May 9, 2024

A Year at a Beaver Pond Observations from One Little Dynamic Ecosystem

If you, like me, spent any time at all (or rather a lot of time over a decade) agog staring at the magical transformations of a beaver pond this is the book for you.

Al Cornell is a retired Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Technician who spent said year photographing behind a blind at the beaver pond near his home and documenting the many species that relied on its waters. A stunning look at the trickle-down economy that a beaver sustains.

Here he is describing the book in a talk at the local Kickapoo Valley Nature Reserve, The incredible photographs will dazzle you, the intelligent writing will susstain you and the smart questions from the audience at the end will soothe your soul.