By Chad Love

Here's a story from the poetic justice files (a hat tip to the guys at Pale Morning Media for the link). It seems the folks in Massachusetts have a problem with their beavers. Now there's nothing physically wrong with their beavers. On the contrary, the state of Massachusetts is apparently beaver heaven. And therein lies the problem: there are simply too many beavers in Massachusetts

From the story:
 
“We have a huge problem,” said David Pavlik, an engineer for the town of Lexington, where dams built by beavers have sent water flooding into the town’s sanitary sewers. “We trapped them,” he said. “We breached their dam. Nothing works. We are looking for long-term solutions.”

Mary Hansen, a conservation agent from Maynard, said it starkly: “There are beavers everywhere.”

Big deal, right? Virtually every state has some form of beaver trouble. But here's where the poetic justice kicks in.

Massachusetts banned the use of steel jawed leghold traps on land in 1975, and banned the use of both steel jawed and padded leghold traps entirely in 1997. A state wildlife official says the beaver population has since increased from 20,000 to 70,000, and the number of complaints of beaver damage has grown from about 400 to about 1,000. Massachusetts last year amended its ban on leghold traps to allow certain types of trapping, including the use of conibear "body-gripping" traps, when the public health and safety are threatened.

That data is from 2001, so obviously the problem has gotten much worse since then. Now you could certainly argue the fact that reinstating a trapping season wouldn't have a major impact on Massachusetts' beaver population, and you'd probably be right. You could argue that people who occupy the same space as native wildlife need to find ways to co-exist with said wildlife and you'd certainly be right. I live in a semi-rural area full of wildlife that at times can - quite frankly - be a real pain in the a** but they were here first and as such I don't think I have the right to kill every "nuisance" animal just so I can have trophy roses.

But you can't have your cake and eat it, too. The idea that you can simultaneously ban trapping while making the wilds of Massachusetts safe and convenient for transplanted urbanites isn't a management plan, it's ballot-box schizophrenia. Why is it so hard for so many people to grasp the simple concept that if you eliminate the predators which historically preyed on an animal, then ban the only human check on that animal's population (in this case trapping) then that population is inevitably going to increase to unsustainable levels? That's a fact, and no amount of wishful thinking or Kum-Bay-Yah New Age sensitivity is going to change that.

But we see this same thing happen again and again all over the country. A society raised on a steady diet of "Charlie the Lonesome Cougar" can't accept the un-romanticized reality of nature, so it invents an alternate reality where all the animals would be fine and self-governing if we just stopped persecuting them.

So I say let them have their reality. Keep the trapping ban in place. Let those beavers do what beavers do best: breed and make dams and lodges out of all those expensive backyard shade trees. And when there's a beaver in every back yard then maybe the citizens of Massachusetts can convene an inter-species dialogue to address the issue, maybe organize a beaver-human roundtable discussion to give the beavers some birth-control options. Hey, it makes perfect sense to me.

Comments (11)

from 2Poppa wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

What did they think the consequences were going to be?
Another case of the left hand, not knowing what the right hand is doing.

http://www.beaversolutions.com/trapping_beavers.asp

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from jjas wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

We've all heard the saying "you reap what you sow" or "As you sow so shall you reap".

First Ted Kennedy and now a beaver infestation.

Hope you enjoy it Massachusetts!

Jim

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from labrador12 wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Beavers are like the definition of a weed: any plant growing where you don't want it. I love beavers, I almost died after getting stuck in a culvert I was cleaning that they had plugged. Beaver ponds can be a beautifull rich ecosystem. They can also be a real pain in the ass. People have to be able to manage their own property. A state wide, or country wide policy isn't going to work. It looks like Mass is going to get a chance to figure that out. NY Times had an article on beavers this week too. Isn't it amazing how many critters that used to be in such short supply are now doing so well today?

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from Bella wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

As a Massachusetts resident, I can only confirm Chad's information. The major predator of the beaver in Massachusetts has 4 wheels and an internal combustion engine. The only way to practically trap Beavers is to use the very traps they outlawed. People freak out when they see a COYOTE! I am personally happy to see the upsurge in wild predators, I have seen fox and a fisher cat ate all my ducks ( was within 30 yards of him once with my Mossberg in hand, but It was so dark I couldn't see him to shoot him and I wasn't about to bruise my girlish shoulder spraying the swamp with buckshot at 4am). Associates and neighbors report sighting bear and even a possible catamount (I'll shoot it if it tries to eat my goats and sheep). Flocks of turkeys frequently wander through peoples yards (there was a report from some frantic suburbanite of being "attacked" by one), I even encountered a loverly Whitetail doe on a side road yesterday. The game is coming back, and I do love to hunt it, but truly most of the folks here haven't a clue!

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from steve182 wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Beavers,...we love them!

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from idahooutdoors wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

I am surprised they don't borrow millions of dollars from the Federal Government to first study the problem, then spend billions of dollars more on some Educated idiot solution such as Spay and Neutering all the Beavers....

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from Hunter Savage wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

now ain't that just a kick in the groin . what goes around comes around .

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from Big O wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

As has been said "They brought this on themselves".
Just like Calf. and their Mtn. Lion problem.

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from ranger2 wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Those dam beavers! Perfectly good creatures in moderate numbers... just like those dam liberals, when there are too many of them in one area, they start to become destructive. I hope they learn their lesson!

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from ingebrigtsen wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Beaver tastes great, theire fur makes great clothing and anything from a 22-250 to a 270 with varmintbullets is good medicine for headshots.. bring a dog that will tow it back to shore or a line and hook arragement that u can drag it to shore with and u can get great dark meat and fur thats water resistant and wear resistant..
When we kill of the natural predators we have a moral responsibility to step in and do theire job, and to slowly restore the predators..
Besides its great fun and a good challenge too..
come on guys this is basic gamekeeping.. anyone can do it..
let the state give monetary rewards if needed to get interest up while the thrill of it all builds in the population..
But keep the ban on traps.. The beavers shouldnt have to suffer cos of bad management by the people that rule us..
Neither should any people or the fauna devastated by the rampage of a single species out of control..
Shoot eat and fur them and problem solved..
mmmmm dark meat with a kind of nutty flavour... JUMMY!!!
:P

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from FloridaHunter1226 wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Seems like they are eating a bit of salt now... every action you make comes with a reaction/consequence. I mean they teach this kind of stuff in 3rd grade... how are these people not getting it?

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from 2Poppa wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

What did they think the consequences were going to be?
Another case of the left hand, not knowing what the right hand is doing.

http://www.beaversolutions.com/trapping_beavers.asp

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from jjas wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

We've all heard the saying "you reap what you sow" or "As you sow so shall you reap".

First Ted Kennedy and now a beaver infestation.

Hope you enjoy it Massachusetts!

Jim

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from labrador12 wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Beavers are like the definition of a weed: any plant growing where you don't want it. I love beavers, I almost died after getting stuck in a culvert I was cleaning that they had plugged. Beaver ponds can be a beautifull rich ecosystem. They can also be a real pain in the ass. People have to be able to manage their own property. A state wide, or country wide policy isn't going to work. It looks like Mass is going to get a chance to figure that out. NY Times had an article on beavers this week too. Isn't it amazing how many critters that used to be in such short supply are now doing so well today?

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Bella wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

As a Massachusetts resident, I can only confirm Chad's information. The major predator of the beaver in Massachusetts has 4 wheels and an internal combustion engine. The only way to practically trap Beavers is to use the very traps they outlawed. People freak out when they see a COYOTE! I am personally happy to see the upsurge in wild predators, I have seen fox and a fisher cat ate all my ducks ( was within 30 yards of him once with my Mossberg in hand, but It was so dark I couldn't see him to shoot him and I wasn't about to bruise my girlish shoulder spraying the swamp with buckshot at 4am). Associates and neighbors report sighting bear and even a possible catamount (I'll shoot it if it tries to eat my goats and sheep). Flocks of turkeys frequently wander through peoples yards (there was a report from some frantic suburbanite of being "attacked" by one), I even encountered a loverly Whitetail doe on a side road yesterday. The game is coming back, and I do love to hunt it, but truly most of the folks here haven't a clue!

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from steve182 wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Beavers,...we love them!

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from idahooutdoors wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

I am surprised they don't borrow millions of dollars from the Federal Government to first study the problem, then spend billions of dollars more on some Educated idiot solution such as Spay and Neutering all the Beavers....

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Hunter Savage wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

now ain't that just a kick in the groin . what goes around comes around .

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Big O wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

As has been said "They brought this on themselves".
Just like Calf. and their Mtn. Lion problem.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from ranger2 wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Those dam beavers! Perfectly good creatures in moderate numbers... just like those dam liberals, when there are too many of them in one area, they start to become destructive. I hope they learn their lesson!

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from ingebrigtsen wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Beaver tastes great, theire fur makes great clothing and anything from a 22-250 to a 270 with varmintbullets is good medicine for headshots.. bring a dog that will tow it back to shore or a line and hook arragement that u can drag it to shore with and u can get great dark meat and fur thats water resistant and wear resistant..
When we kill of the natural predators we have a moral responsibility to step in and do theire job, and to slowly restore the predators..
Besides its great fun and a good challenge too..
come on guys this is basic gamekeeping.. anyone can do it..
let the state give monetary rewards if needed to get interest up while the thrill of it all builds in the population..
But keep the ban on traps.. The beavers shouldnt have to suffer cos of bad management by the people that rule us..
Neither should any people or the fauna devastated by the rampage of a single species out of control..
Shoot eat and fur them and problem solved..
mmmmm dark meat with a kind of nutty flavour... JUMMY!!!
:P

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from FloridaHunter1226 wrote 2 years 34 weeks ago

Seems like they are eating a bit of salt now... every action you make comes with a reaction/consequence. I mean they teach this kind of stuff in 3rd grade... how are these people not getting it?

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

Post a Comment

 

All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.