Beavers and Tree Felling...

[maico490]

You Aussie guys obviously haven't been following the press in your own back yard recently. A quick bit of research showed up that beavers were a native species of Australia until quite recently in geological terms. A paper published in Nature by Prof K. Wilson and his research assistant Dr. N. Nonernumberson* details that they unearthed the fossilized remains of a close relative of caster canadensis in the foothills of the Stee Hill Mountains in Worranorabunga County NSW. They concluded however that it was an evolutionary dead end due to an overly easy life leaving them with an inability to keep their teeth sharp. This led to an excessive production of dust rather than the large chips produced by their North American cousins. A steady ingestion of said dust overwhelmed their respiratory systems and eventually wiped them out.
Over here in the UK beavers have recently been reintroduced to Scotland. As to their tree felling technique it is difficult to comment due to the well known fact that there are no trees over here bigger than a shovel stick. Therefore a few cursory nibbles and they are bound to fall over. One of the side effects of Global Warming has been that they carry virtually no coat at all throughout the whole year.
As to their eating qualities the old hands describe these bald examples as "hardly like eating beaver at all"

* P.S Nigel apparently has a boat for sale

 

[MCW]

As to their eating qualities the old hands describe these bald examples as "hardly like eating beaver at all"

* P.S Nigel apparently has a boat for sale

Hmmm. Now I'm confused. I'm not sure whether to ask for a photo of the boat or the beaver you outlined

 

[AUSSIE1]

Glad you clarified that. I was just asking Al because I'm heading to Tasmania next week and thought you may have wanted me to say hello to some of your family

Sorry mate, no ties with Tassie, apart what used to be a map.

But you make repeated visits to the southern state there Matt!

 

[CGC4200]

Beavers in the mid-south

The river bottom farmers & ranchers in this area hate them.
I have heard of dynamite on dams, shooting & trapping to thin them out.

Beaver eating has a different meaning in my area, much like you Aussies
using mate for friends and Americans mate with them.
We call gals girlfriends, not Sheilas, wives may be be a bar & chain
depending on how you get along.

 

[AUSSIE1]

Beaver eating has a different meaning in my area, much like you Aussies using mate for friends and Americans mate with them.
We call gals girlfriends, not Sheilas, wives may be be a bar & chain
depending on how you get along.

You mate with your mates?.............Hmmmm!

"Sheila's" is considered inappropriate, so it's "girlfriend/missus", or for the restrictive type it's "handbrake"

 

[BryanEx]

I gather they are protected or do you need permits to get rid of them if they become a pest?

Not only do you need a permit to tap beavers in most locals but the beavers themselves need permits these days.



The Dam



This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries regarding a
pond on his property. It was sent by the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Quality, State of Pennsylvania . This guy's response is hilarious,
but read The State's letter before you get to the response letter.



State of Pennsylvania 's letter to Mr. DeVries:



SUBJECT: DEQ
File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr. DeVries:

It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality
that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced
parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or
contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:

Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet
stream of Spring Pond.

A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity.. A
review of the Department's files shows that no permits have been issued
Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of
Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and
Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections
324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.

The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially
failed during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream
locations.. We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and
cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and
desist all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a
free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the
stream channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January
31, 2010.

Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that
a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff. Failure to
comply with this request or any further unauthorized activity on the site may
result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action..

We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter.
Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions.


Sincerely,
David L. Price
District Representative and Water Management Division.





Here is the actual response sent back by Mr. DeVries:


Re: DEQ File
No.. 97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County

Dear Mr..Price,

Your certified letter dated 11/17/09 has been handed to me. I am the
legal landowner but not the Contractor at 2088 Dagget Lane , Trout Run,
Pennsylvania .

A couple of beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of
constructing and maintaining two wood 'debris' dams across the outlet stream of my
Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, authorize, nor supervise their dam
project, I think they would be highly offended that you call their skillful
use of natures building materials 'debris.'

I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam
project any time and/or any place you choose. I believe I can safely state
there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam
resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam
determination and/or their dam work ethic.

These are the beavers/contractors you are seeking. As to your request, I
do not think the beavers are aware that they must first fill out a dam
permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity.

My first dam question to you is:
(1) Are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers, or
(2) do you require all beavers throughout this State to conform to said
dam request?

If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, through
the Freedom of Information Act, I request completed copies of all those
other applicable beaver dam permits that have been issued. (Perhaps we will
see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and
Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the
Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the
Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.)

I have several dam concerns.. My first dam concern is, aren't the
beavers entitled to legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially
destitute and are unable to pay for said representation -- so the State
will have to provide them with a dam lawyer.

The Department's dam concern that either one or both of the dams failed
during a recent rain event, causing flooding, is proof that this is a
natural occurrence, which the Department is required to protect. In other words,
we should leave the Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than harassing them
and calling them dam names.

If you want the dammed stream 'restored' to a dam free-flow condition
please contact the beavers -- but if you are going to arrest them, they
obviously did not pay any attention to your dam letter, they being unable to
read English.

In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their
unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and water
flows downstream. They have more dam rights than I do to live and enjoy
Spring Pond. If the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental
Protection lives up to its name, it should protect the natural resources
(Beavers) and the environment (Beavers' Dams).

So, as far as the beavers and I are concerned, this dam case can be
referred for more elevated enforcement action right now. Why wait until
1/31/2010? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice by then and there will
be no way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them.

In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention to a real
environmental quality, health, problem in the area It is the bears! Bears are
actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be
persecuting the defecating bears and leave the dam beavers alone. If you are
going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your dam step! The bears are not
careful where they dump!

Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact
you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam
office.

THANK YOU,


RYAN DEVRIES & THE DAM BEAVERS

 

[CGC4200]

good to hear from "mates" around the world

We ran the British out once in the late 1700's and again in the early 1800's,
now we are fast friends, same for the Aussies and Canadians, our slang
and subtle meanings may differ, but we understand for the most part.

 

[Anthony_Va.]

Mostly the shaved varietly around here too.

 

[Anthony_Va.]

 

[whitedogone]

Some Beavers make good fellers


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[Anthony_Va.]

 

[whitedogone]

Geeeezzzz Anthonyva

You better have a Molson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09YOkVmGg0&feature=player_embedded

 

[Anthony_Va.]

Seriously though. Beavers cause alot of problems around here too. They dammed up our hayfield this year. Theres a swamp to one side and a creek runs under the gravel road thru the field. They dammed it up at the pipe and it flooded the filed.
I took a skidsteer with the backhoe attaxchment and thumb and commenced to tearing it apart. I tore almost every shred out of there. They have those things packed in there so tight it's hard to pull a twig loose.

Took about three hours to move the approximately 10ft by 5ft by 6ft deep dam.

Went back a week later and they had took the dam back from the field where I piled it up and placed it right back in the pipe again. Had to haul it off after I dug it out again. Luckily they never built it back, YET!

If they do, I'm gonna have to get nasty with the lil hoodlums. Lil dynamite cocktail for em.

 

[Anthony_Va.]

Geeeezzzz Anthonyva

You better have a Molson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09YOkVmGg0&feature=player_embedded

:hmm3grin2orange:
Thats a good one!

 

[MCW]

Sorry mate, no ties with Tassie, apart what used to be a map.

But you make repeated visits to the southern state there Matt!

I'm down there to see my best mate Al although I'm sure I could easily be contracted to introduce new DNA to the state

Also package sent today for you mate - you know what

 

[AUSSIE1]

I'm down there to see my best mate Al although I'm sure I could easily be contracted to introduce new DNA to the state

Also package sent today for you mate - you know what

 

[CGC4200]

slapping wide tails on the water

That is their alarm sound, trappers thinned them out in the 1800's for
beaver hats until they went out of style, one of the ways the West was won,
same for killing almost all American Bison to deny American natives from food.
Folks in my grandparents time worked on the whitetail deer, killed & eat them
in the Depression, seeing a track was rare in the 1970's, now we have to
dodge them on the roads. Now we have bison in LBL, deer pick blooms
off our tomato plants, harvest turkeys once again & have elk in parts of the
state.

 

[Anthony_Va.]

That is their alarm sound, trappers thinned them out in the 1800's for
beaver hats until they went out of style, one of the ways the West was won,
same for killing almost all American Bison to deny American natives from food.
Folks in my grandparents time worked on the whitetail deer, killed & eat them
in the Depression, seeing a track was rare in the 1970's, now we have to
dodge them on the roads. Now we have bison in LBL, deer pick blooms
off our tomato plants, harvest turkeys once again & have elk in parts of the
state.

Yea, and the P.E.T.A. says we should'nt hunt! :censored:

 

[sunfish]

Beavers, can't live with em, can't live without em

Two years ago, I cut up over 20 white oaks that beavers fell, or killed, along 100 yds of our creek. They dropped trees up to 12" and killed trees up to 20". My brother said they didn't tast vey good

 

[Anthony_Va.]

Ive watched them gnawl trees before. They do in fact go around chewing in a circle till it falls. Don't seem to know where it's gonna go, just want to get it down.