Off Topic, but another little-heard of environmental FUBAR -- "The picture changed dramatically . . . ".
http://www.gazettenet.com/05012000/business/24778.htm
Business booming in beavers
Monday, May 1, 2000 -- (HADLEY AP) - Ruth Callahan is one of a growing number of people who have found a new business in beavers - 300 years after the luxurious fur of beavers drew European settlers to Massachusetts.
Now the money's not in the beaver pelts but in combating the flooding and other problems the dam-building, tree-felling animals cause as they compete with humans for the lowlands.
``The beavers are busy, and we are too,'' Callahan said.
She has parlayed her weekend volunteer work with a wetlands protection group installing fencing and piping to foil the web-footed engineers into a full-time business, and is expanding into trapping and killing the critters.
Her customers include more than two dozen town highway departments and three railroads.
``We always liked beavers, and we saw this acrimonious debate and these poor people with their cellars flooded, and we thought there should be something in between,'' she said.
Although a Massachusetts beaver pelt can bring $25 and up, the fur trapping business has all but disappeared in the state that was known for breeding beavers with thick, high-quality pelts.
``The climate is ideal for beaver,'' said Susan Langlois, a biologist specializing in fur bearers for the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
The picture changed dramatically after voters approved a referendum in 1996 limiting fur trappers to cage-type traps that don't kill the animal outright or snag it by a leg.
State biologists estimate Massachusetts has more than 60,000 beaver, more than double the 24,000 before the referendum, and as they continue to expand their territory, the number of complaints from homeowners and municipalities has skyrocketed.
This winter about 280 beaver - most of which had been causing problems in municipal water supplies and roads - were taken during the November-February trapping season.
The number was more than double any year since the referendum, but only a fraction of the 2,083 during the 1994-95 season.
``I got 18 this year, up from 15 last year,'' said Patrick Mustoe, the town of Burlington's water superintendent, who got his license and began trapping himself to protect the town's wells.
``We couldn't get anyone to come in and do it,'' he said. ``And, you have to be concerned about disease with drinking water.''
Pipes and fencing can ease the job of road crews, who in some towns were mucking out culverts daily as beavers blocked them, Callahan said. But the pipes and fences don't work in all situations, and sometimes the beavers have to be trapped and killed.
``People are beginning to think more about beaver control as a business,'' said Langlois.
Before a landowner can install a pipe or otherwise interfere with a beaver dam, they need a permit from state wildlife officials that the beavers are causing property damage and permission from local wetlands conservation officials. Beaver can be taken out of season only by specially licensed problem animal control workers.
Still, she said, the demand for people in the beaver business is greater than the supply as a fast-expanding beaver population has come to closer and closer contact with man. And the costs reflect that.
Piping and fencing costs from $100 to $800 and more and pipes don't eliminate beaver ponds, just keep them from rising. State licensed problem animal control agents charge anywhere from $100 to $500 a night to set traps and an additional $50 to $100 for each beaver caught.
``The estimate we got was $1,500 a beaver, and we have at least 10,'' said Deidre Donohoe, whose Andover home is surrounded on three sides by a beaver pond.
``We can see the beavers swimming in what used to be our back yard,'' she said. ``Four years ago we had a home in the woods.''
In Methuen, Joe Giarrusso, the city's conservation agent, said he spends about a third of his time and $13,000 a year installing and maintaining beaver piping and trapping the animals on public and private property as part of his city job.
This winter he caught and killed more than two dozen in the city that is one of the first to turn to government trapping.
And there are no quick or permanent solutions. More beavers move in when beavers are trapped and piping needs maintenance.
Even if state laws relaxing restrictions on the kinds of traps that can be used were to be approved - the House and Senate have approved competing bills, which face an uncertain future in a compromise committee - biologists estimate it would take years of sharply increased trapping to slow the population growth of the animals.
``They are thriving,'' Langlois said.
Every day, one of Donohoe's neighbors, unclogs a drainage pipe installed in the dam by her home to try to keep the water level in the pond from rising.
``Three years ago I would have been crying,'' Donohoe said. Now she's beyond crying. ``Now it's too late for us. Our trees have been standing in water so long they are all dead and our property values are gone.''
© 1999 Daily Hampshire Gazette
http://www.gazettenet.com/05012000/business/24778.htm
Business booming in beavers
Monday, May 1, 2000 -- (HADLEY AP) - Ruth Callahan is one of a growing number of people who have found a new business in beavers - 300 years after the luxurious fur of beavers drew European settlers to Massachusetts.
Now the money's not in the beaver pelts but in combating the flooding and other problems the dam-building, tree-felling animals cause as they compete with humans for the lowlands.
``The beavers are busy, and we are too,'' Callahan said.
She has parlayed her weekend volunteer work with a wetlands protection group installing fencing and piping to foil the web-footed engineers into a full-time business, and is expanding into trapping and killing the critters.
Her customers include more than two dozen town highway departments and three railroads.
``We always liked beavers, and we saw this acrimonious debate and these poor people with their cellars flooded, and we thought there should be something in between,'' she said.
Although a Massachusetts beaver pelt can bring $25 and up, the fur trapping business has all but disappeared in the state that was known for breeding beavers with thick, high-quality pelts.
``The climate is ideal for beaver,'' said Susan Langlois, a biologist specializing in fur bearers for the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
The picture changed dramatically after voters approved a referendum in 1996 limiting fur trappers to cage-type traps that don't kill the animal outright or snag it by a leg.
State biologists estimate Massachusetts has more than 60,000 beaver, more than double the 24,000 before the referendum, and as they continue to expand their territory, the number of complaints from homeowners and municipalities has skyrocketed.
This winter about 280 beaver - most of which had been causing problems in municipal water supplies and roads - were taken during the November-February trapping season.
The number was more than double any year since the referendum, but only a fraction of the 2,083 during the 1994-95 season.
``I got 18 this year, up from 15 last year,'' said Patrick Mustoe, the town of Burlington's water superintendent, who got his license and began trapping himself to protect the town's wells.
``We couldn't get anyone to come in and do it,'' he said. ``And, you have to be concerned about disease with drinking water.''
Pipes and fencing can ease the job of road crews, who in some towns were mucking out culverts daily as beavers blocked them, Callahan said. But the pipes and fences don't work in all situations, and sometimes the beavers have to be trapped and killed.
``People are beginning to think more about beaver control as a business,'' said Langlois.
Before a landowner can install a pipe or otherwise interfere with a beaver dam, they need a permit from state wildlife officials that the beavers are causing property damage and permission from local wetlands conservation officials. Beaver can be taken out of season only by specially licensed problem animal control workers.
Still, she said, the demand for people in the beaver business is greater than the supply as a fast-expanding beaver population has come to closer and closer contact with man. And the costs reflect that.
Piping and fencing costs from $100 to $800 and more and pipes don't eliminate beaver ponds, just keep them from rising. State licensed problem animal control agents charge anywhere from $100 to $500 a night to set traps and an additional $50 to $100 for each beaver caught.
``The estimate we got was $1,500 a beaver, and we have at least 10,'' said Deidre Donohoe, whose Andover home is surrounded on three sides by a beaver pond.
``We can see the beavers swimming in what used to be our back yard,'' she said. ``Four years ago we had a home in the woods.''
In Methuen, Joe Giarrusso, the city's conservation agent, said he spends about a third of his time and $13,000 a year installing and maintaining beaver piping and trapping the animals on public and private property as part of his city job.
This winter he caught and killed more than two dozen in the city that is one of the first to turn to government trapping.
And there are no quick or permanent solutions. More beavers move in when beavers are trapped and piping needs maintenance.
Even if state laws relaxing restrictions on the kinds of traps that can be used were to be approved - the House and Senate have approved competing bills, which face an uncertain future in a compromise committee - biologists estimate it would take years of sharply increased trapping to slow the population growth of the animals.
``They are thriving,'' Langlois said.
Every day, one of Donohoe's neighbors, unclogs a drainage pipe installed in the dam by her home to try to keep the water level in the pond from rising.
``Three years ago I would have been crying,'' Donohoe said. Now she's beyond crying. ``Now it's too late for us. Our trees have been standing in water so long they are all dead and our property values are gone.''
© 1999 Daily Hampshire Gazette
