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Beavers are winning the water war (MA laws protect beavers, not people)
Worcester Telegram ^ | 8/10/07 | Hill

Posted on 08/10/2007 10:10:21 AM PDT by pabianice

“It’s nature. I’m sorry it’s negatively affecting you,”

STERLING, MA - A sump pump rumbled in the cellar of her Sterling home and a hose gurgled in the front yard as Mary B. Honan waited for a state Department of Conservation and Recreation official to arrive at her house earlier this week.

The feisty Irish lilt in her voice falling flat, Ms. Honan declared herself the loser of a four-year war. “The beavers have won,” she said before the deputy director arrived.

A native of Ireland, Ms. Honan fell in love with the energy of the United States in the 1970s while here on a visit, and decided to make it her home. “The coolest place in the world to be was here. So I stayed,” Ms. Honan said the other day.

Some of her life went well, and some not so much. But in April 1992, the single mother of two graduated from Fitchburg State College and bought a house.

“It was my pride and joy,” she said. “You know, doing it all on your own.”

“There was no water — bone dry,” she said as water flowed from her cellar at 6 Twine Road in Sterling through a wide hose and onto the lawn in front of the yellow, cape-style house, whooshing past a “Leprechaun Crossing” sign.

Way in back of the woodland, where a seasonally mushy wetland had been, were the unmistakable signs of beavers. They had gathered branches and started building homes. On nearby Campground Road, where water flows through a box-shaped culvert under the railroad and toward the new wetland across from Ms. Honan’s house, beavers have built a virtual village of small huts and a huge beaver house.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegram.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: animalwhackos; beavers; environmentists; environuts; massachusetts; massachussetts; pests
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To: Abathar
I think to my claim of innocence of not knowing that beaver was also a slang term.

Slang term? I thought a beaver was the mascot of MIT?

21 posted on 08/10/2007 10:27:00 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: pabianice

I once had a Beaver bite onto my nipple and spilt my beer..


22 posted on 08/10/2007 10:27:17 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona....)
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To: pabianice

Just dam


23 posted on 08/10/2007 10:28:57 AM PDT by Hegemony Cricket (You can't seriously tell me you think we need more laws, or that we don't already have too many.)
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To: pabianice
Some of her life went well, and some not so much. But in April 1992,
the single mother of two graduated from Fitchburg State College and bought a house.


This one of those situation where liberals/Democrats start to shudder.
Needing to choose the favored party : a cuddly wilderness
animal OR a single mother.
24 posted on 08/10/2007 10:29:33 AM PDT by VOA
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To: jjones9853

LOL...that is why I had to move out of Oregon...

My Appetite for fricassed Spotted Owl was going to land me in the penitentiary...:)


25 posted on 08/10/2007 10:31:22 AM PDT by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: pabianice

She needs a good bow and arrow and some night vision goggles.

Or else dynamite.


26 posted on 08/10/2007 10:36:19 AM PDT by garyhope (It's World War IV, right here, right now, courtesy of Islam.)
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To: pabianice

Save a tree...


27 posted on 08/10/2007 10:39:35 AM PDT by HenpeckedCon (Can I please freep just a little while longer Dear?)
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To: pabianice
In Canada, where the beaver (i.e. the rodent) is a national symbol, we use “beaver bafflers” (essentially a drain pipe stuck through the beaver dam) to limit the flooding.

Also, it’s silly to say it’s just “nature” when the natural predators have been removed from the equation.

28 posted on 08/10/2007 10:39:56 AM PDT by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
I own a 12 acre lake here in Indiana, I have had trouble with beavers blocking up my spillway forever. I asked the local DNR officer if I could live trap them to take them somewhere else and he told me "They are considered rodents here, if they are creating a problem just shoot them."

I've had more fun snapping about 200 yard shots at them with iron sights on my 8MM Mauser, I will regret the day I actually kill the last one.

29 posted on 08/10/2007 10:49:17 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for posting without reading the article since 2004)
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To: VeniVidiVici
"She should go out and shoot the little bastards."

Then she'd really be in trouble. Probably charged with murder.

Carolyn

30 posted on 08/10/2007 10:49:34 AM PDT by CDHart ("It's too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the b@#$%^&s."--Claire Wolfe)
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To: pabianice
Make some Beaver hats quick!!!!!! But then it is MA and has a killer and a traitor as their senators so its about normal, that animals will have more rights than humans. We are in the process of becoming a bunch of idiots and anyone who supports this animal crap is a total whore or an idiot.
31 posted on 08/10/2007 11:00:43 AM PDT by YOUGOTIT (The Greatest Threat to our Security is the US Senate)
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I have a similar problem where I live. Every 3 or so years a band of the little toothy bastards move in and start damning up the creek below my house, which in turn causes flooding of the bridge leading to my house.

Thankfully I live in a state where they can be terminated for destroying your property. As of the end of July the critter body count stands at 28 terminated in the last 6 yrs. A Ruger 10/22 with a cheap scope does wonders for shortening their longevity on this earth.


32 posted on 08/10/2007 11:07:07 AM PDT by sarge83
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To: pabianice

Beavers are more creative
than Dimocrats.




33 posted on 08/10/2007 11:11:37 AM PDT by Lady Jag (The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.)
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To: garyhope
She needs a good bow and arrow and some night vision goggles. Or else dynamite.

Make it look like an accident.

34 posted on 08/10/2007 11:14:02 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)
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To: rlmorel
Good thing we don’t have any frikking spotted owls up here.

That is the biggest problem in central Texas. Not owls so much, but the Barton Creek salamander, Golden Cheeked warbler, Blind cave beetles, etc. Every time there is any development planned, they EV whackos show up and try to find something "protected".

35 posted on 08/10/2007 11:27:22 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (The measure of a country is not how many people are wanting to come in, but how many want to leave.)
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To: Aquinasfan; garyhope
Make it look like an accident

Wrong-o. Make it look like a suicide.

Beaver Tail

Roast beaver tail over campfire,
cut it open and pull the skin off.
(This makes a very rich meat.)

Yukon Cookbook
by Leona Kanan

36 posted on 08/10/2007 11:59:25 AM PDT by Zerodown
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To: pabianice

So only beavers are allowed to detroy forests now? Loggers go in they are bad! beavers go in and destroy the infastructure, they are good. Lesson to be learned: Never move or live in the Northeast....or West Coast for that matter!


37 posted on 08/10/2007 1:21:32 PM PDT by Bommer (Global Warming: The only warming phenomena that occurs in the Summer and ends in the Winter!)
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To: pabianice
I remember reading a story here, don't know if it was true or not, about a guy that had a beaver problem, and the town was sending him notices that he could not build a dam on his property, and he went to great lengths to try and get the PTB to realize he was not the one building the damn dam.

Wish I could find, it was funny.

38 posted on 08/10/2007 1:27:19 PM PDT by AFreeBird (Will NOT vote for Rudy. <--- notice the period)
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

What and they can’t plug up the pipe? What makes this baffle so special? They’re pretty crafty little devils.


39 posted on 08/10/2007 1:29:51 PM PDT by AFreeBird (Will NOT vote for Rudy. <--- notice the period)
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To: AFreeBird
Indeed they are crafty. I have seen some absolutly astounding civil engineering works created by beaver.

Here’s a link to a brochure on the subject:

http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/TRAP/beaverwebversion1.pdf

They use “beaver baffle” to refer to a barrier to prevent beaver from blocking culverts. The “beaver pipes” are what I meant by the term.

40 posted on 08/10/2007 1:41:47 PM PDT by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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