Friday, May 16, 2014

Catching Up: Living With Beavers, Tree-Wrapping with APFA

On Thursday, May 1st, I joined Adrian Nelson from the Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals (APFA) on a trip to a rural Langley residence that was getting visits from beavers.


You can see in the photo above this beaver's been busy! He'd already munched on a few trees before. Instead of trapping the beavers, the homeowner looked into coexistence options, and found APFA. A few weeks earlier, on his initial visit and consultation, Adrian wrapped what was remaining of this tree and set a future date to complete the work on the yard.

Returning on this sunny, spring day, there were a few dozen more trees along the stream which we also 'wrapped'. You may have already read our previous posting on beavers when we joined APFA in building a beaver deceiver on the Sunshine Coast last summer. Flooding wasn't an issue in this case; Adrian determined this beaver is just looking for a snack.

Tree wrapping is another simple but elegant solution to competing interests. It's not more than trimmed wire fencing and zip ties, preventing beavers from chewing select trees.


Above is another tree our furry buddy chose on the opposite side of the stream, and behind are a couple freshly-wrapped trees. Each tree takes 3 - 10 minutes to wrap, and we quickly took care of a couple dozen in a few hours. It's encouraging there are easy and effective options like this available.


Trees closer to the water were prioritized. It's interesting to note there was no discernable pattern to which trees the beaver chose - he went for different species, and in one case travelled over 100 meters from the stream to get at a tree (passing many others, which appeared equally delectable to us!)


Above is Adrian taking care of a cedar a bit further up from the stream.

If you've got beavers visiting your property, rather than trapping and killing them (relocation in BC is often not an option, and nearly always harmful to the animal and their families and communities), be encouraged and aware that we have options like this, making living with wildlife and peaceful coexistence a cinch. Contact APFA if you've got issues with beavers or other wildlife, and let's continue making the world more livable for all.

Dave Shishkoff, Editor
Twitter: @Victoria_Vegan & @VeganCyclist (personal)

1 comment:

  1. Beavers were reintroduced in Poland in the 70'ties (after being hunted to complete extinction) with laws protecting them 100%. They were able to repopulate many rivers - a very strong comeback. In places they got so abundant that in miles and miles of some river banks there is not a single bush or even twig left. Unfortunately the wolf - who I was told to be the only beaver hunting predator - was not reintroduced. It's bad everytime when humans try to do what they call "wildlife management".

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