Regarding Beavers...

The Beaver in question

The problem is that I like beavers. I'm Canadian. It's practically a requirement as soon as you come out of the womb. But the biggest issue is that they are incredibly destructive. Earlier this year a Beaver moved into our pond, and at first it was hilarious. It had no fear of us and would angrily swim up and stare us down as though we were the intruders. At the beginning of fall though, we started to see the ramifications of having a Beaver as a pet. The pond started flooding an awful lot. The amount of mud that was accumulating at the side of the pond was unreasonable. There were quite a few trees that suddenly stopped existing.

This leads us to the part of the tale (beaver pun) where we start researching what to do about it. It's not like I can domesticate it. Believe me, I looked it up. I have nothing that the Beaver wants. They eat trees and algae so I can't tempt them with food. I suppose I could hotwire all the trees I want to keep, but on the 15 acres surrounding the pond that would be an immense task. 

I do feel that the beaver problem has illustrated how Brandon and I handle problems. The DEC basically says that you need to bring in a trapper who will "use all of the beaver" Neither Brandon nor I want to do that because we like the Beaver and think he's funny. Brandon's solution has been to ignore the Beaver and whatever damage he has caused and do his best to remedy it by knocking down the dam whenever we think about it. Unfortunately, the Beaver is significantly better at building dams than we are at knocking them down. My solution was to Google how to get my zoo accreditation and create a little Beaver exhibit somewhere else on the property with a little beaver pond. That is not financially viable but it would have been an entertaining idea. 

So here we are back at what do we do about this Beaver. He is about to knock down all of the big trees around the pond which is going to cause a bit of an issue. I would love it if there was a better solution. Maybe we could relocate him? I've never been one to give up pets, but this might be the time I'd be willing to try.