My Elder Ojibway friend called me this morning and asked if heard about the Beaver news? Senator Nicole Eaton desires to remove the Beaver and rightly so. The First Nations do not care for the water-rat that build dams and prevent free flowing waters. They create stagnant ponds and some creatures die. From my point of view and experience: the hateful rats cut down old willow trees on my family's compound, and twenty ior thrity Birch trees. Yet foolish people called them dextrous and made them into an emblem. A shame. A polar bear would be much better. It would show independence and strength. The Americans have the Eagle, the British the Lion or, perhaps, Bulldog, because of Winston. Whereas, we have the buck-tooth water-rat. I stopped buying anything from Bell Canada when they had those two beavers in commercials. Nicole Eaton pushes to remove the beaver as Canada's emblem | News | National Post http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/1...fective-rat-—-the-beaver-—-as-canadas-emblem/ Shortly, I shall receive a poem about the dreadful beaver from Duke Redbird to clarify the view of Canadian Aboriginals.
wow ecological ignorance on your part and your Ojibway friend, so much for natives being in touch with nature ...beavers are essential to a healthy ecosystem...
yikes still more ignorance...it's all part of ecological renewal, they are part of the environment, the environment is healthier because of their behaviour...beavers move in, build dams, cut trees, land floods, fish move in, water fowl increase, aquatic life of all sorts increases, flooded land is greatly enriched with nutrients, beavers move on when food supply is depleted, dams disappear, wetlands recede, newer stronger tree growth reclaims enriched soils...the same cycle has been repeating itself for thousands of years, without the beaver the environment would be far worse off...
Nature is changable. Change isn't automatically bad. The beavers create a new ecosystem that has its own unique benefits. Now...if over population is an issue....by all means mow some down or call in the fur trappers. We have herds of beautiful deer in my neighborhood that would be better served being on someone's dinner table....because there are too many. But beavers aren't "rats".
in nature overpopulation is never a problem, nature always adjusts...it's only when humans interfere that the natural balance gets screwed up...when keystone species are eliminated it all goes bad quickly...
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9_gbYRA9PE"]Duke Redbird Poem - YouTube[/ame] Duke Redbird, Master Degree in Poltical Science, lineage from Tecumseh, Mentor at the College of Art Ontario, World Class Poet, Artist and Ojibway Elder clarified symbols and emeblems even more. Take the Maple Leaf and the Maple Leaf For Ever, Beavers, one symbol an emblem chews glorious Maple trees down another symbol and emblem. We cannot have that... we have enough problems with the emblem of distinct nation of Quebec contantly chewing away at the country, mainly the Anglo who were victorious. The Americans feel proud when they see the bold Eagle. How would they feel with the buck-tooth rodent daming the flow of the Mississippi River? Old Man River would become a lake, several lakes and ponds, stagnating. Something what socialists and liberals are known for, stagnate individualism and build Satitism. Of course, Old Man River is slightly large for the beaver, however, you get the point of freedom and free flowing thoughts and entrepreneurial spirits.
Generally, farmers despise beavers on their properties. As industrious as they are the rodents are also destructive. The beaver — Tamsin McMahon, National Post The Canadian beaver, unwittingly dragged into a fight to retain its place as the symbol of national pride, has a new enemy. Last week, Senator Nicole Eaton called on the government to retire the beaver as Canada's national emblem, arguing the polar bear was a more appropriate image than a "dentally defective rat." Now a group of nearly 100 Ottawa-area farmers has declared war on the beaver, whose population has exploded with the decline of trapping, leaving the critters to build dozens of dams that have destroyed trees, flooded farmland and are threatening farmers' wells, septic systems and roads. "The beaver was the national symbol because of its value and because of the fur trade and the fact that it is a very industrious and hardworking creature," said farmer John Woodfine. "If left unchecked, it's just like anything else. It will just go right off the map and the water will come onto the map and that's what's happened here." Mr. Woodfine has lost more than half his 57-acre sheep farm south of Ottawa to flooding caused by dozens of beaver dams along a 13kilometre stretch of the Kemptville Creek. For his neighbour, Horace Roxborough, the issue finally came to a head last fall when a delivery truck got stuck in the mud near his barn and had to be pulled out with a tow truck. "The fact is, over the past 30 years this area has slowly become a swamp, and it's directly attributed to the pesky little beavers," he said. The farmers, along with local municipalities and the conservation authority, have pooled $5,000 to hire a lone trapper to breach the dams and trap beavers. But Mr. Roxborough said it's a losing battle. "The only way to do it is to really annihilate these dams because they'll have it patched up again the next day," he said. "It's a war. It's really a war." As an indication of how far the beaver has fallen since the days when its silken fur lured European traders to North America, trappers now earn five times as much to kill the animals for pest control than they do selling their fur. The global market for beavers "is soft right now," said Bill Davies, president of the Canadian National Trappers Alliance. Beavers command as much as $125 apiece if killed as a pest, but as little as $20 at a fur auction. Trappers can capture only about four or five beavers a day and each one takes 90 minutes to skin and dry. Coupled with rising fuel costs, along with government royalties and auction fees, and beavers are no longer worth the trouble. Sharon Brown, a biologist with advocacy organization Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife, said the rodent is misunderstood. Beaver dams create wetlands, one of the most efficient ecosystems in North America when it comes to filtering carbon emissions, silt and pesticides, and supporting diverse wildlife such as fish, deer and waterfowl.
An exchange between local government and a property owner about beavers and dams. I enjoy intelligent sarcasm but I haven't changed my opinion about the buck-tooth water-rodents. http://climbingoutofthedark.blogspot.com/2011/11/friday-night-funnies-beavers-or-polar.html
The irony is that Canada does host some dignified native creatures such as the Arctic wolf, the snow owl, the otter or the muskox. Yet the oversized gnawer is the king. Listening to CFRB 1010 recently and their passionate defence of the things they hold dear - like that gay pedophile football coach because he's a - teamplayer - made me think, how much dignity is there really left in Canada? I'd still take the Canadian radio over TV though, which unlike the latter (CBCs and such) does have a tendency to raise your IQ now and then.
