Regarding Edith Bunningh’s claim that beavers are quite harmless, I will relate some reality which is happening in Connecticut after the state allowed beavers to outgrow their environment. A close friend I have known since 1959 has a beautiful piece of forest land behind his house, bordered by a stream where beavers raised havoc. That land along with his backyard had been flooded until a trapper eliminated them with box traps and a downstream neighbor shot many of them with the aid of a night-vision riflescope.

There is an access road running through the land which the flood made totally impassible for maintenance crews. There was really no other choice but to dispense with the critters, who also do major damage by destroying valuable timber trees.

Worse yet, across the road is a piece of town and state park, which comprised much of my mother’s family’s farm. It is now called, “Great Cedars Conservation Area,” referring to a rare white cedar swamp which was one of the most magical places on the farm. When young, I spent many hours wistfully looking up the trunks of those towering, dead strait, beautiful trees. When I was down there about two years ago the area was so badly flooded that it required high boots I did not have to access or see the cedars. I do know that all the younger cedars in an adjacent, largely open area have drowned due to the high water. It is highly likely that the big cedars are also dead.

When I was living on the farm, I managed a good deal of it quite well, especially the wetlands. The state and town have not been good stewards and I am unable to get anyone down there to check on the large cedars or to get the water level down. If the giant cedars are dead, it amounts to a huge loss to all concerned.

In earlier days, when there were copious predators who found rodents to be very tasty fare, these great spikes in beaver population didn’t happen. However, farmers tended to eliminate the predators due to occasional predation on farm animals and, once in a while, on pets and children — hence the “big, bad wolf” stories.

The beaver population was kept largely in check with the fur trade and the desirability of beaver meat for those living off the land. In more recent years, many people feel it is cruel to hunt or trap. I say that is much crueler for canids to run down deer, hamstring them and disembowel them alive. Nature is full of cruelty.

My brother and I moved to Vermont partly because we were very tired of having our crops decimated by deer. A representative from the state Fish and Game Department, inspecting a bean crop told us that the legislature had shut down deer hunting to the point that he could do nothing to help us. It was due to one man from the richest corner of the state getting funding from “animal welfare” advocates to lobby the legislature. The vast majority of it went into his own pockets.

When I went down there in succeeding years, people who wanted to grow things in their yards had erected 10-foot-high woven wire fences with electric fencing outside of it. Many of the contributors to “Friends of Animals” wanted to murder every deer who came into sight. Such overpopulations often extinct endangered or threatened plants and animals, whose environments are severely impacted.

When will we ever learn?

Joe Gleason

Bridport