Expanding an activity we…

Expanding an activity we should be ending, while treating beavers like a nuisance species and promoting the idea that one of the most evil traps (leghold) is humane is disgusting, treasonous, and utter hypocrisy.

Humans are the pests, the species that needs to be removed from the ecosystem, as we are the only ones who actually destroy it. We couldn't have lived in North America without the beaver, and now we have the arrogance to pretend that we are managing nature when all we are doing is destroying it. And, now, we're so egregiously evil about it, we don't even bother to gin up the scientific evidence to support our lies?

Here's an important fact to consider if anyone is claiming tradition: "The arrival of Europeans warped indigenous peoples’ relationship with beaver from subsistence and kinship to extraction." Selling beaver products of any kind is not tradition.

Walking down the road you're trying to create is a dangerous reversal of setting right all the evils that were inflicted upon the people, the land, the flora, and the fauna. As such, I wholly challenge you to:

1. Provide full scientific documentation, environmental impact assessments, and data to support your claims. The gov't should also consider extending the public comment period to allow stakeholders time to review this information and provide informed feedback.

2. Any proposes laws around trapping need to prioritize animal welfare and should be informed by current, peer-reviewed science. Trapping of any kind is by its nature inhumane and an incursion into the balance of nature. We are not masters of the ecosystem, the plants and animals that live their are.

3. End the fur trade completely and not allow it to make financial gains, especially at the expense of animal protection, public safety, or ecological health.

4. Balance any argument with a proper reminder to the public of the critical importance of beavers to our existence. They are keystone species that create wetlands, support biodiversity, and regulate water systems. But even more than that, as Ben Goldfarb wrote, "Beavers are nothing less than continent-scale forces of nature, in large part responsible for sculpting the land upon which we Americans built our towns and raised our food. Beavers shaped North America’s ecosystems, its human history, its geology." Any policies enacted should highlight and publicize this fact to the public to tell the real story (or at least the opposing side). And, at the very least safeguard habitats on Crown and private lands from increased or indiscriminate trapping, especially during the closed season.

5. Enact strong reporting and regulatory oversight as essential components of any and all policies to ensure that trapping practices comply with required standards.