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| Photo by Eddie Cazayoux |
Tom Pierce opened for business six years ago, restoring and repairing violins and other stringed instruments in a small shop on the bank of the Bayou Teche in Arnaudville. Now, Pierce's business is being threatened by a beaver, which, left unchecked, could result in the instrument repair shop collapsing into the bayou.
“When I first came there was a pair of beavers here, but they eventually just went away,” says Pierce. “I know I got beavers. I think it’s just one, but he’s kind of transient. He’ll come and go. There’s a cypress tree out back that he’s eaten on three different times, and another tree that I know this beaver helped fell.”
Yet, their absence didn’t last, and since fall of 2010, Pierce says at least one beaver has been making its presence known by downing trees and burrowing large holes into the bayou’s bank. If unchecked, Pierce says his situation will end tragically.
“This beaver is causing us to lose land into the bayou, and now it’s interfering with the foundation at the back of my porch where we have our music jams,” he says.
Pierce isn’t the only one who believes a beaver is at the root of his land troubles. In an e-mail recounting a recent visit to Pierce’s shop, Breaux Bridge architect Eddie Cazayoux writes:
This is not an architectural situation. You have a beaver problem. One way beavers have adapted to this environment is by making their lodges in the bank of the bayou vs. a lodge in the middle of a lake create(ed) by damming up a stream.
I have had a similar problem on my property. I looked into getting a trapper, but they moved on and my problem was solved. You need to get rid of the beavers. If you continue to lose land, this foundation problem will again be compromised. You need to get rid of the beavers.Pierce, following Cazayouz’s advice, contacted Wildlife and Fisheries, which sent Curtis Cruse — a veteran trapper who specializes in capturing alligators, beavers and coyotes.
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| Photo by Eddie Cazayoux |
MAY 24 Blogger Robert Mann posts this entry about the Baton Rouge Chamber's recent report on Louisiana's higher education system. It's critical to economic development, and yet our system is facing a "funding crisis" with no way to resolve it, the report says. The Chamber says control of tuition and fees must be returned to the higher ed governing boards.
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MAY 24 Blogger CB Forgotston ridicules the recent PR campaign by the state GOP in the wake of a legislative auditor's request to both major parties. The GOP (apparently unaware that the Dems got the same request) started yammering about being targeted because it had "killed" a tax increase. CB finds that laughable, but it's also pretty funny that the GOP was comparing this episode to the IRS scandal (Because the President has so much to do with our state auditor. Right?).
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MAY 23 This post in Louisiana Voice tells us about a bill by a Winnsboro lege that would require all public high school students to take at least one Course Choice online class in order to graduate. (What?) Blogger Tom Aswell says it's a monument to "waste and corruption," especially in light of the problems he's exposed with the program in recent weeks. Idaho had a similar program, but voters removed it by a 2-1 margin, Aswell says.
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