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Gov. Healey solves a gnawing problem: Orders that Nibi the beaver not be tossed into a stream somewhere

By adamg on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 8:01pm

Gov. Healey announced today that Nibi the beaver is safe to stay with the Chelmsford wildlife rehabbers who have raised her since she was just a wee nibbler, ordering MassWildlife not to make good on its plot to force a two-year-old with no wilderness experience to survive on her own:

Governor Healey: Nibi to Remain at Wildlife Facility as Educational Beaver

BOSTON – Today, the Healey-Driscoll Administration issued a permit to Newhouse Wildlife Rescue for Nibi the beaver to remain at the rehabilitation facility and serve as an educational animal.

Free tagging: 
Wildlife
Chelmsford
beavers


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Comments

By SwirlyGrrl on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 8:57pm.

Game Officer "Cartman" was more interested in RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAY than the deadly consequences of dumping a Beaver out in the wild at a highly inappropriate time for its survival.

Glad that compassion prevailed.

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By anon on Thu, 10/03/2024 - 11:13pm.

Weren't you a little rough on the Beaver last night? Gnaw, June, it was just a good tongue lashing.

By AMTHeaded on Fri, 10/04/2024 - 8:22am.

I do lot of volunteer work with the folks at MassWildlife. Their biologists have earned Masters degrees and PhDs in wildlife biology. They do messy and hard work day in and day out to study and protect our ecosystem, all for a salary that is very low for anyone working in the STEM fields. They do it because they are dedicated lovers of wildlife.

So when there's a dispute between MassWildlife and wildlife rehabilitator (a person who scored an 80% on the state course, but needs no advanced degrees or even a background in the sciences) I'll tend to side with the scientist.

By brianjdamico on Fri, 10/04/2024 - 12:25pm.

Not to argue that experience overrides education or vice versa but experience doing a task has value that is separate but complimentary to those with academic credentials.

I do find it interesting that you cite the low pay of those professionals in the field as relevant to your opinion, when most wildlife rehabilitators are not only performing all of their rehab work entirely as an unpaid volunteer but often at significant personal expense.

Regardless of the outcome here with one individual animal, I am glad that there is a spotlight on the work of both wildlife rehabbers and conservation professionals. Many people work very hard to protect and preserve our natural environment, usually working to reverse incidental but frequent damage that regular human life has on the environment, and we should recognize the work and those doing it.

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By BostonDog on Fri, 10/04/2024 - 12:25pm.

Perhaps they should have made an exception to the regulations if just for PR reasons but I don't think they are without valid reasons.

I think Healey is making a mistake getting involved in a matter which she has no expertise. At most, she should ask a wildlife expert at UMass or Tufts for their opinion and publicly defer to them.

By Lee on Fri, 10/04/2024 - 12:38pm.

… years, it’s clear that every effort was made to socialize Nibi with other beavers. Her family was killed. She has remained aggressive to other beavers. To dump her in the wild at this season would be a slow death sentence for her.

These bureaucrats were following regulations but not common sense or science.

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By Tim Mc. on Fri, 10/04/2024 - 6:55pm.

I think it's pretty clear that the argument was not about the science, but about the politics of making an exception to a policy.

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 10/05/2024 - 8:32am.

Can a wildlife biologist explain to the public how an animal that has had no time to prepare for winter is going to survive the winter? You don't need a lot of wildlife expertise to observe how our local fauna spend a great deal of their summer months preparing things for the winter.

I don't know if Nibi is a releasable critter, but it seems like authoritarian frustration got in the way of good sense here. If you have a scientific education, you should know to wait until spring to enforce the order.

By adamg on Fri, 10/04/2024 - 11:41am.

This just in from the governor's press office:

Today, Governor Maura Healey will visit Nibi the Beaver.

Word of advice: For the love of God, governor, don't try to pick Nibi up. Massachusetts-born politicians don't have a good track record with small fuzzy creatures (and then there's Deval Patrick, slapped in the face by a trout or bass during one fish release at Jamaica Pond).

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