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

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.

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.

… 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.

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.

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.