Over the past two months I have been clearing the thick dense brush below my pond.
When finished, I laid out a "wisdom walk" on the hillside, suitable for contemplation, and planted ten young rhododendrons to celebrate.
The following morning I was heartsick to find that mountain beavers had munched and destroyed four of the plants before I could build protective cages around them.
With the brush now cleared away, I could see that the little critters had burrows all over the area.
"Pests," pronounced my neighbor at the bottom of the hill when I complained of the destruction. He suggested a way to get rid of them that was repugnant to me.
And there is a moral issue here (There is always a moral issue):
Since I was the one who invaded and disrupted their habitat, they may have their own opinion as to who the pest is.
[First posted: May 8, 2015]
