…likely accidentally…”

From a sign board on the Wright’s Creek trail (emphasis mine):

In three years, the beavers have made their presence very apparent. They even managed, likely accidentally, to remove $3000 of pond monitoring equipment.

Comments

Oliver (FS)'s picture
Oliver (FS) on February 1, 2021 - 05:47 Permalink

Begs so many questions, it seems to beg how many questions it begs. I’ll guess the intent is to say the removal was incidental to something else the beavers were up to, or an unintended (and perhaps not even inevitable) side effect of what their work, to put it another way. Not that I’d put it past a beaver to accidentally underestimate the dollar value of monitoring equipment. The least likely accident I think would be mistaken identity: That although beavers usually tolerate or even appreciate monitoring equipment, this time they mistook it for something they’d rather remove. Or for something they’d remove if it would fetch $30,000 on the street, but which also accidentally, would be a gross overvaluation and a misapprehension of a beaver’s ability to conduct such a sale.

Kathryn's picture
Kathryn on February 3, 2021 - 16:11 Permalink

Thank you for this response - loved it!

elmine's picture
elmine on February 2, 2021 - 12:31 Permalink

the cost of nature ;-)