Word: beaverisms
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...yourself in William Patrick's soggy shoes for a moment. When the Texas-born writer bought a 1677 farmhouse in Ipswich, Mass., two years ago, the neighborhood's thriving beaver colony seemed part of its charm. Since then the beavers have been busy damming everything that flows. Now two of Patrick's four acres--farmland for three centuries--are underwater, and towering pines next to the house have begun crashing to earth. "The beavers are turning our whole yard into a swamp," fumes Patrick, 52. "They're not smart. They're obsessive-compulsive. They hear water, and they have...
Once driven nearly to extinction by rampant fur trapping and forest clearing, beavers are colonizing large swaths of North America where people don't remember seeing them. Since Massachusetts banned lethal leg-hold traps in 1996, the state's beaver population has tripled, to 70,000. North Carolina may have half a million, Manitoba twice as many. From Maine to Alaska, California to the Carolinas, the beaver's numbers are exploding...
...standing in beaver territory, you had better be wearing hip boots. An ungainly waddler ashore, Castor canadensis spends 80% of its life in water, where it's as agile as a 50-lb. minnow. Dam building is its way of making the world a wetter, safer and more convenient place. Only humans alter their environment more drastically...
...humans aren't aquatic. Most of us, in fact, wish the world were dryer, not wetter, and flooding tops the list of human grievances against the beaver. By raising water levels, its unkempt but admirably watertight dams can flood basements, swamp sewer systems, spoil trout streams and even derail trains...
...running against each other in the town’s mayoral race. Soon they’re playing a round of golf to decide not only their respective political futures, but who gets to date Sally. In one significant way, Mooseport diverges from its Leave It to Beaver sensibilities, ultimately telling its audience that government is best left to cheats and liars. It’s a message that dovetails nicely with the film’s in-your-face easygoingness, but one that seems distastefully simpleminded near the start of an election year that is likely...