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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
A sign installed to warn the public about damage caused by beavers has been destroyed by the beavers themselves, according to the Polish foresters who erected it.
The incident was reported in a post on social media by the forestry district of Lubliniec in southern Poland, which shared photos of the sign, which read “Warning! Damage caused by beavers”. The wooden post it was displayed on had been destroyed in an apparent beaver attack.
“We wanted to warn you about the potential consequences of beaver activity at the pond and the surrounding area – since beavers dig burrows under the road and fell trees near the pond – but the beavers didn’t want you to be warned, so…they cut down the oak post displaying the hazard notice,” wrote the foresters.
“So, if you are around the pond, please exercise caution; and if you spot a piece of wood sticking out of the ground that has been gnawed by beavers, just imagine there was a sign there reading ‘Warning! Damage caused by beavers’.”
Beavers were once almost hunted to extinction in Poland. By 1928, it was estimated that only 235 remained in the country. However, thanks to postwar efforts to reintroduce the animals into the Polish wilderness, the beaver population has grown and is currently estimated at around 150,000.
Ecologists note that beavers play an important role in tackling drought by retaining water through the dams they build. Those dams also create “oases of biodiversity”, notes the state water agency PGW WP.
However, the rodents can cause damage to roads, houses and farmland, which has led some to call for culls to keep beaver numbers down.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Bartosz Fent/Nadleśnictwo Lubliniec/Facebook and Skot/Wikmedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
