The following is a true dam event involving
our own Michigan DEQ.
Even
though it originates from 1997 I think you will still find it very
interesting indeed! And if you've already read these, it's well
worth reading the dam event again! Enjoy seeing your dollars hard at
work and Stephen Tvedten's tenacity in dealing with these bureaucrats.
Claim: The state of Michigan threatened local beavers with a $10,000 per day fine for failing to remove their dam.
Status: TRUE.
STATE OF MICHIGAN
Reply to: GRAND RAPIDS DISTRICT OFFICE STATE OFFICE
BUILDING 6TH FLOOR
350 OTTAWA NW GRAND RAPIDS MI 49503-2341
JOHN ENGLER, Governor
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
HOLLISTER BUILDING, PO BOX 30473, LANSING MI 48909-7973
RUSSELL J. HARDING, Director
December 17, 1997
CERTIFIED
Mr. Ryan DeVries 2088 Dagget Pierson, Mi 49339
Dear Mr. DeVries:
SUBJECT: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023-1 T11N, R10W, Sec. 20, Montcalm County
It
has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality
that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above
referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal
landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:
Construction
and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of
Spring Pond. A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type
of activity. A review of the Department's files show that no permits
have been issued.
Therefore,
the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of
Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and
Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being
sections 324.30101 to the 32430113 of the Michigan Compiled Laws
annotated. The Department has been informed that one or both of the
dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris dams
and flooding at downstream locations. We find that dams of this nature
are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department
therefore orders you to cease and desist all unauthorized activities at
this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by
removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the strewn channel.
All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31,
1998. Please notify this office when the restoration had been
completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our
staff. Failure to comply with this request, or any further
unauthorized activity on the site, may result in this case being
referred for elevated enforcement action. We anticipate and would
appreciate your full cooperation in this matter.
Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
David L. Price
District Representative Land and Water Management Division
Dear Mr. Price:
Re: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023; T11N, R10!, Sec 20; Montcalm County
Your certified letter
dated 12/17/97 has been handed to me to respond to. You sent out a
great deal of carbon copies to a lot of people, but you neglected to
include their addresses. You will, therefore, have to send them a copy
of my response.
First of
all, Mr. Ryan DeVries is not the legal landowner and/or contractor at
2088 Dagget, Pierson, Michigan - I am the legal owner and a couple of
beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of constructing and
maintaining two wood "debris" dams across the outlet stream of my
Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, nor authorize, their dam
project, I think they would be highly offended you call their skillful
use of natural building materials "debris". I would like to challenge
you to attempt to emulate their dam project any dam time and/or any dam
place you choose. I believe I can safely state there is no dam way you
could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam
ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their
dam work ethic.
As to your dam request
the beavers first must fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this
type of dam activity, my first dam question to you is: are you trying
to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers or do you require all
dam beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam request? If
you are not discriminating against theses particular beavers, please
send me completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam
permits. Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of
Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and
Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being
sections 324.30101 to the 32430113 of the Michigan Compiled Laws
annotated.
My first concern is -
aren't the dam beavers entitled to dam legal representation? The
Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for
said dam representation - so the State will have to provide them with a
dam lawyer. The Department's dam concern that either one or both of
the dams failed during a recent rain event causing dam flooding is
proof we should leave the dam Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than
harassing them and calling them dam names. If you want the dam stream
"restored" to a dam free-flow condition - contact the dam beavers - be
aware I am sending a copy of your dam letter and this response to
PETA. If your dam Department seriously finds all dams of this nature
inherently hazardous and truly will not permit their existence in this
dam State - I seriously hope you are not selectively enforcing this
dam policy, or once again both I and the Spring Pond Beavers will
scream prejudice!
In my humble opinion,
the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their dam unauthorized
dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green, and water flows
downstream. They have more dam right than I to live and enjoy Spring
Pond. So, as far as I and the beaver are concerned, this dam case can
be referred for more dam elevated enforcement action now. Why wait
until 1/31/89? The Spring Pond Beaver may be under the dam ice by
then, and there will be no dam way for you or your dam staff to
contact/harass them then. In conclusion, I would like to bring to your
attention a real environmental quality (health) problem: bears are
actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be
persecuting the defecating bears and leave the dam beavers alone. If
you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your step! (The
bears are not careful where they dump!) Being unable to comply with
your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering
machine, I am sending this response to your dam office.
Sincerely,
Stephen L. Tvedten
In July 1997, one of
Stephen Tvedten's neighbors noticed flooding on his property and traced
it back to a dam on Tvedten's stream. He complained to the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on July 28.
Five months later, the
agency responded with a letter to the offending land owner. The
letter, from David Price, a local Michigan DEQ official, was blunt.
The "construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the
outlet stream of Spring Pond" was "unauthorized" because "a permit must
be issued prior to the start of this type of activity." The letter
ordered Stephen Tvedten, the land owner, to "cease and desist" under
penalty of "elevated enforcement action."
Mr. Tvedten responded to
the Michigan DEQ's demand with the now widely-circulated "dam letter."
in which he pointed out that the "debris dams" he had been ordered to
remove because they were constructed without permission from the state
of Michigan were actually built by beavers. The DEQ later claimed they
were fully aware the "debris dams" were beaver dams; the issue, they
said, was that the beavers who built them had long since abandoned the
dams, but Mr. Tvedten had been continuing to maintain and even build up
the dams himself:
The letter concerned an
enforcement action directed to a tenant on property surrounding Spring
Pond, which is located in Pierson Township, Montcalm County, Michigan.
The tenant was observed by the downstream complainant, as has since
admitted to the complainant, that he artificially built up, and
maintained two abandoned beaver dams on the discharge end of the
natural pond. Such an activity falls under the jurisdiction of Part
301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resources and
Environmental Protection Act, 1194 PA 451, as amended. It is the
Department's position that in the absence of any threat to public
welfare, beaver dams should be left in their natural state, that being
either actively maintained or abandoned by beaver.
The Department conducted
an on-site inspection of the dams in August of 1997, accompanied by a
Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist, the Pierson
Township Supervisor and the complainant. The tenant's actions, and a
threat to the welfare of the downstream complainant prompted our
correspondence of December 1997, instructing the tenant to cease and
desist all illegal activity and to restore the stream to its prior
condition. The owner of the property took issue with our action, a
responded with his own version of the situation. It was this
correspondence that has been circulating in the internet.
Luis Saldivia
Grand Rapids District Supervisor
Land and Water Management Division
616-356-0208
For
his part, Mr. Tvedten claimed that the dams had been "abandoned"
because a neighbor had killed the beavers (then filed a complaint with
the state because he was concerned that the untended dams would break
apart and enter his property) and that no one but the beavers had ever
maintained them. And contemporaneous accounts of the brouhaha quoted a
Michigan DEQ spokesman as saying the agency hadn't performed an inspection before firing off their December 1997 letter to Mr. Tvedten:
Ken
Silfven, public information officer at the state Department of
Environmental Quality, said that ... the account was correct. He
hastened to note, however, that the case was prompted by a complaint
from a neighbor who was concerned about flooding caused by the dams.
The department dropped its investigation after an inspection by a
DEQ employee.
"It probably would have been a good idea to do the inspection before we sent the notice," Silfven said.
After
some wrangling the agency ultimately dropped the issue, but not before
Stephen Tvedten found an inventive way of quickly pointing out both how
ludicrous and humorous the situation was. In a way dusty legal
language never could, such a letter serves to drive home the silliness
of Michigan DEQ's intractable posturing. The beavers are likely still
ignorant of how close they came to being fined $10,000 a day for dam
living expenses.
Barbara "in Michigan, transforming from guardian of the law to giardia of it just took a touch of beaver fever" Mikkelson
Sources:
Mastio, David. "The Strange Tail of the Outlawed Michigan Beaver Dam."
The Detroit News ~ April 5, 1998 (p. B5)
Associated Press. "State Gives Beavers Cease-and-Desist Order."
March 31, 1998
The Wall Street Journal. "The Spring Pond Beavers."
March 3, 1998 (p. A18)
Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/dammed.asp
The following is from: http://www.ssqq.com/archive/vinlin20.htm
The Infamous Beaver Dam Dispute
Edited by Rick Archer
December 2006
The truth of the matter is that the average
citizen really doesn't like government interference that much. But
what people really dislike is Government Arrogance. Who doesn't have
at least one story to tell about a government agent - policeman,
building inspector, tax man, you name it - who acted like a complete
bully.
My personal favorite story is the time a city water
line got stopped up in my back yard. Normally I have my yard heavily
fenced, but had to allow access to fix the problem. While the city
repairmen worked to clear the problem, some city inspector noticed some
dried dog poop among my mulching leaves. He promptly issued a $400
citation for this infraction. Why? Because he could.
Some people are drawn to authority positions because they enjoy pushing other people around. Enough said.
Written by Rick Archer
December 2006
Being
something of a rebel myself, I was amused to find a kindred spirit in
Mr. Tvedten. So I poked around the Internet to see what I could see.
Sad
to say, all I could find was a series of further mishaps. Somewhere
along the way, the beavers were murdered. Acts like this remind me
that a lot of human beings are scarcely any more evolved than the
animals they destroy.
Eventually Mr. Tvedten started to lose his patience with the harassment. (can't say as I blame him).
After
Mr. Tvedten's letter, the DEQ officials made fools of themselves by
pursuing the issue further. You would think they would have the sense
to cut their losses after they realized that Mr. Tvedten's letter had
started to fly across the Internet as an immortal testament to their
stupidity, but apparently not.
No one likes to be
embarrassed, but Bureaucrats seem to have the thinnest skin of all,
especially the ones who are morons. So the morons, oops, I mean the
bureaucrats, decided to keep the fight going for at least a couple more years.
My guess is if they were stupid enough to write an letter like the one
above without even visiting the pond to begin with, they were stupid
enough to keep the nonsense going.
There were further rounds of letters, none nearly as humorous as the one listed above so I omitted them......
HERE IS ANOTHER LETTER DATED TWO YEARS LATER:
Subject: Re: Beaver Dam letter
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 08:57:15 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten
To: LUIS SALDIVA, DEQ State of Michigan
Dear
Luis, You are a Dam liar! Please forward to me immediately any "proof"
you have that anyone but the Dam beaver maintained this Dam! The Dam neighbor killed the beavers
- or the Dams would not have been "abandoned". You Dam bureaucrats
never can get the facts straight - there were and are THREE Dams on
this property! Quit your Dam Lying!
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
THE FINAL WORD
In the following exchange, in 2001 a woman has contacted Mr. Tvedten to see what the status was of the story.
Stephen,
I just came across your letter to David Price regarding the beaver
dams. It was the BEST! I found it at the Safe2use site. I recently
exchanged links with your site (Thank-you!) and was doing my nightly
search for more links when I came across this letter. It was So
wonderfully written I just wanted to let you know. Since it has been 3
years, I was wondering what ever happened to those dams and beavers? I
know it is tough to fight city hall and was hoping to hear that you won
the battle for the beavers!
Keep up the excellent work you are doing,
Sincerely, Pat Goodwin
Dear
Pat, The man who started this had already killed the beavers and was
worried that their now untended dams would now break apart and enter
his property. That is how this all got started. Tom Brokaw made him look like a fool and called him my "Dam Neighbor" on April Fool's Day a couple of years ago in an NBC segment.
The State just wants to pretend that this did not happen. You can fight "city hall" and win - I do it everyday!
Have a great day! Steve
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