By Andrew Bydder, Hamilton City Councillor
Photo: Fritz Geller-Grimm, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
A ‘dam’ good story from the Czech Republic last month! The government spent 7 years and US$1.2m planning a new dam for a protected wetland. When the experts turned up to inspect the site, they discovered a family of 8 beavers had built a dam in the exact spot in just 2 days.
“Beavers are able to build a dam in one night, two nights at the most. While people have to get building permits, get the building project approved, and find the money for it. But of course a digger working on his own could build it in about a week.”
Zoologist Jiri Vlček, Beavers build planned dams in protected landscape area, while local officials still seeking permits, 31 January 2025
The project head, Jaroslav Obermajer, of the Central Bohemian office of the Czech Nature and Landscape Protection Agency (AOPK) even admitted the beavers’ dam was better than their design.
This shows how wasteful and dangerous bureaucracy is. Seven years of environmental protection was lost.
Here in New Zealand, we don’t have beavers to save us, but David Seymour has an anti-red tape campaign at the new Ministry for Regulation.
You can report issues here:
https://consultation.regulation.govt.nz/regulatory-issues/tell-us-about-a-regulatory-issue/
Last time this was done, the Productivity Commission reported that a council required a bus shelter with no walls to have exit signs on all four sides. What is your best (or worst) story?
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