December 2009 – Page 3

Worth A Dam – South Bay Chapter?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere January 12, 2010

So our wikipedia-wonderkin physician/historian friend RL in the South Bay has been working hard to find pictures of the beavers at Los Gatos Creek to add them to the wikipedia entry. He recently connected with Mondy Lariz, president of the SPCWC (Stevens and Permanente Watershed Council) who connected him with photographer Mercury Freedom. He presented him with a host of breath-stealing photos which demonstrate both his fine camera skills and his compassionate attention to the natural world. To get you oriented, here is a view of the upper Los Gatos Creek which connects to Lexington Reservoir.

Photos: Mercury Freedom

I, of course, was especially interested in seeing the beavers. That sure looks like a great place to be a beaver, no? But how do you know there are beavers there anyway? I’ve seen lots of people call muskrats beavers, or otters beavers. How would they have gotten there? Hitchike? I still want to see proof.

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Look at that lovely curving pair of dams. I defy your finest landscaper to make anything that pretty. Or that sturdy. See how the upper one makes almost a right angle? I can only imagine that there’s some kind of stone or stump in the water that provided motivation for it. I’m sure it makes sense in a way we can’t understand.Mercury thank you so much for taking these photos and agreeing to share them with us. I guess those dams look beaver-made. Still beavers are driven out of areas all the time, especially near reservoirs. They may have been killed or chased off. I still want proof that there are beavers in Los Gatos creek. Where’s the family? Any pair of dams that polished must have a healthy colony to take care of it. I’m guessing two strong adults, a couple of yearlings, and some new kits. They are best seen in the morning or twilight. Did you catch anything like that?

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Now that is a LOVELY family. Ohhh it makes me so sad we didn’t have kits this year. Remember what its like to see them all together, riding on brother’s back or whining at mom. These photos are a rare treat. But what about the lodge? Bank lodges are subtle and hard to find, and in a creek that narrow there isn’t room for an island lodge. This beautiful family needs someplace cozy to sleep in the day. Did you find anything like that?

Photos: Mercury Freedom

And there you have it. The complete chapter 1 about the Los Gatos beavers, thanks to Mercury Freedom, Mondy Lariz, and our wikipedia friend RL. Just another example of the string of connections that can be laced together to make a network of creek and beaver advocates. What a delightful find for us. Let’s all get out there and locate a secret colony of our very own.

Welcome Yule!

heidi08 Uncategorized December 21, 2009

In case you need some light to drive away the longest night, might I suggest the Aurora Borealis? Happy Solstice All.

Happy Solstice to You Too

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species December 22, 2009

Scott Artis writes that the owl kick-out order was apparently granted just in time. Before the ink was dry on the CDFG signature allowing the eviction of the burrowing owls and the fumigation of the ground squirrels, Kiper went to work.

In any event, I stumbled upon the first round of evictions by Kiper Homes’ consulting firm way sooner than expected. As I wandered through the unlocked chain link fence I found a team of 3 actively enlarging the burrows of the owls my wife and I have come to obsess over in terms of their protection. I continued down the middle of the street looking over burrows marked with flags of orange and red, plexi-glass fitted one-way doors blocking burrows that sheltered a family during breeding season, and adjacent burrows that provided extra cover were now overflowing with soil and rocks. The eviction of the first section was just about complete and the process continued uninterrupted in the background as I spoke with the principle biologist. I couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder as the shovels filled in burrows that months earlier I had cleared of garbage and debris.

Scott and his wife were there, sadly recording the damage as burrows were widened and fitted with one-way doors, and other adjacent areas were filled with soil and rocks. Scott had a talk with the biologist hired gun on site, who admitted that the squirrels were enormously important to the habitat and thought they deserved protection. In this discussion Scott also learned that there is no data on how evicted owls recover, or whether they recover at all.

The eviction process simply functions by ASSUMPTION that displaced owls do fine and is apparently at the behest of the California Department of Fish & Game who no longer requires banding of the evicted. So again I am left with the feeling that the owls are a Species of Not So Special Concern.

Burrowing Owl Eviction Begins.

Obviously Kiper (rhymes with viper) wanted this done in time for the holidays. Who can celebrate with their family while bands of hoodlum owls are loose in the neighborhood? When I look at Scott’s smart, bitter video I know exactly how he feels. There but for the grace of 200 people…

Have I told you all lately how much I love you?

Season’s Greetings

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers December 20, 2009

This was sent to beaver supporters on Friday. In addition to being full of good cheer, we are getting ready to launch a newsletter in January and wanted some address practice. If you didn’t get a copy and you’d like to receive the newsletter, write me here (or if the link doesn’t work for you mtzbeavers@gmail.com). Likewise, if you received an unwanted copy, (or too many copies) let me know so I can struggle to take care of it. Turns out Comcast only lets you send 50 addresses at once BCC. Who knew? I chunked them into 8 painstaking batches of 50 and was able to send them out in stages, like soldiers headed to the front. Help me make corrections and please be patient with mistakes while I get this down.

Beavers? Why Not Dinosaurs?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 10, 2010

Meet Martin Salter, member of Parliament for the labor party in England. He’s the angling (fishing) spokesman who made headlines this week by saying that the very idea of reintroducing beavers to England is “ludicrous!” Like his spiritual brothers in Scotland he is holding onto the mistaken idea that beavers dams block fish passage.His point: If Natural England is going to force the Hydro-eletric companies to remove their dams to let the fish pass, it is unthinkable that they should reintroduce beavers.

“The current situation is ludicrous,” Salter told a Commons debate on fisheries. “On the one hand, we are seeking to ensure that migratory fish can run the rivers and reach the spawning grounds. On the other, Natural England talks of reintroducing the beaver, which by creating dams will ensure that all our legislative efforts on fish passes become absolutely worthless.” He added: “If we really have to introduce endangered species, why do we not take the DNA of tyrannosaurus rex or the wolf and bring them back to Britain? There must come a point at which reality impinges on what Natural England seeks to do.”

PlanningResource

Ahh sagely put. Fortunately I have heard the group “Citizen Advocacy for New Tyranosaurus” (CAN’T) has had internal staffing problems and lost their grant for 2010. I don’t think we should talk about the wolf while you are obviously in this fragile state.

Maybe we could talk fish instead for a moment. You like fish, right? Your website has a photo of you holding a very large and gloriously dead one, so you must be an outdoorsman. Wikipedia tells me that while you are opposed to hunting with dogs, you have been a very strong advocate for keeping fishing regulation under environmental juristiction. I actually agree with that. Tracking what people take out of the water is a great way to monitor what is going in the water. I assume you want healthy streams, healthy populations of juvenile salmonids, and a high BMI content to the water so that all those fish will have lots to feed on.

Guess what’s really good at that? It’s kind of ironic really. Are you sitting down? Beavers! Beaver dams trap silt and organic material, which gets eaten by microbugs we can’t see, which get eaten in turns by bigger bugs…here, let her do it instead….

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Alright. Are you with me so far? Beaver dams trap mud that bring insects that get eaten by little fish that get eaten by bigger fish. The kind you like to angle for. Wait, don’t beaver dams block passage? Well lets think about that. We used to have millions and millions more beavers. Gosh. There must have been terrible salmon shortages in early England because of all that blocking. What’s that? Salmon and trout were once enormously plentiful? Fisherman used to make their living on that dirty old Thames? Hmmm.

Maybe science can help solve this mystery. Meet Michael Pollock, researcher for North West Fisheries which is part of NOAA. He has been researching the effect of beaver dams on salmon and other fish. It turns out that they are actually essental in providing ponds for young salmon to live before their ready to go to the sea. In fact, if there are no or nearly no beaver dams, you get almost no Salmon, and no salmon season, like California and Oregon had this year.

Don’t believe me? Michael will be presenting his research at the 44th Annual Salmon Restoration Conference in Redding, CA in February. You could come if you liked. I would be happy to introduce you to some smart water advocates.

Look, Martin. I know you are afraid of these flat-tailed furry dinosaurs, but the truth is, the more you learn about beavers, the more you find out they take care of the water which in turn takes care of the things you like to catch in the water. This is why Natural England wants to re-introduce them. Not just because you used to have them and now you don’t, but because having them takes care of your watershed and the myriad of creatures who depend on it. Come away from the Dark Side. We can help.

And anyway, I’m pretty sure the Tyrannosaurus Rex was never considered a Keystone species. You can write Mr. Salter here.