Cleveland County Bounty

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

10 dollars a tail. That’s what you you earn in Cleveland County Arkansas when you kill yerself a beaver and bring the proof. The county judge speaking in this video is the Hon. Gary Spears. As you can see, he doesn’t know why “these beavers are building dams” but he knows that capital punishment is the only solution. He reports that there are 100 of these criminals in the county, which is about 600 square miles, only one of which is made up of water. It is possible that someone is exaggerating on the numbers, but if the county spends only 1000 dollars to solve its problem and ends up killing some neighboring county beavers too, who’s going to complain?

I’m not exactly sure why the Hon. Spears appears in this interview or why his role as county judge requires him to be involved in the bounty hunt. He also is apparently using a track hole, not typical activity around the court house. Beaver killin’ is usually left for public works, or the highway commission. Bring in the scales of justice to deal with the scales of the beaver tail! Maybe its because Arkansas takes great pride in its forests, and the timber industry is their primary economic base. The Arkansas Forestry Commission provides sound, environmental advice for land-owners about the value of keeping their trees. The website says:

Manage Your Forest Your forest provides wildlife habitat, wood products, clean air and water, and a place to relax. Trees improve the quality of life in your community.The AFC provides landowners information, advice, and services to manage their forests.

Some unexpected wisdom from the AFC. I don’t disagree. There is, of course, an implication from the video that beavers threaten the lumber industry and will ruin all those good forests everyone loves. But what if it weren’t true? What if beaver taking of trees produced a natural coppice cutting that encouraged new growth? What if the denser new growth produced better habitat for migratory songbirds, and beloved game birds like woodduck? What if blocked culverts could be easily and cheaply controlled by the judicious use of a beaver deceiver? What if dams that caused road flooding could be controlled by the simple installation of a pipe? What if the habitat around a beaver lodge supported vastly more kinds of wildlife than similar habitat without a lodge? What if the AFC helped property owners manage their beaver population instead of just their trees?

Manage Your Beavers Your Beavers provide wildlife habitat, fishing, clean water, and raise the water table to recharge the aquifer. Beavers improve the quality of life in your community. The AFC provides landowners information, advice, and services to help landowners manage their beavers.

Gosh. A girl can dream, can’t she?

Beaverkill River

heidi08 History October 18, 2010

How’s that for a dramatic name? The beaverkill is the most famous flyfishing river in the United States, located in the Catskills in New York. It is to flyfishing what woodstock is to music festivals (famous and over). I was thinking grim thoughts about its name the other day, searching for the massive slaughter that lead to its appellation. Beaver friend Bob Arnebeck was the one who told me that “kill” is Dutch for “creek”, so beaverkill just means beaver creek.

Which makes sense, because if it was named after a whoppingly successful slaughter every single river in America could have been named “Beaverkill” at one time. The name is still pretty unusual, even though the experience was ubiquitous. This particular river was once full to bursting with trout, which does imply lots of successful breeding pools for juvenile salmonids, thanks to some happy beavers long ago. It is now mostly underground, pent up in concrete like most of our rivers. It was overfished even before the 1900’s, and there are now hatcheries along it to keep the anglers happy.

I was reading about the beaverkill because a reporter that I had recently made contact with let me know that she was going to be the editor of the Watershed Post, which covers New York’s watershed, spanning five counties in the Catskill mountains. I had written this reporter when she initially covered a presentation given by Beaver Solutions to the Massachusetts state house in not very beaver-generous terms. She took a little hunting to find, and in the course of doing so I learned that she was an interesting writer and worth attempting to convert. Turns out she was intrigued by my email, loved the name “worth a dam” and wants to set an interview when she transitions to WP. She thought writing about beavers in Albany watersheds might be a good idea.

Given the hatchet job performed by the NY Times earlier this year, I couldn’t agree more. We’ll see what happens.

Extra Extra! Read all about it!

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere April 9, 2010

And you thought them crazy Beaver people would be satisfied by saving beavers in Martinez!!! Ha! That was an appetizer! A practice run! We have a larger agenda that will make the last two years look like child’s play! Our big plans are moving solidly forward; I thought I’d give you glimpse into my day yesterday.

I got an email this week from Skip Lisle, the installer of our flow device, saying he was thinking about coming out to the bay area for a family event and did we know anyone who needed beaver work done while he was here? I took the opportunity to write a neighboring city with a beaver colony we have been watching, letting them know that there were options, and that eyes were upon them. I got a phone call yesterday from the manager of public works asking to have a conversation about “these flow devices” that can allow them to “keep the water low and preserve the habitat”.

This week we finally set up the conference call for the authors launching the paper proving beavers were historically in california over 1000 feet. This will be a collaboration between the archeologist from BIA who found the dam and had it carbon tested, the hydrologist from USFS/USDA we met at the Flyway Festival, and some others. This paper WILL really be written. Tappe WILL really be challenged. And Kings Beach WILL have to come up with a different excuse to kill the next round of beavers.

I got an email yesterday from a buddy of Brock Dolman’s who works for Northern California Fish & Game. He has been working with Brock on a literature review of the benefit of beavers, beginning with their effect on salmon. He is very impressed by the enthusiastic research we’ve been doing so far and wants our wiki friend and myself to be co authors in his upcoming paper designed to completely reconsider the way Fish & Game responds to beavers in California. Read that sentence again. Completely reconsider the way Fish & Game responds to beavers all over California!!!!!!!

It’s a beaver REVOLUTION!!!

Castor Fiber in Switzerland!

heidi08 Video February 25, 2010

Watch that leap after the beaver crosses the street! Now there’s something I’d love to see!

Crow Woods & Conservationists

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers February 28, 2010

The Crow Woods Beaver from Haddonfield Civic Association on Vimeo.

Our friend Sarah from Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, alerts me to this video from her friend Butch Brees about the Crow Woods beaver(s). Last month I read a lovely article about the local conservation commissions response to the new resident, and now it’s here on the little screen! Notice the fact that their citizen association spends money to actually film the story of these beavers and put footage on the website. (The city of Martinez won’t even provide a link or a photo.) Notice also they invested in lengthening the bridge when the beavers flooded it, instead of bemoaning damage to their trails and hiring the trapper. Bruce tours the area with a Haddonfield Conservation Commissioner and talks about the new habitat the beavers are creating for wildlife.

It’s almost made me teary to think of a video explaining the beaver value and habitat on the same website as video from the school board and city council. I can’t even really imagine it. One would think that Conservancy organizations are the obvious friends to beavers, but alas, it is rarely true. Sarah has clearly done admirable work spreading the beaver gospel in her neck of the woods. The BEST PART about this video is at the end, when Butch talks about how the park benefits from the raised water level because of the beavers, but if the beavers raise it too much they can install a flow device. Wow. A city that knows its options. Hand me my smelling salts, I’m feeling faint.

Speaking of Conservancy commissions, Massachusetts has about 300+ of them, one for every municipality. I have written several this year advocating a humane investment in beaver management. I just learned that Saturday Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions will be giving a talk at the state wide conservancy conference.They are pairing him with “on-the-other-hand, why-not-try-killun” representative, Laura Hajduk to present all the options.

Devoted readers of this website will recognize her name from the New York Times article where she bemoaned the successful (but very partial–Ed. note) recovery of the beaver population in the state, blaming it on ‘them pesky environmentalists who outlawed body-crushing traps’, (even though any creative man, woman or child with two IQ points to rub together could still get permission to use those traps under almost any circumstances). There will be a kind of “dueling beavers” note to the conference as they argue management from both sides of the crick. (I’m proud to say that website wonders allow me to note that several people searching for Ms. Hajduk over the year have come to our website, which is just plain fun.)