The Hounds of Gabriel

heidi08 New Species April 11, 2010

The ‘hounds of gabriel’ is an ancient phrase referring to the bay and flap of migrating geese overhead – their heavenly location suggesting they belong to the Archangel Gabriel. The older term is ‘ratchets’, (ratchet being a hound that hunts by scent.) I mention it because today was a ‘fowl’ morning for beaver watching. A creek sans castor, but crowded with paired up ducks making their survey of the best nesting areas. From the right came the honks of thirty geese in V’d flight and to the left, from the hills, came an unmistakable ‘gobble’. It’s the first time I have heard turkeys from the dam site, but at one point they were close enough to echo off the county building. What I wouldn’t give for that picture!

I am told that the wood duck boxes have been inspected and that two have ‘bowls’ which are initial pre-nests that indicate a prospective buyer is thinking about closing escrow. All in all we should have a population explosion of baby ducks this year. I can’t wait.

Subspecies Subplot

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, History October 18, 2010

C. c. acadicus Bailey	c. frondator Mearns Sonora beaver	C. c. pallidus
C. c. baileyi Nelson	C. c. idoneus	C. c. phaeus Heller Admiralty beaver
C. c. belugae Taylor\Cook Inlet beaver	C. c. labradorensis	C. c. rostralis
C. c. caecator Bangs Newfoundland beaver	C. c. leucodonta Gray Pacific beaver	C. c. repentinus Goldman Sonora beaver
C. c. canadensis Kuhl Canadian beaver	C. c. mexicanus Bailey Rio Grande beaver	C. c. sagittatus
C. c. concisor	C. c. michiganensis Bailey Woods beaver	C. c. shastensis Taylor Shasta beaver
C. c. carolinensis Rhoads Carolina beaver	C. c. missouriensis Bailey Missouri River beaver	C. c. subauratus California Golden beaver
C. c. duchesnei	C. c. pacificus Rhoads Washington beaver	C. c. taylori Davis

So theoretically there are 25 subspecies of beaver in the united states. The three in yellow are native to California. These subspecies are supposed to have slightly different skull morphology and slightly different ‘habits’. When subspecies don’t look noticeably different, or act noticeably different, they are defined as a variety of the species that is separated by some geological feature but generally could, if it weren’t for circumstances, breed comfortably with others outside its subspecies. Different races of humans are not called ‘subspecies’ for obvious reasons, but different types of dog are. There is some early description of golden beaver only knowing how to make ‘bank lodges’ instead of island lodges. In his famous chapter that is often cited, Grinnell noted that these beavers have lost their skill at making canals, somewhat at damming, and even that they are less likely to leave footprints!

Grinnell speculated that the golden beaver wasn’t ideally suited to the higher elevations, and even though they were eventually reintroduced and did fine (thank you very much) there are some who have argued that is because of their cross breeding with other beavers from heartier strains. Importantly, Grinnell did much of his research at a time when there weren’t many beaver left in california to get an adequate sample. Remember that way back in Morgan’s writing there was discussion of “slave beavers” based on the observation that some skins had dented heads, and were obviously the ones that did the damming work by breaking boards with their skulls.

Nowhere does he mention that regional and terrain differences might have more to do with varied behavior than genetics. For example, beavers on wide bodies of water like the colorado river build bank lodges and do not build dams, regardless of subspecies. When Rick saw our ‘bank lodge’ with built up wood atop he was confused. Was this a ‘bank lodge’ or an ‘Island lodge’? His work on the Shasta subspecies in the lassen area occurred very soon after the last volcanic eruption, and probably isn’t a good read of what is ‘typical’ either.

So one discussed goal of the “Historic Range of Beaver in California work group” (still working on the acronym) is proposing a “Lets Investigate Early Subspecies’ (LIES) paper as well. An interesting conversation is taking place with several genetic experts to see what testing would involve. A very important caution is that most historic beaver skins were preserved using arsenic, so care must be taken when collecting samples. Interestingly, we just had word that beavers were also ‘reintroduced’ in other states, some of the very states that supposedly were used to ‘reintroduce’ heartier california beavers. What this means is that whose beavers are whose might be anyones guess!

Pond & Plug

heidi08 Beaver News, Creative Solutions April 9, 2010

Nope I didn’t make this beaver-sounding technique up. It’s an EPA-recognized watershed intervention involving the use of dam s to create ponds in steep channelized areas that can slow down the flow of water, recharge the water table, create meadows and prevent drought and rapid runoff.

(See when humans do it, its science and good for the watershed! When beavers do it, its dangerous.)

The technique is the brain child of Larry Wilcox of Plumas county, who is a better friend of beavers than one might suspect. He was a topic in yesterday’s conference call for the beaver historical prevalence paper because he has seen other ‘paleo’ dams in his digging to construct stopper dams. The project uses what it jokingly refers to as ‘diesel beavers‘ (bulldozers and backhoes) to pick up dirt and rock. Often they find sign of earlier dams by beavers, sometimes buried under layers of silt. Stage two of the our history paper is to find some more early sites to carbon test so we can demonstrate the historic presence of beavers all over the state.

There was also discussion of the benefits of ‘enforced meandering’, a technique whose oxymoronic name conveys images of Nazi day-spas where you are required against your will to relax. Apparently people are very interested in what beavers do, if it can be done, you know, without the actual beavers.

Beavers in New Zealand?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere April 8, 2010

What Do Beavers have to do with Blenheim?

by Michelle Berridge – April 3rd, 2009. Filed under: South Island.

What do beavers have to do with Blenheim? Or the Marlborough region, for that matter? That’s what I wondered when I strolled down to central Blenheim’s riverside amphitheatre and came across a bronze sculpture of two beavers. These water-dwelling rodents certainly aren’t a native New Zealand animal or even an introduced one. In fact, I’ve never even seen one in a zoo!

Well, it turns out that the beavers are actually in homage to a couple of Blenheim’s previous names. From 1850 to 1859 Blenheim was known as ‘The Beaver’ or ‘Beaver Station’; rather ignoble names that hinted at the new Marlborough settlement’s tendency to flood! Drainage works over the decades have largely relegated this tendency to history – along with the names. So these two bronze beavers have taken up residence as a quirky reminder of Blenheim’s watery past.

I don’t care if the name is quirky! i just want those bronze beavers on our marina! An aside; we had some sidewalk work done this week and sneaked a beaver into the drying cement. Guess what the contractor (a complete stranger) said? Oh i love the beavers! I take my son to see them all the time!

Dickens Beavers

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions, History October 18, 2010

One of the signature characteristics of a Charles Dickens novel, (beside the rich characters, accessible dialogue, and fearless portrayal of class), is the number of coincidences that occur over the course of any story. He is famous for reintroducing the lost child to the searching mother; reconnecting young lovers severed through circumstance at a wealthy dinner party, (with one as a guest and one in service) and so on. While some have speculated that his use of coincidence was a plot convenience, or a lazy way to wrap things up, it more reflected his belief in the world. His friend John Forester said;

On the coincidences, resemblances, and surprises of life, Dickens liked especially to dwell, and few things moved his fancy so pleasantly. The world, he would say, was so much smaller than we thought; we were all so connected by fate without knowing it; people supposed to be far apart were so constantly elbowing each other; and to-morrow bore so close a resemblance to nothing half so much as yesterday.

I offer this by way of introduction to the surprising connections beaver supporters have made. For those following along at home, let’s review; last summer we held our largest and most successful beaver festival. it was attended by the coordinator of the girl scout extravaganza for northern california, and she invited Worth A Dam to participate. At the Flyway Fiesta we offered a charm bracelet activity that was enormously popular, and that lead to Worth A Dam being invited to two-day Flyway Festival.

At the Flyway festival we met the hydrologist from USFS who introduced us to the archeologist from the Bureau of Indian Affairs who had carbon-dated a paleo beaver dam at 750 years old. The dam was in Red Clover creek, at 5400 feet in plumas county. He had wanted to publish a paper challenging Tappe’s assertion that there “were no beaver in caiformia over 1000 feet” but he wanted a co-author.

Meanwhile my work with the beavers had lead to an invitation to be on the board for the john Muir Association. I’m in charge of entertainment for earthday this year and needed to secure a keynote speaker. Our wikipedia historian friend (who found us through the website) suggested Brock Dolman, so i tracked him down and we started a conversation. His very broad connections include a group of what I will call ‘beaver-curious’ folk who across the state who are interested in the restorative effect they have on the watershed. Brock was especially interested in the beaver-salmon connections and was able to convince the salmon conference people to add Michael Pollock to their line up this March.

Are you still with me? So Pollock gives his talk to a packed group who are very, very interested and he meets up with this Plumas county biologist from DFG who has a remarkable story to tell. Turns out he was the protege of the F&G old timer who was responsible for putting beavers in the the shasta region in the 1930’s. He of course, having read Tappe many times, thinks he was introducing them, and of course they thrived and did wonders for the watershed just as he expected they would. Touchingly, he said it was the ‘best thing he ever did’.

So the protege spent time looking at the hydrology and the terrain and began to get the sneaking suspicion that beaver had been there before; a reintroduction, not an introduction, but he didn’t want to argue with his mentor so he kept his suspicious to himself. Then he attends Pollock’s talk and afterwards an informal lunch discussion and learns about the archeologist and the carbon-dating and he announces that one of the creeks his old mentor had placed beavers was:

Red Clover Creek. The very place where the carbondated structure had been found!

Not enough coincidences for you? How about this little added tidbit. Way back when Martinez was talking about relocating our beavers to live on a reservation, guess where that offered asylum land was?

Plumas county.