Month: October 2010

Timor Mortis Conturbat Me

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween to beaver friends! Our beavers looked not at all prepared for the occasion last night although they must have been a little scary because when the ten-year-old girl beside us saw them with her family for the first time her initial response was (surprisingly) “EW!” As the furry little fellows swam around in the water and walked over them dam the Ew chanced into Oh and when one grabbed a twig and started chewing noisily right in front of her it changed to AWWWWWWWW but it definitely started out as repulsion.

Which, if you think about, is a far better response arc than the city council had.

Our friends in Kings Beach trying to save the Tahoe beavers are having a meeting this week and some of the county supervisors are planning on attending. They’re going to discuss options for beaver management and show Mike’s DVD. They have invited Worth A Dam to come help explain how this is possible and offered to put us up for the night, so our own Lory will be heading to the mountains to spread the beaver gospel. Good luck Lory! Our first official high elevation evangelism!

Yet another article from Massachusetts bemoans the impossibly restrictive trapping laws in that state. I wrote the author last night about the many exceptions that allow traditional trapping and he wrote a very long response this morning, continuing to argue that it’s not nearly enough and besides trapping often introduces youth to nature and kids just don’t spend enough time outdoors these days.(!) He notes that people who are opposed to body-crushing traps are impractical PETA city folk without direct contact with nature. He added that Massachusetts now hates beavers and all because of these trapping laws. He noted that crazy animal nonprofits are all supported with big money, saying there is a “WAR going on between” scientists and animal advocates” because we never have the same goals. (!) If I want to understand the issue better I should sit down and talk to good honest trappers and find out how hard their lives are. And PS my letter should be more polite. (Which, if you are a regular reader of this blog you would know, it was pretty damn polite). I’ll see what I can do.

As for the latin title I will only say that this phrase has appeared on a tombstone in my front yard for the past 12 halloweens. Every year I tell children that whoever translates it will get the whole bag of candy but no one ever does, which is surprising considering I am within spitting distance of the Catholic Church. Some day a creative youth will use the google on their iPhone and I’ll be out a bag of candy, but in the mean time, it amuses me. Don’t worry, I promise the only other Latin you will be forced to read on this website will be the word “Castor”.

Only You…

heidi08 Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers October 30, 2010

Well now I’ve heard everything. From the Toronto Sun we learn that a fire that burned a cottage to the ground and caused 150,000 dollars in damage was started by a beaver.

The buildings could not be saved but firefighters prevented the flames from spreading to another nearby cottage. Once the fire was out, the cause was not apparent, not until investigators realized a tree was down on a power line and they could see the distinctive marks of beaver chewing. Other beaver-chewed trees were down in the area as well. “It chewed through one of these trees, the tree fell on one of these high voltage lines, shorting the line,” said South Frontenac Fire Chief Rick Chesebrough. The power was conducted through the tree into the ground, igniting leaves and dry brush. “With the wind blowing toward the cottage, away it went,” he said. The cottage is about 20 km north of Kingston.

Give that man some credit because I read a lot of beaver accusations and THAT has got to be the best. Of course its theoretically possible that a beaver could could chew a tree that falls into power lines and a spark ignites brush. Just like the wind could blow a tree over and the spark ignites brush. But blaming beavers is a nice touch. It might be my favorite “Wanted” poster ever.

Well, except for those lawyers who that said the South American beavers were eating fish and getting super large. That was my all time-favorite. Gosh, where were those attorneys from anyway? Ontario! Hmm…Where that fireman was from? Now look, I’m sure its just a coincidence. It’s not like I’m saying the whole province blames beavers for every possible thing they can think of. I’m sure there are very reasonable people in Ontario who respect the backs of their nickles. Well not counting Mr. Spackman and this letter to the editor which I’m told was originally even more offensive and inflammatory and was edited accordingly. He says trapping is the second-oldest profession in canada (get it? prostitution being the first) The highlight of his diatribe against humans who impose their humanity upon things is its stunning conclusion which approaches a first-amendment argument.

In closing I would just like to say if we humans are going to be an invasive species the least we can do is be good at it, so the next time you see a trapper out protecting our infrastructure pat him on the back and thank him for saving you tax dollars to fix the damage that would have occurred had he not done his job. Don’t take a picture of his butt crack and put it in the local paper, I actually feel that MAY BE BORDERING ON PERVERTED.

Dwaine Brown: A Proud Trapper

Dwaine, allow me to personally reassure you that I regard trappers with every bit as much respect as I regard prostitutes. I fully understand both groups maintain a valuable societal role in allowing a failed and onerous patriarchy to perpetuate its myths and chauvinisms. Moveover, rest assured with my pledge to you, that I, at least, will never under any circumstances, succumb to the irrisistible temptation to photograph your butt crack.

Feel better?

I don’t want to accuse an entire province but never mind. Let’s be provincial. Ontario is INSANE when it comes to beavers. I’m sorry but its true. There is a dark age of beaver fear and ignorance and you and Ohio (and parts of Pennsylvania), are it!

Anyway, the fire’s out now, and lord knows the offending arsonists have been dealt with.

In the mean time, here are some excellent pictures of a more constructive nature. This is Adrian Nelson. He is the director of Communications at Fur-bearer Defenders in British Columbia, which is apparently slightly less insane about beavers. He’s installing a flow device in Langley. The photos are from their facebook page and the full essay is here.

You can see he’s using the domed top design of Mike Callahan (Skip uses a flat top like our round-fence) and is attaching the fencing with hog rings

(remember Skip using wire and the hollow pipe to twist it around from the New Mexico training video?), so I think Adrian must have trained with Mike on some occasion.Anyway I can’t tell you how THRILLED I am to have a new face on the beaver saving team,

and a young face at that.

Adrian, we here at Worth A Dam hope you stick around for a long, long time!!!

Locking up the Anti-Beaver Vote

heidi08 Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 29, 2010

Council hopeful Dave Spackman of Oshawa Canada has chosen a simple, bold platform for his election, (blushing tones not withstanding). “Kill the beavers!” Remember that last year Oshawa citizens were told the beavers were being relocated when they were really being killed. Then this year the residents rallied to save the beavers and stop the council from killing them. A temporary moratorium on killing was issued but the trappers invitation got lost in the mail so some beavers got accidentally killed anyway. All this, (including the council promising they’d ask the trapper if it was the mother beaver that got killed and the trapper telling them it was impossible to sex a beaver so he couldn’t know), sparked a fair amount of outrage and public pressure that motivated the council to rethink. (Note: in this sentence prefix “re” may be an exaggeration.) Now the fine environmental group that recommended killing them in the first place has a contract with the city for 60,000 to maintain the pond at a safe height so the beavers can stay. Dave feels that this exorbitant amount is so unpopular with voters that its worth a slogan and he’s built a campaign around it.

Dave Spackman: Kill the beavers!

At last a politician that will keep his promises! Well, not Dave himself personally. He’ll use taxpayer money of course to hire another trapper and kill the beavers but it will be WAY less than 60,000 dollars. Not sure what else he’d do for the town or where he stands on zoning issues, district funding, property taxes or road maintenance but by golly I know where he stands on beaver issues! Kill them all!

(Pinkly!)

(One has to speculate about the color. Did Mr. Spackman have an earnest kitchen-table conversation with a sensitive aunt or savvy political adviser who told him that the slogan might possibly alienate the female vote? Is the hue intended to ‘soften’ his murderous message and show subconsciously that he means no harm to women in general and is just protecting Oshawa’s purse strings? Or, perhaps, is this a deeply complex, ‘Brokeback Mountain‘ type of trapping advocate, who just happens to be really, really fond of pink? Inquiring minds want to know.)

I thought it was worth writing about Mr. Sparkman not because his platform is unusual, but because its so very, very typical. We here in Martinez have had more than a few politicians and candidates that have carved a name for themselves by being loudly anti-beaver. Especially when public works got finished with their important C.I.R. (Cost-inflating Record). By the time they were done adding up all the police presence they paid for at the November meeting, the hours they spent digging out the dam and the shovels they had to replace when they dropped some in the water, Martinez reported a beaver-saving cost of 75,000.

(For the record, 13,000 of that went towards bringing out Skip Lisle from Vermont to install the flow device at the dam. He flew out twice, one to ‘pitch’ his contraption and once to install it. The city paid for him to stay here in town a couple of days while he saw how his install held up to the first rains. The cost of airfare from Vermont to Toronto is about 350 dollars right now. You could put Skip up in a pretty nice hotel, buy him several of the finest dinners in town and have him install a flow device made of copper and silicon for that price. Just sayin’.)

You see, Oshawa’s 60,000 and Martinez 75,000 (that became 375,000 when they installed the sheetpile) seems like a lot of money, an impossible amount of money, more than any hardworking city can afford to squander to “save some rodents”. But, of course, that’s not what its for. It would only be ‘too much’ if it was for resident’s benefit. These sums of course are for the politico’s benefit – cover money, front money, make-them-look-good-money, lawsuit prevention money, pretend money: so the actual sums don’t matter at all. These are ‘fairy costs’, as in, clap your hands and lets make the voters pay for pretending this job is really, really expensive. If they end up hating all the money we’re spending, we won’t have to spend it, and the problem will go away. If they end up hating the do-gooders in town who are forcing us to spend all that money they’ll bicker amongst themselves forever and we can get back to our rezoning decisions uninterrupted and the problem will go away. If the money turns out to be a waste no one will ever believe those loud mouths again and we’ll get to kill the beavers and the problem will go away. And if it happens that it all turns out to be worth it, well we inflated the costs so its cheaper than it looks anyway. Problem solved!

How can we lose?

Mr. Sprackman doesn’t yet understand the way politics work or his sign would just read;

Dog Bites Man Story

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental October 28, 2010

Colorado State University Study: Beavers Played Key Role in Rocky Mountain National Park History

FORT COLLINS – Scientists at Colorado State University who are studying different sites in Rocky Mountain National Park say that beavers may have played a key role in the formation of park valleys. Why is this important? By better understanding what the park’s ecological make-up was before European impacts were made in the early 19th century, researchers can provide historical context to park staff as they consider various restoration strategies.

“We are examining the characteristics of river corridors in Rocky Mountain National Park at different times in the past and then looking at what has changed since then,” said Ellen Wohl, professor of geosciences in the Warner College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University. “Is it possible to restore the park to what it was prior to 1800 AD? What are the constraints on restoration? By taking a time machine approach, we can provide data to park staff on ways to return the park to its biologically diverse state.”

Really? Hundreds of beavers over thousands of years shaping the waterways and building dams that trap sediment and raising the water table and moving the tree line had something to do with the development of the valley? Who knew! Next you’ll tell me that annual precipitation has something to do with wildflower count! Well, I’m glad they’re teaching our kids something useful at college.

Today few, if any, beavers are in Beaver Meadows in part due to the extensive fur trapping in the 19th century that nearly wiped out the park’s beaver population and the previous heavy browsing of willow and aspen by elk; however, Rocky Mountain National Park is considering reintroducing beavers into suitable areas of the park.

Beavers create a unique dynamic in the valley ecosystems because they build dams, which in turn cause the formation of small ponds across the valley bottom, Wohl said. By spreading out water across a valley bottom, wetlands are created which provide habitats for plants and lots of organically rich “muck” that store carbon. These wetlands thus provide habitat that support food and shelter for beavers and other wildlife that depend on these biologically diverse systems.

“If we take away beavers, dams go away and we lose flooding in the valleys. Groundwater drops and dries out the valley bottom. Then hillside plants migrate to the valley bottom, creating a sort of xeriscaping of the mountain valley, and that is not good for biodiversity or carbon storage,” Wohl said.

Okay. Go ahead. Use words like xeriscaping, biodiversity and carbonstorage to make beavers sound like some newly developed technology hotter than solar film. Act like you just discovered that beavers are good for your little neck of the rockies and maybe it was a mistake to kill them all and they should be reintroduced. You’ll get no argument from me. And to tell you the truth, when patently obvious facts are forgotten for hundreds of years and then noisily “re-discovered” it is very much like learning something new.

Hearts & Minds

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, City Reports, Creative Solutions October 27, 2010

So Jon was down at the beaver dam last night checking on our heroes who made a little berm in front of the gap to stop the flow over the dam. Three tough young men were gathered there, a little bit appreciative and a little bit menacing. While he watched the three kits chewed on leaves and swam about. Then GQ came over the gap and the smallest kit swam quickly to him and onto his back and they swam together into the lodge. And everyone there said pretty much the same thing,

“AWWWWWW”

These are the essential traits that protect our beavers: understandable family attachments, understandable work ethic, understandable tragedies. Populist beavers. To the extent that people care about our beavers it is mostly do to the ways in which their behavior doesn’t take a park ranger to explain. The beavers, quite without our help, showed their value to the public and allowed their activities to be observable. Since most colonies keep their private lives private I’m not sure why ours decided to lift the curtain – maybe they had no choice because of their locale, or maybe they knew something we didn’t – but they did – and more so than any organization or media or advocate it’s what kept them safe.

I’m thinking especially about this because we are getting closer to the Santa Clara Creeks conference date where I’m going to talk about their role, and I’m supposed to have a chat with the Washington DC HSUS urban wildlife today to see if our beavers would fit with a ‘success guide’ for helping people help animals nationwide. I’m thinking over what worked and what didn’t. There are lots of things we did that helped save the beavers, chase media, write articles, put out video, work every farmers market for a year, talk to children, talk to Rotary and Kiwanis and Elks, talk to experts, and get children’s artwork and display in every single place we could imagine. But all these things wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if our beavers weren’t relatively easy to see and understand.

There are, of course, people who care about the beavers and have never seen them. Still one of the reasons beavers are a ‘charismatic species’ is that its easy to see sign of them. These people have mostly seen the dams, or the old lodge, or a beaver chew or even just footage on the news. It’s important to remember that Worth A Dam didn’t come to be until March of 2008 and didn’t generate a press release until June of that year. Most of the early coverage was pretty organic and based on luck. It was public support that got our beavers in the news, including this inexplicable report which gave us our furthest (national) reach.

I took the liberty at the time of editing the version I put on youtube to reflect the city’s obvious campaign not to call it a CREEK. But its interestesting to me now that this was reported in April of 2008 and there is no mention of the flow device or footage of it.We had already solved the problem but no one knew it. The city never really believed it was going to work three years ago, and didn’t even bring the issue up.