The above was filmed last night at the beaver dam. A turtle was cautiously watching ‘the gap’ and seemed to want to go over so I started filming. Half way through the turtle appears to change its mind and come back, then started this weird back-and-forth rubbing on the surface. The way the legs are moving i wondered if (she) was digging a hole and laying eggs? Now i wonder if (he) is more likely marking his territory and telling no other turtles to cross here. It is a pretty smart investment of turtle resources, since nobody gets to the pond without using the gap. Our beaver friend who knows all about creeks asker her friend whose a turtle expert and he says turtles don’t scent mark which means we really have no idea what he or she was doing.
The Hokey Pokey? Meanwhile, all three kits were seen last night: you can even see their telltale ripples in the water.
The turtle unfortunately isn’t one of our many pond turtles, but looks to be a red-eared slider, a released ‘pet’ that has bred in the wild and has become a pretty invasive species. It’s the same breed that laid eggs near the bridge two years ago, hatching 13 babies, one of which is now lovingly cared for in the office of the county recorder. Looking at this turtle choosing the most traversed part of the entire creek to mark you can understand why aggressive sliders have been more successful than the gentler western pond turtles. Cheryl tells me that there is even a program to reintroduce and foster pond turtle sponsored by the Oakland Zoo.
Just in case any reader needs a ‘gap refresher course’ I suggest you take a look at this video. (Footage shot by Cheryl Reynolds). You can see that every species, be they beaver or bird, crosses the dam in the little depression we call ‘the gap’. In fact, in 2008 when Mom and Dad beaver first let their kits into the pond, Jon saw them lay ‘sticks’ over the gap – in effect closing the door and making a water-safe playpen for their children!
I will end with apologies for the weirdness of the website of late. The server was down yesterday and depending on the browser you use some viewers have been getting incomplete or dropped posts. I assure you we are working on figuring out the solution, and feel free to drop me a note if any thing inexplicable appears on this site.
If you’re like me, you get tired of the same old beaver bad news stories out there – beaver trapping in New York, beaver flooding in Maine, beavers getting scraped out of the watershed in Chico – it’s all a little depressing. So this morning I have a special treat to take you solidly through the rest of your week. Let’s call it the Beaver Good News!
This morning I heard from our friends at Tahoe that they had a very productive meeting with public works and showed the beaver management DVD. I’ll let Denise explain for herself:
Just wanted to let you know the meeting with Cheryl and Peter from public works at King’s Beach went really well. He welcomed the opportunity to learn more about solutions and after viewing the video realized how simple it is to deal with beaver issues. I really believe this whole thing was borne out of ignorance and his willing to work with us is promising. They are setting up a community meeting in the next few weeks and will work on how to fix the problems together as a community. Gee-what a concept huh? Anyway he seems to want to set an example here in the Tahoe Basin-let’s hope that happens!
Wow! I’m so happy to read that Tahoe will consider being smarter than a beaver! It’s fantastic that people could look at actual explanations and feel new solutions are possible. Wouldn’t it be great if the place people go to see nature actually started working with nature?
Why does the SNH report referred to in Wider News (issue 71) comment on a potential disturbance to trees by beavers? Of course they are going to be disturbed. They are going to be cut down and then they are going to coppice and grow again. These are willows, poplars, aspens and so forth. They grow like weeds. By cutting them down, the beavers let light into the bottom story of the surrounding forest, benefiting herbs shrubs and grasses, and creating meadows for grazing animals. In other words they are diversifying the terrestrial environment, not to mention, of course their huge beneficial effect on the water environment. William Hughes-Games, New Zealand
And finally, in response to this issue of “who’s killing beavers now” Sharon Brown of Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife is sending the following letter;
As a biologist who has focused on lasting solutions to beaver problems for twenty years, I’m writing about the Waddington Town Board’s plan to trap beavers (10/16/10 story). Studies show that removing beavers gives only an expensive, short-term solution as area survivors will migrate ten miles or more into the empty habitat.
Waddington’s Animal Control Officer initially had the right response when he advised landowners to protect their trees (our educational nonprofit has detailed information about this: see BeaversWW.org). Leave any trees already felled, so they won’t be stimulated to cut more. Being proactive once is much less costly than repeatedly hiring trappers.
Many people are unaware that beavers have natural population control because each family posts and protects a large territory from other paddle-tails, they reproduce only once a year and litter size relates to the food available. But when the resident beavers are killed, others in the area respond with larger litters.
Kits stay with their parents for two years and need to be cared for by a wildlife rehabber when the adults are killed. Liability is a growing concern as pet dogs and rare species have died in the Conibear traps set for beavers. This has led to hefty lawsuits.
Win-win solutions are available that benefit both nature and taxpayers.
Now, if your heads aren’t too full of good beaver news from sea to shining sea, go read this article about beaver relocation by our friends at the Lands Council. Joe Cannon says the article is riddled with colorful misunderstandings but the gist is clearly communicated.
The nine beavers were live-trapped by The Lands Council, a Spokane-based nonprofit. They’ll be released on private property near Priest River, where the landowner wants beaver dams and ponds for wildlife habitat and water storage.
The Lands Council has identified 10,000 miles of Eastern Washington’s creeks and streams where beaver could be re-established. Beaver dams connect streams to the flood plain, storing water and slowing a river or creek’s velocity. Their ponds also create rich habitat areas for other wildlife.
“We’re trying to monitor the ways that beavers change the ecosystem,” said Joe Cannon, beaver program assistant.
Just so you know, I met Joe when he asked about beavers in captivity on Mike’s beaver management forum on facebook. He and Amanda are coming to present at the State of the beaver conference in Oregon. Is the beaver world small enough for you or what?
The Fogertys’ home is on Edgewood Drive, which abuts to Alamo creek. Wilson and Ann Fogerty came home from a vacation to find a rather large beaver problem in their backyard. A metal fence they put up was torn down and in their what they described as usually pristine swimming pool sat quite a few large clumps of beaver feces at the bottom.
Isn’t that just like a beaver? Lurking inside a muddy dam, knocking over a metal fence, plucking the petals from some geraniums and pooping in a swimming pool? Gosh those poor beseiged Fogertys. Get me the number of animal control. This has to be stopped.
Umm…
Except beavers don’t live ‘inside’ the dam, they probably wouldn’t knock over a fence unless they were trying to get to a tree, they have tastier targets in mind than your geraniums and how on EARTH would you know to recognize beaver feces?
Allow me to say, as a woman who has in the past four years of my life spent literally thousands of hours with beavers, allow me to say that in all my morning and evening jaunts to the beavers I’ve seen exactly zero beaver feces. Which doesn’t mean that they’re invisible or constipated as a species, but rather that they occur in fairly secretive locations and always in the water. Because of beavers unique diet they are more like little pellets of sawdust than babyruth bars. I have even seen them online in only two places, and the above photo is one of them.
Which is why, I, as an avid beaver-reader and critical thinker question the notion that this couple came back from their Winnebago vacation, put down their keys and sunglasses and were stunned to recognize beaver droppings in the bottom of their swimming pool. How would they know it was beaver?
They can go from cute and cuddly to a rodent in a New York minute,” she said as she assessed the damage. “I would say, ‘Don’t leave it to the beavers.’ ” “I want to throw dynamite in there,” Wilson Fogerty lamented about the beaver dam.”I don’t want to have a dead beaver,” she responded. “But they do carry diseases and there is not a lot of people to help you figure this out.”
Ahhh the salt of the earth. The hardworking men and women of Vacaville, CA just trying to take care of their swimming pools and geraniums. You know, I’ve heard through the grapevine that way back when Martinez Public Works discovered our beavers they called PW in Vacaville and said, “What should we do?” And the answer came back very simply,
“Kill em, all!’
Well, Mr. and Mrs. Fogerty, I think its so unlikely that beavers pooped in your pool that I am willing to promise to personally clean all the beaver poop myself. Feel better? The tipped flowerpots makes me think more likely raccoons since they are often very happy to look for the grubs at the bottom of the pot. Or it could have been humans having a fine teen pool party in your back yard and leaving you with a token of their intrusion. If it turns out it was beavers I will eat a plate of the bugs of your choosing. I haven’t heard of a single real problem your beavers are causing you so I won’t pretend to offer solutions. just know that exclusion for your swimming pool is a good idea for all kinds of reasons, not just beaver-related.
Even this family from Texas who hated beavers and chased them out with a pool scrape didn’t complain about beaver poop in their swimming pool!
(But thanks for the excuse to post this picture again, I never ever get tired of it!)
UPDATE: Just heard from the Reporter that they will publish my letter to the editor. A beaver poop to remember!
And meanwhille, beaver friend GTK writes that they’re busy shooting wild pigs in Clayton so they won’t mess up the golf course. Gosh, we have to use up a lot of water and kill a lot of wildlife to keep those 18 holes looking nice.
The new look for the site is Scott’s own design. It’s a work in progress, so let me know if there’s anything that doesn’t work on your browser – (except for the slideshow, I know that doesn’t work but I can’t bear to part with it just yet. It is the artwork of the first children’s activity we ever did.) Thanks for the repeated rescues Scott and hopefully I’m having a learning curve in there somewhere. In the meantime look at that cute little beaver symbol beside my name. Isn’t that lovely?
LEWISTON I was contacted yesterday by some concerned folks in the Maine beaver story who say that the city has politely received all the information and contacts I sent and is still throwing up its collective hands helplessly, determined to trap because its the “ONLY SOLUTION”. I sent them proof of everything they had already been told and nudged Skip to give them a call today. Fingers Crossed.
KINGS BEACH I heard this morning from another Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care employee that Cheryl is meeting with public works and Caltrans to talk specifics for what the do the next time this happens. I had already asked Denise, (who wrote me after their protest), to guest blog about the event. I got her column yesterday and I thought I’d pass it along to you. See if it doesn’t bring back old memories for you...
The scene was like a 60’s peace rally re-created. Things were different though. It was 2010 and the ones holding the signs were children -little children! The signs read “Don’t Kill Our Beavers” and “Save the Beavers”.
The heartbreaking part was that the children didn’t realize their beloved Beavers were already dead. They had been trapped and killed just a day or so before. This took place in King’s Beach Ca. yesterday. The beavers had been killed just last year due to “possible” flooding issues from the pond they created next to Hwy 28. The Public Works Dept. sited damage to public property as the reason.
This year’s “fiasco” has been unfolding for a week or so. The Public Works Dept. started by destroying the beaver’s dam daily. Of course the poor beavers spent all night cutting down more and more trees to try to rebuild their home. Finally – everything was trucked away and the beavers sat in a mud hole-bewildered and confused. Parents of the local co-op school volunteered to keep watch but “sometime” between Tuesday and Friday the trapper came and killed the family of beavers.
The area “was” a lovely grassy area adjacent to the creek and beaver dam where people came to watch the happy family doing their daily “beaver chores”. Yesterday some of the parents swear they saw blood in the grass from the beaver’s death. So sad and unnecessary! The ironic part is that after the dam was removed we got heavy rains and sediment and material from the dam washed in to Lake Tahoe-something that would have been prevented “if” the dam was left in place-!!!
It’s all about “Keeping Tahoe Blue” here and this did not fit in well with this logo! The children adopted the Beaver as their mascot and watched them daily. What kind of a message did we send to these children?? We want to promote “eco-tourism” here. Again-what kind of a message did killing the local wildlife send? If they had just waited a few days more we could of helped them to find a way to save the family of beavers. I love the way the “responsible parties” say the beavers are “gone’ or “taken care of“, they themselves not wanting to tell the inquiring children they are already dead! Call it what it is-“they” obtained the permit to have them killed!
Moving forward-Cheryl Millham from Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care spoke with Peter Kraatz from Placer Public Works during the “rally” and he agreed to meet with her “one-on-one” and discuss alternatives such as beaver deceivers. I really believe this killing was born out of ignorance and “they” thought this was the only way! Thanks to Cheryl “they” will now be educated and hopefully set an example for other cities such as Martinez did. The sad part is that this happens all over the Lake Tahoe area. We received the video on beaver solutions from Mike Callahan at Beaver Solutions LLC today and plan to have Public Works at Kings Beach view and learn from it during the first meeting. Maybe “they” can set an example for other Public Works depts. I watched the informative video myself and was amazed at how simple and economical the solutions actually are. Some of the people at the public works dept. are engineers and if they can’t figure it out -we’re in trouble! A committee has been formed and I believe this CAN be resolved and “hopefully” not happen again-at least not in Kings Beach! Hopefully next year the children from the school who’s mascot is the Beaver will again have the privilege of studying them and watching them daily. Time will tell!
Thanks Denise for the heart-felt story telling. We wish you the best of luck. I’m going to suggest that you read The opposite of Camoflaug” over and over again for inspiration in the coming months. Beaver Festival Tahoe anyone?
You might remember that last year I wrote about the “State of the Beaver” Conference in Oregon organized by the South Umpqua Rural Community Partnership and the Cow-Creek Umpqua at their casino in Canyonville, Oregon. Everyone of beaver note was there, including Skip Lisle, Sherri Tippie and Michael Pollock. I very much wanted to be there too, and I wrote Leonard Houston begging for 15 minutes of space for the famous Martinez Beavers. He promised to make room but in the end our timing didn’t work out and we mournfully decided not to go.
Guess what came in the email box Friday?
I wouldn’t exactly describe it as an invitation. It was more like a royal summons without the letter head. It said “Heidi, we have added you onto the schedule on the second day of the conference, along with Sherri Tippie, Glynnis Hood and Steve Zack. We’ll pay food and lodging and if Worth A Dam covers your travel expenses we’ll add your organization as a sponsor.” He went on to add,
We are targeting Traditional Ecological Knowledge, wetlands, climate change, beavers birds and wildlife and breakaway brainstorming sessions on day 3. We will of course be including non-lethal management and alternative solutions for problematic beavers. Lot to squeeze in but we are going too.
Now, dear readers, let me just say privately to you how enormously affirming it is to be formally on the schedule and granted accommodations. (Come to think of it, I have, in my vast professional career – for which I went to college for ten – count them ten years and received a license from the State of California – I have as a psychologist attended many conferences from Louisiana to Michigan where I’ve presented and even been paid for my time but have been given accommodations for exactly ONE of them.) Hmm. Apparently my psychological skills are a dime a dozen. But my beaver skills, for which I received no formal training whatsoever, might be worth investing in! Who knew?
Readers of this website must all know Sherri Tippie, but the other names might be less familiar. Glynnis Hood is the Canadian researcher who has been the driving force behind the argument that beavers can mitigate the effects of climate change.
“Removal of beaver should be considered an environmental disturbance on par with in-filling, peat mining and industrial water extraction,” said researcher Glynnis Hood, lead author on the study and an assistant professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus in Camrose, Canada.
Not to be out done, Steve Zack is the co-author behind the “Beaver Dams increase songbirds” research. I remember when his article came out the folks at Wild Birds Unlimited laminated several summary pages for us and were very pleased to finally have a formal reason to explain their friendliness to the beavers. Being in the same lineup as these remarkable heroes from the beaver-research frontlines is intimidating in the extreme, but also very, very exciting.
(What do I know about beavers really that’s worth a an hour of anyone’s time in that setting? These folk don’t need to be told that beavers mate for life and don’t eat fish! What does an accidental beaver advocate have to contribute to the conversation? I mean besides having a lot of great footage and images of them, observing their effects close at hand every day for the past four years, organizing opposition to local government, coordinating support, using research to combat ignorance, endless education and outreach, seeing the beavers make a difference in hundreds of children’s lives, and seeing hundreds of children make a difference in the beavers lives, maintaining a website that has become a global hub of beaver information, helping launch a DVD about beaver management, reviewing and advising countless cases of beaver activity across the nation, instigating a research project to document historic beaver prevalence in california, and getting famous beaver folk to spend a little more time talking to each other.)
Come to think of it, I guess I have rather a lot to say.
Okay, I won’t be intimidated. This is a great club to be invited to. I’ll sit in the front row, write everything down and ask a hundred questions. I’ll sing the praises of Worth A Dam and argue that any city smarter than a beaver can keep a beaver. I’ll show how beaver families interact and if anyone asks me my ideas about charging property owners a ‘salmon tax’ for killing beavers I’ll make sure I let them know where I stand.
Thanks, Len.
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On a separate note, GTK wonders how many beaver mom’s can possibly die in one year?
