Month: December 2010

Weatherproof

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Uncategorized December 18, 2010

UPDATE: DADT Overturned 65-31

“The arc of history is long, but I’m pleased to note that it’s still bending towards justice.”

Steve Benen

Beaver, Beaver, in the rain

Checking on the dam again

Your creations, teeth and hands

Shape our waters and our lands.

(apologies to William Blake)

We crept down to the dams to see how they were fairing in the chilly rain last night. The first pond was swollen convex, brimming like the very moment you have filled the top champagne glass in a fountain and it is about ready to dribble down to feed the next layer. The second dam looked the same and we saw a beaver swimming up to check on it. It was terrifying and lovely to be so close to the coming storm and so easily able to get back home to a cozy fireplace.

The beaver did not look at all distressed by the weather, or its approaching effect on its handwork. I thought, as it swam between the two dams that it might be eager. I guess storms like these are the closest beavers get to being ‘ready to rumble’. The beaver seemed to be checking the currents and the pull of the water from below, then raising to feel the drops above the surface. I thought of a not entirely unwelcomed challenger on familiar terrain. “Aha, so the game is on!”

We left them to their monumental task, and returned to our fireside, for obvious reasons. Speaing of which, have you seen these photos from the Great Lakes? The freezing gale winds created an ice sculpture of a lighthouse of St. Joseph’s Island that will shiver you just to look at. Once in Martinez, maybe 12 years ago, we had a fast quick freeze that zapped the fountain in the Plaza with a shadow of this magnificence. Each trickle from the next level of the pond was frozen solid in mid air. It was cruelly beautiful, like something from the ice queen’s palace.

You probably need warming up after that. Here’s just what the Dr. ordered;

Christmas Cheer?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Uncategorized, Who's Killing Beavers Now? December 17, 2010

Friends plan joint attack on Lenawee Co. beavers

ROLLIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. —

Two old friends in Lenawee County’s Rollin Township have teamed up to start an unlikely career as beaver trappers. Gregg Ries and Melvin Tanner have taken out state licenses and registered part-time businesses as trappers, specializing in removing a nuisance animal most people do not yet realize is setting up colonies in Lenawee County. Beavers got the attention of Lenawee County Road Commission officials recently when they discovered a bridge on Medina Road was in danger. Beavers were gnawing a large tree that reportedly would have fallen on the bridge.

Tanner and Ries caught three beavers in Bean Creek near the bridge, the largest weighing 43 pounds. Ries said they will keep a lookout for more in that area while preparing for their next project.

Yes two unlikely men, teaming up against incredible odds to work together and provide a temporary and inhumane solution just in time for the holidays. I know my cockles are warmed. “What’s under the tree this year, daddy? Oooh, a Conibear trap! And one for Greggy too!” If they make a movie of this they should show it every Christmas.

Mind you, I don’t blame these mercenaries-in-the-beaver wars. Times are tough and a little extra money softens the season and takes the chill off. I just don’t understand how they get such glowing press. What is it with reporters and trappers? Are they really all just frustrated, sadistic bastards pinned beneath their keyboards and longing to be (or be close to) the men who cut the thread?

“I’m just more or less getting started in it,” said Tanner, who has been laid off from a factory in Jonesville for two years. Business is expected to pick up as beavers become more established in Lenawee County, he said. “They can do a lot of damage once they get a foothold,” Tanner said.

Ries said he works at a factory in Adrian while pursuing the trapping business in his spare time. His biggest customer so far has been the Hillsdale County Drain Commission office. This year he received his first paychecks from the Lenawee County Drain Commission after trapping beavers at Horseshoe Lake on the county border.

“I’ve always enjoyed trapping and I’ve been doing it all my life,” Ries said. “It’s a whole different thrill catching beavers than anything else.” The animals are similar in behavior to muskrats, he said. But their size puts them in an entirely different class.

A different thrill. Call Doubleday, Ries, I think you found your book title. Yes, when you think about all the wildlife that depends on a beaver pond you aren’t just killing one beaver, you’re also taking out the trout, the muskrat, the heron, the otter and the mink that depend on it. Heck, maybe you’ll even be contributing to the drought next summer. Sure, you’re only two small men in a crazy mixed-up world, but you CAN make a big difference. I guess that must be why you do it. That and the fact that we outsourced your factory job in Jonesville to village in Guanajuato. Don’t worry, we won’t ever get foreigners to trap our beavers. We need real ‘mericans like you to do it.

(I guess it really is a service economy.)

The largest of the more than 100 beavers he has caught so far weighed 63 pounds, Ries said. He said he expects trapping services will be more in demand as beavers spread into Lenawee County. “Yeah, we’re hoping,” he said with a laugh.

What better way to end this seasonal story than with the sugarplum hopes of beaver trappers.

Well, boys when you’re ready to offer REAL solutions to the good people of Lenawee county maybe you could learn a thing or two about Flow Devices. I’m sure once word gets out there will be a big demand for services that don’t need to be repeated every year. Maybe you’ll even appreciate the better fishing and hunting that’s available once you have a few well maintained beaver ponds. Take a look at this article and let’s talk.

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Next Stop: Beavers!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental December 16, 2010

There’s been a weird flurry of activity on the ‘beaver-saving front’. I had an email from one of the women who attended the Santa Clara Creeks Conference asking if it was okay to pass my name along as possible speaker for a parks conference. Sure, I said, thinking ‘regional parks’. Yesterday, I was invited to speak at the California State Parks Conference in Yosemite. State Parks. Did I want one hour or two?

(Gulp. Just two?)

After I twittered about the house in a panic I wrote Michael Pollock and said, hmm might the NOAA ever authorize you to talk about beavers and salmon in Yosemite? He answered “sign me UP and lets call Rick”. So I talked to our historian-wikipedian friend, Rick and he can’t wait. We will be a “Beavers: How, Why and Where” triumverate on the Ides of March in snowy-bound-early-spring Yosemite, convincing rangers to use different tools and let beavers stay.

Somebody pinch me.

Of course our state parks are in dire times here in California, or they wouldn’t have a conference full of riff-raff like me. But we will make sure the state’s loss is the beavers gain. Deep breath. Hail Castor Yosemite!

More good news? I learned that our friend Adrian from Fur-bearer defenders (who just built the flow device) will be coming to the State of the Beaver Conference. And I just heard this morning that Paul Ramsay of Save the Free Tay Beavers will be there as well! It’s a long way from Scotland to Oregon, but he was lured by the keynote speaker, Donald Hey, and I don’t blame him. It will be a rare delight to sit in a room full of people who all know way more about beavers than me.

Christmas Comes Early

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Uncategorized December 15, 2010

If you haven’t seen Dana Guzzetti’s lovely article in the Contra Costa Times (and why would you have since its coming out tomorrow?) you must go read it on the website. I can honestly say that at this point in my life I have now read more Martinez Beaver news articles than I’ve read cereal boxes or warning lables and this is by FAR the most delightful. As we have (sadly) grown no more charming over the past 4 years I can only conclude that this is because Dana is the kindest beaver reporter ever, and once again, having the kids there didn’t hurt a bit!

Jon Ridler of “Worth A Dam” talks about the Martinez Beavers Dam Wednesday Dec. 1, 2010 to a third grade classes from Las Juntas Elementary School in Martinez Calif. The students who have been learning about beavers, got to see an actual beaver dam and hear how the beavers work together to build the dam. (Dan Rosenstrauch/Staff)

During a field trip, the third-graders listened as Ridler and Worth a Dam founder Heidi Perryman shared details of the beaver family living in Alhambra Creek in the heart of downtown Martinez.”Only one other species changes the earth more than beavers. Can you guess what it is?” Perryman asked. Eventually a student correctly guessed “man.” “The Great Wall of China and a 2,800 foot beaver dam in Northern Canada can be seen from space,” Perryman added.

(Well, Gosh. I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually say the part about the great wall and visible from space thing, but it sounds brilliant. Thanks, Dana.) The only thing missing from your article is FRo! Who labored all day with us and got no editorial credit for her excellent beaver chanting skills. Well, she’ll get plenty of attention at Earth Day, we’ll make sure of it.

Dana provided a great review of how the Flow Device works also, although she couldn’t resist temptation to call it a ‘beaver deceiver’. At least there is proof that I tried to steer her away from the misnomer in her writing ‘Some call it a beaver deceiver” a phrase that conjurs up spaghetti western images of Clint Eastwood in a poncho.

The solution was a water flow device that some call a “beaver deceiver.” It is an open, flexible pipe or tube with a wire cage over it that is placed upstream from the beaver dam so that water is carried to a downstream location past the dam without creating the “running water” signal for the beavers to build.

That’s actually as good a description as I’ve read in any paper, so thank you. Maybe we should just give up on the naming issue and admit that ‘beaver deceiver’ is the most recognized label and is going to get used the most no matter what we do. Skip? I’ll keep at it until 2012 but if people don’t get the distinction by then I’m not going to bother explaining that what we have in Martinez is a “Castor Master” which is a type of Flow Device similar to the Flexible Leveler and Beaver Deceivers block culverts. Whew!

“The beavers make a neighborhood,” Perryman told the youngsters. Since their arrival in Martinez 2006, the presence of the beaver dams has attracted a local food-chain type of ecosystem. Perryman recounts the process: “Bugs came, then more bugs, then fish, then big fish, muskrats, otters and even a mink.” “I discovered the beavers and just began taking pictures of them and posting them on YouTube,” Perryman said.She, Ridler and others have become beaver experts, visiting the site nearly every day, studying, lobbying and teaching about beavers.Perryman is looking forward to February for the State of the Beaver 2011 Conference in Canyonville, Ore. where beaver advocates will meet to learn from the Martinez experience and each other.Worth a Dam has established a beaver management scholarship fund and recently granted $500 to Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care to help that community establish a beaver dam water flow device.

I can’t believe you managed to get all that in, Dana! The Beavers thank you SO MUCH! Make sure you keep this article for the scrapbook and let us know if you (or you our readers) want to help out at the next fieldtrip!

Okay, what is worth following that cheerful article? How about more good news? Remember the Bronx Beaver “Jose” outside the Zoo in New York? He was written about in Audubon and National Geographic, among other places. He had built a lovely habitat and attracted a friend last we heard? Well we were contacted last night by the education director for the Bronx River Alliance and he had found Felix Ratcliffs paper on willow intake for beaver and wanted to thank us for the resource. You may recall that Condor Country Consulting generously donated the manpower hours for this paper when the city required a biologist’s report before we could undertake the [controversial?] 2009 tree planting. Well, his labor is reflected in the smartly written report and apparently helpful for all sorts of communities. Including the only beavers in the country more famous than ours.

For a final, satisfying note, check out the Fort Smith Website under the picture of the pretend beaver.

Not A Beaver! This semi-aquatic rodent is known as a nutria or coypu and hails from South America. It was brought to North America by fur ranchers (primarily) and tends to have destructive feeding and burrowing habits. These behaviors make this invasive species a pest to its newfound habitats.

Thanks guys, for the correction!

Good News

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Earth Day December 14, 2010

I have begun tracking down potential speakers for the JMA Birthday Earth day event. Jack Laws is busy that day, and I had the [crazy] idea that it would be good to have a female speaker this year, since they never have. Tom Rusert told me such amazing things about Zara McDonald of Felidae Conservation Fund that I wrote her contact person and asked if she’d be interested/available. I heard back immediately that she was both and we are talking when she gets back from London. Wouldn’t that be an exciting focus for conservation? Wildlife Corridors for Mountain Lions? L

Later I got an email from Cheryl that she just learned that Monterey SPCA picked up a sick yearling beaver a few days ago who was starting to look a little better. They were in contact with Cheryl Milhilm at Tahoe Wildlife Care and the beaver was starting to take food. Just 31 lbs, it was found wandering around a dry creek bed. My guess is its an early disperser that just didn’t get lucky. Of course I could think of only one question;

Is it a female?