Funding Needed!

heidi08 Uncategorized February 23, 2011

Persistent organic pollutants are also called “endocrine disrupters” and include compounds like DDT and PCBs. Although many of these compounds are now banned from production in the U.S., they are still detected in the environment because they degrade very slowly and they are still being used in other parts of the world and then transported through the atmosphere over long distances.

Persistent organic pollutants accumulate in seemingly pristine, high altitude environments and are concentrated in lipophilic or fat-containing substances like tree bark. We would like to see if beavers biomagnify or concentrate these toxins in their tissues and fat reserves because of their potential exposure through eating tree bark. We have collected beaver tissues samples and tree bark samples at different elevations from several watershed systems in the Coastal and Cascade Mountain Ranges, including the Luckimute River, Rickreall Creek, Siletz River, Calapooia River, Thomas Creek and North Santiam River.

Concentrations of persistent organic pollutants will be mapped for each collection site and will demonstrate whether or not these toxins are accumulating in these keystone species and watershed environments. $25,000 is currently needed to analyze all samples. Please contact Dr. Ursula Bechert (ursula.bechert@oregonstate.edu) if you have information on funding sources.

Ursula Bechert, DVM, PhD

Director of Off-Campus Programs

College of Science

Oregon State University

2082 Cordley Hall- DBPP

Corvallis, OR 97331

Tel: 541 737 5259

Fax: 541 737 3573

E-mail: ursula.bechert@oregonstate.edu

Pollutions affecting beavers! Let’s get on this right away! Incidentally, i hear those things aren’t good for people either. Pass this along to your grant- writing friend and lets find money for the project. In the meantime, thanks to Emily at the Sonoma IT who graciously made beavers nocturnal once again, and our Friends of Alhambra Creek who were very friendly to us last night. Hopefully there’s new trees a-coming!

Beaver Truths and Untruths

heidi08 Beaver News, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Recent Sightings February 22, 2011

Ahhh, good beaver news in the Sonoma IT. Aside from one jarring typo and the what appears to be a photo of stuffed beavers on a pretend dam this is some good beaver reporting from Sonoma. It starts with a discussion by Caitlin Cornwall about the value of beavers to the watershed and the good they do to the ecosystem. Not sure why they deserve the label “seldom seen”, because they certainly aren’t wolverines! She ventures that the valley isn’t ideal habitat because of the ‘flash’ streams and urban density. (I would argue that since we killed all the beavers everywhere in California has ‘flash’ streams and urban density, and suggest that what we need are MORE beavers to mitigate the flow and more riparian border between homes and waterways – but that’s just me!)

Last night we met friends of friends from the beaver conference for dinner and showed them around our very trashed beaver habitat. Honestly the water level is so low everywhere I can’t imagine where the beavers could even swim to make repairs. We’ll see what happens – some folks said they saw them last night and cheryl and jean saw one or two kits early in the evening. Fingers crossed. At dinner we saw congressman Miller and our host ran after him to make sure he knew about the beavers! He assured her that he did and he had even seen them before.

two tails — Two Tails & A City - Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

.Alright, I have a radio interview this morning at 9:30 although my hopes of making myself understandable are fairly dim after being quoted as saying beavers aren’t active at night…sheesh….I only want to add…of course they only come out in the daytime so they can see all the FISH they eat!!! That is before they tunnel under entire cities, collapse buildings and fight to the death to mate with the herd…

Update: Radio interview went well. Lots of good news for beaver believers and some plugs for the city of Martinez. Hopefully will get more than a handful of attendees and change some hearts and minds!

Light-Hearted

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental February 21, 2011

I thought today should be full of easy enjoyments, and good cheer. I’ll start with the photos from the t-shirt sales of our friends in Scotland who are trying to save the free beavers of the river Tay.

Pretty cute huh? One of their members recently posted a picture of a chewed tree that the Angler society called “Suspected beaver damage”.It made me giggle so much I had to do this in response.

Now that was fun! Speaking of chewed trees, Jon unwrapped the willows we planted in 2008 and they have now all been felled and eaten! We’ll be talking about doing a 2011 planting tomorrow at the Friends of Alhambra Creek Meeting. If you’d like to donate your labor, organization, or spare change, the beavers would appreciate it!

precarious — Before the sand-painting of trunks by the primary dam.

A final bit of enjoyment for a Monday morning (that is a holiday for many but not for me because I’ve taken TOO many days off to go to Oregon). I just found this on youtube and can’t remember seeing it before. It’s delightful. I love that the beaver is an old man. I don’t suppose Disney knew that the native name for beaver of the Karuk tribe in northernmost California is sah-pihnîich which translates literally to “by-the-River Old-man”. Perfect!

Valley of the Moon

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, In the News, Uncategorized February 20, 2011

“What a coincidence!” Mrs. Hale exclaimed. “For this is the Valley of the Moon.” “I know it,” Saxon said with quiet confidence. “It has everything we wanted.” “But you don’t understand, my dear. This is the Valley of the Moon. This is Sonoma Valley. Sonoma is an Indian word, and means the Valley of the Moon. That was what the Indians called it for untold ages before the first white men came. We, who love it, still so call it.”

Jack Lonon: The Valley of the Moon

So I’m off to Jack London country this week, apparently the Miwok and Pomo thought the moon (or moons) rose from this region. Makes sense to me. I spent yesterday coaxing my Martinez Beaver presentation from its whittled 40 minutes-slot in Oregon into the 90 minutes I’ll have in Sonoma. I hope to spread the beaver gospel to the curious and disbelieving in attendance. I hear it will be a challenge. A few years back some very California beavers ate the grapevines in the area and caused quite a stir among the community. The reporter from the tribune and Tom Rusert my host asked me specifically to address issue this so I spent some time on the conundrum and did some investigations while I had the chance!

At the conference Leonard Houston and the Oregon folk said exclusion fencing > Mike Callahan offered the idea of electric fencing installed at a 6 inch height> Skip Lisle by email suggested maybe having it on a solar panel>and Brock Dolman said that solar paneled livestock fencing was used all the time. He pointed out that electric wire comes in different thicknesses for the different livestock you’re trying to control, and recommended poultry wire for beavers. Everyone liked this idea provided that care was taken to watch that beavers, who do not climb, don’t dig under the fence!

So there you have it. The benefit of many experts in one room. Hopefully we can persuade a few brave and humane souls to try it out.

Speaking of experts at the conference, Dr. Ursula Bechert, DVM, Ph.D. from Oregon State University asked me to post the description of her upcoming study using beavers as an indicator species to measure Persistent Organic Pollutants at higher elevations, where they are observed to accumulate. Beavers are studied because they are exposed twice (land and water) and provide a useful read of the data available. Hmmm I knew beavers had a harder job than humans! On a related note I heard from Dr. Glynnis Hood yesterday that she was pleased with the article in the Globe and Mail but disappointed that the temperature in Alberta that day was -36C degrees. (!!!) I think I will stop complaining right away. Still I’m thinking she may have to add some seasonal soap-bubble experiments to her extensive beaver research.

The New Gold Standard

heidi08 Beaver News, Educational, Why We Care February 19, 2011

For the longest time, the very best beaver article ever written was featured in the High Country News and described the ‘working beaver conference’ in 2009. It introduced me to heroes like Mary O’Brien, Michael Pollock and Suzanne Fouty and set in motion a discussion of beavers as an restorative species that I don’t think could have been possible otherwise.

Well now, Kevin Taylor’s breathtaking article finally has some competition. Today’s Globe and Mail features a truly stunning look at beavers as ecosystem engineers with extensive reports from Glynnis Hood, Steve Zack and Duncan Haley. The benefits of beavers to water, pollution, fish, birds, soil and carbon storage are discussed in two full pages of good news. There is even a section on flow devices and their value in tricking beavers to prevent flooding.

Our bucktoothed icon is hard-working and monogamous, steadfast and stable in the Canuck way. But beloved? Not when one drops a tree on your cottage or floods your land with its dam. These days, however, the beaver has a new brand: eco-saviour. An increasingly vocal group of scientists and conservationists believes the dam-building rodent is an overlooked tool to mitigate climate change – a natural remedy for our sick rivers and ravaged wildlife. Fly away with that, bald eagle.

Did anyone else just get chills? Well this increasingly vocal group of scientists clearly came back from the state of the beaver conference fired up and ready to go! This is a fantastic read, and I just took a moment to write Erin and thank her for the most thorough bit of beaver reporting I have seen in 5 years.

The challenge, the researcher says, is to find a balance with the beaver – to put them where they happily improve the environment, in healthy numbers, without clashing against urban sprawl. “It’s as though two control freaks are competing for the same environment, and there’s been this ongoing battle ever since,” says Dr. Hood, who has just completed the manuscript for a new book, The Beaver Manifesto: In Defence of Tenacity. She spent 19 years on the front lines as a warden for Parks Canada while humans and beavers tussled over land – when the phone rang, she says, you could usually count on a beaver being involved somehow. “We like nature as long as it’s well behaved,” Dr. Hood says, “and once it starts getting the crayons and running loose, then we get worked up about it.” Except that now may be time for one control freak to step aside – and let a few well-placed beavers run loose with the crayons.

Well there’s my reading list in waiting. I can’t wait to read that book. I think she should sneak us a chapter for preview right away. I may not be able to wait until it comes out. The article is a beautiful look at what beavers do best. Go read the entire thing. There is even a page of ‘Fun facts‘ that are actually fun (and actually facts!).

Deceiving beavers

Trap one beaver family, and another will inevitable move in. But beavers build dams where they hear running water, so devices have been designed to reduce the noise with pipe and fencing around culverts to prevent the flooding of roads and farmland. The animals also don’t climb very well, so fencing trees tends to stop beaver activity.

I ‘m not sure why I feel so exhilarated by this article. It seems like so many beaver threads are coming together at once: I did a delightful interview with the Sonoma Tribune yesterday for a beaver article that’s coming out on Tuesday to talk about the presentation Thursday night. The Michigan radio program is still buzzing in my ears and I’m definitely proud of my beaver service over the past three weeks. Maybe its the faint echo of Egyptian triumph against tyranny I’m feeling, or maybe it’s the Wisconsin-feuled notion that beaver voices are finally using their collective bargaining rights! “Hey-hey! Ho-ho! Killing Beaver’s got to go!” Or something like that…