Irene has it in for beavers. If something doesn’t catch her attention elsewhere she is headed directly towards Sarah Summerville at the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, then she’ll stomp through Mike Callahan’s doorstep at Beaver Solutions and Skip Hilliker in CT before cruising past Sharon & Owen Brown at Beavers Wetlands & Wildlife after which it’s a final visit to Skip Lisle’s home in Vermont. Did she miss anyone? I’m not kidding.
Let’s hope NOAA is. Wishing our friends safe havens, clear roads and duct tape!
Open wide! Beavers are busy indeed. Right in the heart of Seattle. Tim Kuhn, photo
If you want to enjoy them, the Friends of Yesler Swamp has organized canoe tours to go have a look. Once abundant throughout the region, beavers are critical ecosystem engineers that make the plumbing of Puget Sound estuaries function as it should. To get some idea of just how important they are in the function of the ecosystem — and how widespread the estuaries they lived in used to be — read my story in the Seattle Times about a fascinating study by biologist Greg Hood on the role of beaver in the estuary.
Here, in our urban context, we usually think of them as pests, and it’s typical to see trees in Seattle fenced to protect them from chewing beavers. But put all the pieces back together in a functioning ecosystem, and the welcome role of beavers is plain.That’s just what the Friends of Yesler Swamp are seeking to do: spotlight the role of beavers in a swamp that has managed to hang on right on the fringes of asphalt in the heart of the city.
Keeper Kristin at the Oakland Zoo’s Western Pond Turtle Table. Photo credit: Cindy Margulis
Kristen Mealiffe ran the fantastic booth for the Western Pond Turtle program by the Oakland Zoo at the Beaver Festival. She recently posted a lovely “Turtle’s-Eye View” of the festival on the Zoo’s website. Here’s a glimpse but you will really want to go read the whole thing!
Why was the Oakland Zoo at the 4th Annual Beaver Festival in Martinez? No, the Zoo doesn’t have beavers, but it does have Western Pond Turtles which rely on beaver habitat. The event was a wonderful opportunity to create awareness about the Zoo’s Western Pond Turtle Head Start Program and the conservation efforts involved to protect the only aquatic turtle native to California. The Oakland Zoo along with many other environmental organizations participated in this festival to create awareness about native species in the Bay Area and the fragile ecosystems where the animals live.
Thanks so much for making our festival better and helping people learn about the importance of native turtles!Our own turtle population is getting alot better now that the dams are back in residence.
Lory found more kind words that came all the way from Massachusetts. This article about the benefit of beavers was written by Stephanie Kraft of the Valley Advocate in Northampton, MA. It mentions in passing the work of the Lands Council and Grand Canyon Land Trust and they mention US!
People in Martinez, California learned what beavers can do after a pair of the passionate chewers built a dam 30 feet wide in Alhambra Creek, felling willows and other decorative vegetation. But local residents got the City Council to put a pipe through the dam to prevent flooding and let the beavers stay. The creek grew into a rich wetland habitat that within three years was hosting river otter, steelhead trout and mink.
Wow, thanks Stephanie. I assume you didn’t come to the beaver festival, but what a nice plug! Folks can go read the whole article here. The only explanation I can come up with for appearing in a Massachusetts paper is that the town of Northampton is directly above Southampton which is where Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions operates. Maybe he dropped our name somehow.
Beautiful Buttermilk Sky this morning at the beaver dam. The season is definitely changing. It doesn’t get light until after 6 and the beavers have adapted their morning routines. This morning I was on the footbridge while it was still prison-dim. I saw a hunched, shadowy figure going back and forth across the lower creek. Something with four legs who stood a foot or two out of the water. Too awkward to be a dog, too tall to be a raccoon, too impossible to be anything else.
Honestly, for the longest time I could only see this.
Marta jogged by and enjoyed the mystery too, creeping around the bank to investigate. In the end we decided the tide was so low that it was a raccoon walking down the creek and reaching for tasty morsels on his way. No bears this morning. Another day perhaps.
It’s not so strange. Did you hear about what they just confirmed sighting of in LA? Paso Robles to be exact?
Nick Kamp and Craig Rambo were making their rounds at a Paso Robles wastewater treatment plant a few weeks ago when they spotted something definitely out of the ordinary: a wild capybara. The world's largest rodent is native to South America and usually isn't found in the United States except in zoos. (Nick Kamp)
Capybara! Now that puts the Owens Valley Beavers into perspective! There’s something inexplicably fun about this story if you want to go read it. Considering how much mistaken identity there is between beavers, muskrats, nutria & woodchucks, it must have taken a GENIUS at Fish and Game to figure this one out. Whoever called it, they deserve a raise.
