Over the past 25 years, Tippie has probably live-trapped, fed, cuddled, relocated, observed, defended, conversed with, serenaded and otherwise saved from annihilation more beaver than any person on earth. Her expertise has been achieved through long hours in muddy, trash-choked creeks and endless struggles with know-nothing bureaucrats, smug exterminators and homeowner associations that view beaver as an invasive species. In 1987, when Tippie first started Wildlife 2000, her grassroots organization dedicated to beaver rescue, she was ridiculed by wildlife officials as a rank amateur; now members of those same agencies seek her out for advice and beg her to conduct seminars on how to trap safely.
Ohhh add Alan Prendergast’sremarkable article to the growing list of the “best beaver articles ever written”. Sherri Tippie obviously makes an inspiring subject and you won’t want to miss any one of his fantastic eight pages talking about her life, her work and her attitudes. He finds time along the way to sing the praises of beaver and make sure the reader knows why she bothers.
Sherri Tippie has found new homes for hundreds of beaver threatened by Front Range development, including this refugee from Aurora.
This is my favorite sentence:
Even some of her most loyal supporters wish Tippie was a little less outspoken in her views on exterminators, dunderhead wildlife officers and others. But that’s just not who she is. “She’s the most ethical person I’ve ever known,” Gasser says. “And one-minded — is that a good word? Just totally focused on the beaver. I wouldn’t say she’s high on the diplomatic approach, but I have seen her do that.”
One minded about beavers? Outspoken about dunderhead wildlife officers?Be still my beating heart! No wonder I cried throughout most of her presentation in Oregon. Her marathon advocacy is so robust it makes me feel wondefully safe, like a child sleeping in the back of the car on the way home from a long day at the beach. Don’t worry, Sherri’s got this. She knows exactly what she’s doing.
And as for the rest of us, we can only watch and admire a hairdresser who let beavers crawl around her kitchen and talks to them on an ATV. This article is the best thing you’ll read all year and just in time for my birthday. Enjoy.
Join us in celebrating the United Nations International Day of Peace with Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots California by coming to the Zoo on Sunday, September 18th, for the California Day of Peace 2011 as Roots & Shoots members and friends unite across the world to celebrate and promote peace.
In 2011, for the first time, Roots & Shoots is celebrating our 9th annual Day of Peace in Northern California. There will be many fun activities, including a project for the Zoo’s primates and monkeys, earning stamps on your Passport to Peace, making peace dove puppets out of recycled materials, and flying them in a Peace Dove Parade!
This event is open to the public! Spread the word to friends, family, and anyone who might be interested in coming out to the Oakland Zoo to spend a day having fun and celebrating peace!
Beavers are fairly peaceful creatures, so it seems a good fit. Worth A Dam will be one of six non-profits involved in the Passport for Peace and it would be great to see some familiar faces there. We’ll be working on two new beaver flags and a teaching how beavers build a neighborhood. Join us why don’t you?
Today I heard from Michael Pollock who is on his way to Scott Valley for a FIRST EVER beaver workshop tomorrow – and no before you ask, its not “how to kill beavers faster, or what are the twenty five best reasons to kill beavers?” It’s something completely different. Check out the lineup which is not exactly heavy with traditional beaver-loving types.
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Scott Valley Beaver Technical Management WorkgroupSeptember 14th at 9:00am to 12:00pm at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Yreka Purpose of this meeting: Understanding the role and relationship of beaver, Coho and water quality as it relates to the different agencies and their policies. Facilitator: California Department of Fish and Game 9:00am – 9:15am Introductions9:15am – 9:45am Beaver Biology – Michael Pollack, NOAA 9:45am – 10:00am Beaver Status• Where are the beavers in Scott Valley and trend? 10:00am – 11:00am Agency’s Approach to Beaver Management • California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG)– Wildlife Program – Bob Schaefer – Fisheries Program – Pisano/Olswang/Bean • California Department of Water Resources• Federal Trapper- Dennis Moyles • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) – Cookson/Silveira– State of the Beaver Conferences 2010 & 2011 • Klamath National Forest (KNF)– Fishery and Wildlife Biologist • NOAA- National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) • Scott River Watershed Council (SRWC) – Charnna Gilmore 11:00am – 11:15am Break – See Scott Valley map on wall 11:15am – 11:45am Beavers – Pro and Cons 11:45am – 12:00pm Next Steps – Where do we go from here……..
Be still my beating heart! Fish and Game is facilitating a beaver workshop? OHHH MICHAEL!!! Preach gospel to the non believers and turn their faces towards the rising truth! Let California begin the trickle of understanding that will pour down the pacific coast and tap the heads of salmon counters all along the state! Put that federal trapper Dennis right in the VERY front row and give him a road to Damascus moment. Great things are beginning to happen in the northern parts of our watershed, and if people ever come to understand the truth anywhere, iIt will start there.
This great article by Will Harling is a fantastic introduction to the issue. After this taste gets your attention, go read the whole thing which should make converts out of the non-believers.
By Will Harling, Executive Director, Mid Klamath Watershed Council
After a sleepless full moon night with our 18 month old daughter, Rory, (a night where my wife bore the brunt of her midnight antics and our guests sleeping in the living room must have been guessing who was torturing who), I bundled our girl onto my back and walked down to the Klamath River in the pre-dawn light. To say I altruistically wanted everyone to sleep in would be a half-truth given the fishing pole in one hand, balancing out the diaper bag in the other. I had a spot in mind, just downstream of the Orleans Bar River Access, where the river slides over a broad riffle so shallow the fish are forced into a narrow slot that one could cast across, even with a groggy, grumpy, sleep-deprived toddler strapped to their back.
The relatively wide Orleans Valley gives the river a chance to meander a little here, reclaiming its sinuousity stolen over the past six million years as the Klamath Mountains began to rise from underneath, forcing it into steep sided canyons tracing fault lines in the uplifted bedrock just upstream and downstream of the valley. Fall chinook salmon moving upstream to spawn left wakes in the glassy water as they navigated up through the shallows, and the Klamath’s famed half-pounder steelhead run was coming in with them. Across the river, I noticed a furry head moving slowly upstream. The light brown tuft of hair visible above the water looked like what I thought a beaver would look like, but couldn’t be sure.
Just then I heard a rustle of grass and a swish of a tail on the near shore and backed into the willows to watch. Sure enough, a beaver was swimming up towards us along the edge of the river just 20 feet away. As it cleared the riffle, it moved out into the river and I slowly followed it upstream. Big whiskers and a large black snout, those dark beady eyes and two cute little ears quickly disappeared when it spotted me, and a loud thwack of its tail as it dove alerted it’s kin that danger was near. Walking home, giddy with excitement from this rare close encounter, I noticed all the stripped willow sticks along the shore, even a clump of uneaten willow shoved under an algal mat, possibly left for a mid-day snack.
Beaver are slowly coming back to the Klamath, recovering from intense trapping that began in the mid-1800’s and continuing for nearly a century after until they were almost extinct. In 1850 alone, famed frontiersman and trapper Stephen Meek and his party reportedly trapped 1800 beaver out of Scott Valley, which at the time was called Beaver Valley. The last beavers in Scott Valley were trapped out by Frank C. Jordan in the winter of 1929-1930 on Marlahan Slough1. Beaver throughout much of the Klamath basin suffered the same fate, and even today as they return to less inhabitated areas along the mainstem river and its tributaries, they are still shot and trapped in streams where their dams pose a perceived risk to residential and agricultural property.
I am writing in defense of beaver dams as they are proven to be effective in helping with flood control. As a matter of fact; beavers are generally referred to as nature’s flood control experts. Despite this, every time there is a flood event associated with higher than normal amounts of rain like that associated with the recent downpours associated with the storm Irene, misinformed local residents start squawking about the “darn beavers.”
I am writing to say that flooding downstream of a beaver dam is not the fault of the beavers at all — there was a lot of rain. The beaver dams in the area would help keep the water back, gradually letting the flood waters off and would help to prevent higher waters downstream and road washouts.
Of particular concern to me is the beaver dam on Hibernia Brook, just north of the Meriden Road Bridge. This dam holds back a fairly large amount of water and surely did assist in keeping the bridge there from washing out and leaving Meriden Road residents without access to Green Pond Road.
Local residents are grumbling about the dam in a misinformed way and I hope that they are not trying to influence the local road department and others in the way of destroying a good piece of natural flood control work.
Beavers have been helping to control floods in New Jersey for millions of years. They know what they are doing.
The writer is illustrator, coauthor and editor of “The Easy Bird Guide – Eastern Region,” co-founder of the Highlands Conservation Initiative and founder of the Partnership Plan to Preserve the Beaver Brook/Hibernia Brook Watershed.
Thanks Pieter. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Over the past 25 years, Tippie has probably live-trapped, fed, cuddled, relocated, observed, defended, conversed with, serenaded and otherwise saved from annihilation more beaver than any person on earth. Her expertise has been achieved through long hours in muddy, trash-choked creeks and endless struggles with know-nothing bureaucrats, smug exterminators and homeowner associations that view beaver as an invasive species. In 1987, when Tippie first started Wildlife 2000, her grassroots organization dedicated to beaver rescue, she was ridiculed by wildlife officials as a rank amateur; now members of those same agencies seek her out for advice and beg her to conduct seminars on how to trap safely.
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