Johnston Iowa…changing the rules one beaver at a time!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 21, 2012

You’ll be relieved to know that the city council of Johnston, IA has voted to change the rules that prohibit trapping and relocation of beaver and have ‘voted to trap’ one nuisance beaver.

One pesky beaver won’t be a problem for the city of Johnston much longer.

On Tuesday the Johnston City Council approved a revision to the city ordinance for

Recently, a beaver has been wreaking havoc along the aptly named Beaver Creek.

City Administrator Jim Sanders said the current city ordinance did not allow for the city to trap the beaver and release it elsewhere.

I just have to ask. What on earth makes you think there’s only ONE beaver? Beavers aren’t known for living the single life in hermitage. And why does this article talk about permission to relocate with no indication of anything but trapping? I guess death is a kind of relocation….”the undiscovered country from who’s born no traveler returns” sort of thing

The revised ordinance, which was based on a similar ordinance in Urbandale, allows for trapping by a governmental unit to capture animals which are creating a public nuisance as a means of protecting public and private property. “I do believe a trap is a great way to relocate,” Matt Brown said of the ordinance. The council agreed to waive the second and third reading of the ordinance and approved publishing the ordinance.

Oh well. if Urbandale is doing it it MUST be okay. I mean, it’s not like its winter or anything. Or 6 degrees today in Johnston. I guess these beavers have been painstakingly making a food cache to withstand the freeze and when you ‘relocate them’ they’ll starve and die. You’re not doing something cruel and inhumane or anything.

And since its a new ordinance, there are no standards or requirements or laws about how to do this. No pesky rules about what kind of traps to use. No hancock’s for you. I’m sure you’ll get a snaggletoothed trapper to take out ‘the’ beaver with a snare or something. If he doesn’t die outright, he probably will starve in his new home before he dies of internal bleeding. Not to mention all the kits you’ll orphan by taking out their Dad or Mom. Hey maybe mom’s pregnant too already, so you might get an effective beaver abortion?

Well, I’m sure Iowa knows what its doing. We let them vote first, so they must be wise. They wouldn’t just change the ordinance for nothing would they?

A Year to Remember

heidi08 Beavers, Friends of Martinez Beavers, In the News, kits, Newsletter January 24, 2012

Guess what came in the mail yesterday? Sherri Tippie’s 2011 newsletter that’s what! I couldn’t wait to sit down and pour through the whole thing but as soon as I looked at the cover my eyes got too blurry to read anything. Praise for beaver advocacy from Sherri Tippie is like having Picaso tell you ‘nice painting’ or Martha Stewart say she loves what you’ve done with the decorations. Okay, I’ll try not to over react, but still it’s very, very nice. Inside is a lovely article about the beaver conference (and by the way I have heard from Leonard that they have committed to a new one in 2013 and are finalizing dates) and this. Enjoy!

And if you want to read the whole thing, and support the remarkable, necessary and courageous work that sherri does and teaches others to do, sign up for her newsletter and throw something in the kitty. (Use the new address below). I promise you its worth it.

Her new address is 4905 W. Lakeridge Rd. Denver, CO 80219 303-935-4995.

Lands Council at the Capitol

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental January 19, 2012

Check out Amanda Parrish giving testimony at the state house about HB2349. Here’s a little taste

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

5 NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that beavers have

6 historically played a significant role in maintaining the health of

7 watersheds in the Pacific Northwest and act as key agents in riparian

8 ecology. The live trapping and relocating of beavers has long been

9 recognized as a beneficial wildlife management practice, and has been

10 successfully utilized to restore and maintain stream ecosystems for

11 over fifty years. The benefits of active beaver populations include

12 reduced stream sedimentation, stream temperature moderation, higher

13 dissolved oxygen levels, overall improved water quality, increased

14 natural water storage capabilities within watersheds, and reduced

15 stream velocities. These benefits improve and create habitat for many

16 other species, including endangered salmon, river otters, sandhill

17 cranes, trumpeter swans, and other riparian and aquatic species.

18 Relocating beavers into their historic habitat provides a natural

1 mechanism for improving the environmental conditions in Washington’s

2 riparian ecosystems without having to resort to governmental regulation

3 or expensive publically funded engineering projects.

In case you ever wondered, this is why Washington makes California look like beaver-barbarians. Amanda does an excellent job and even fields a very annoying question about fecal colliform from a senator that says he used to swim where beavers ‘did their business’ and knows its an issue. Here’s a picture of the ‘issue’.

Oh, and Jon ran into a channel 2 van filming the primary dam at 5:30 this am who apparently wanted to know if “We were worried about the lack of water in the creek”.

Now news cameras are coming to film the lack of water behind the dams?

Rock of ages…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers January 19, 2012

Sherri Guzzi of Tahoe sends this photo and wonders whether beavers could possibly build this rocky dam or whether humans are responsible. I know beavers incorporate rocks into their dam, but I had never seen a dam OF rocks. I decided to ask around like I usually do and thought I’d share the responses.

Sharon Brown of Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife writes “I wouldn’t be surprised if beavers built it as they’ve been known to use whatever is available, including corn husks, old tires, and in one case, money discarded by a bank robber during his escape.”

Skip Lisle of Beaver Deceivers Int’l says “Yes, they will use whatever materials that are available, and can be moved. If there was human involvement, beavers will also adopt any small man-made dam.”

Sarah Summerville of the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge says “Sarah Summerville of the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge writes “I would say yes. Look at all the rocks laying around! They use tires,trash, corn stalks, etc. why not rocks?!”

Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions says “I’ve never seen a beaver dam made of rock before, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. As we all know beavers certainly do incorporate rocks into their dams. But building the entire dam out of rocks? Unlikely but it is possible since there is such an abundance of rocks at that location. I find it interesting that the shape of the dam certainly looks like something that beavers would build. Plus it seems to have some beaver chewed sticks on it.Since the dam is effectively holding back water it means that either beavers built the entire rock dam, or the rocks were placed by humans and the beavers filled the leaks between the rocks with mud to seal the deal. They certainly do that with old farm stone walls here in New England. It’s always hard to say without seeing it in person, but beavers are likely involved at some level I would guess.

Sherri Tippie of Wildlife 2000 says “This is amazing but I believe it because I’ve seen beaver incorporate large rocks is their dams lots of times.”

Leonard Houston of the Beaver Advocacy Committee in Oregon “we have seen beavers build small rock dams in mountain streams of southwestern Oregon time and time again, seems beavers are quite capable of using whatever is at hand.. we have seen tires, shopping baskets , pasture fencing and a Have-a Heart trap incorporated into dams. Beavers take advantage of down trees roadbeds rock weirs and well just about anything they find in the riparian area…great photo Thanks for Sharing”

And our own Cheryl Reynolds says she’s seen beavers use rocks in dams in Sonoma.

Beavers: High-tech Version

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions January 17, 2012

So it turns out that I was ‘delightfully wrong’ again, with my thought that lowering the intake would lower the pond level. (In my defense I would say that Jon convinced me that the height of the ‘suction’ determines how much water is drained), but Mike Callahan gave this explanation, echoing Dave Scola’s summary of what Skip Lisle told him.

When a beaver dam pipe is installed through a beaver dam to control the pond level the primary factor that determines the pond level is the highest part of the pipe. With most beaver dam pipes the highest part of the pipe is where the pipe goes through the dam (e.g Flexible Pond Leveler™ or Castor Mastor™ with a Round Filter). See diagram below. The Clemson Pond Leveler has a standpipe positioned behind the beaver dam. The height of the stand pipe determines the pond level with that flow device.

In all these examples, gravity drives water through the pipe. Since water seeks it’s own level, the water level inside the pipe is always equal to the pond height. When the pond level rises above the high point in the pipe, water will flow through the pipe. If the pond level drops below the high point of the pipe during a dry period, then the pipe will stop flowing until the pond level rises enough for it to flow again. There should be no siphoning. The pond level determines if water flows through the pipe.

The diameter of the beaver dam pipe(s) need to be large enough to carry the flow of the entire stream most of the time. Beavers only raise the height of their dams in response to water flowing over the top of the dam. When the pipes are properly sized the beavers are unable to raise the height of their dam because the pipe(s) have created a permanent leak, keeping the water level down at a safe level. Very large storm events will flow over the top of the dam and the pond will only temporarily rise a little bit before the pipe(s) return the pond to the goal level. The pipe(s) should be set at a height in the dam to account for these minor pond level fluctuations of 6 – 12 inches.

So there you have it, the highest point of the pipe (and not the lowest) determines pond height. Which wasn’t changed during this recent re-filtering episode. As long as they rebuild the secondary dam everything should be fine and we shouldn’t worry. And since we’re on the topic I thought I’d post the graphic about flow devices I made for Sunday’s meeting.