Month: March 2012

Beaver Creek Episode 8: Twig’s Tragedy?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now? March 12, 2012

Sunday I received a beaver SOS from our favorite stop-motion movie maker in Kentucky. The beaver habitat he had been enjoying in the nearby city of St. Matthews – which he watched for inspiration to his series – had been completely destroyed, the lodge bulldozed, and the dams ripped out. Ian was horrified and dismayed to think that the happy family he had been enjoying had been ruthlessly killed.

On the left is the beaver lodge just a few weeks ago. On the right is the lodge after it was bulldozed. It was completely flattened and there is nothing left of it. — at Arthur K. Draut park.

Mind you the city of St. Matthews discussed the beavers at the city council meeting before, pledging in 2010 to relocate them and the mayor Bernie Bowling Jr. personally promised that ‘no harm would come to them’.

The beavers are back at Arthur K. Draut Park. Mayor Bowling will have someone come and remove them. Several people have inquired about being allowed to safely capture the beavers, so that they can be released in another remote location. The mayor and city council are concerned about the extensive damage that is and can continue to be done by these animals. However, it is the city’s intent to not harm the beavers in any way.

But I guess with growing inflation, a promise doesn’t mean what it use to mean anymore. I thought you might want to read what folks wrote the mayor and city council and maybe add your own voice to the outrage. Ian is a good friend to the beavers, and a good friend of ours. Your well-written letter will support him and educate the city to help make sure this never happens again.

Dear Sir, it was a sad day to open an email and find that a decision was made to remove your resident beavers in such a heinous fashion, might I add that these very beavers and your city are known worldwide through the works of young Ian Timothy. Is this the example of humanity we want to send our children and neighbors. Perhaps you should look at the influences of John James Audubon and what that has meant to the great State of Kentucky, what might have been his thoughts concerning this. We live on the west coast of the U.S. and already we have heard about this, it will be worldwide before the day is done.

There is some question to as whether the beavers were harmed and you are quoted “That no harm will come to these beavers”, are you prepared to share with the world how that was accomplished? We hope that future such actions would be more carefully planned so that you and your city will be held in high regards.

Leonard and Lois

Beaver Advocacy Committee

Tiller, OR

Dear Honorable Bowling,

It is truly unfortunate that you directed the removal of the beaver dam and the eradication of the beavers at Arthur K. Draut Park. Not only have you killed beavers and ruined your credibility as a progressive ‘green’ community leader, but you have also associated City Councilman Arthur Draut’s name with their slaughter, especially with the killing of a pregnant female beaver. The park’s name and reputation, yours, and Councilman Draut’s are damaged.

Did you believe others would forget your promise that, “no harm will come to them”? This choice is even more difficult to comprehend considering your description of this lovely park on the City of St. Matthews’ own government website:

Arthur K. Draut Park – Other amenities in Community Park include: A walking path with creek crossing bridges, stone benches, limited wooded areas, along with dedicated wetlands complete with cattails, water grasses and assorted wild life. The flow of historic Beargrass Creek meandering through this park makes this site pleasing to athletes and naturalists.

I doubt naturalists will be pleased now knowing beavers were killed. Dedicated wetlands with their assorted wildlife rarely thrive without the one creature that ensures the health of their ecosystem – a beaver.

There are proven solutions to concerns of flooding created by beaver dams. Successful installation of flow devices control pond height and resolve flooding for years. When beavers are present at a dam, their territorial behavior will discourage other beavers from remaining. Trees can be protected by wire-wrapping or painting with sand. The abrasive texture discourages beavers and is an inexpensive and visually undisruptive solution.

I am sickened further that Ian Timothy – an award winning filmmaker who was inspired by the beavers at Arthur K. Draut Park – must now realize just how cruel and dishonorable leaders in the City of St. Matthews can be. As an author of eco-literary novels for young readers, I am at a loss as to how this murderous act can be explained to my young readers, especially when there are so many enlightened and caring choices that you could have made to protect the beavers and salvage their valuable contribution to the park.

I visited Kentucky many times, and remember the parks there as beautiful and picturesque, and the people as gracious, intelligent, and caring. If your actions represent Kentucky, then my opinion can only be changed for the worse. I hope this is not the case.

Mayor Bowling, you owe your community an apology and Ian Timothy an apology. You also owe an apology to all those families with children who visited Arthur K. Draught Park and loved the beavers, their dam, and their habitat. However, you owe an explanation to conservationists who truly are shocked by your decision and the ensuing actions. But more than an apology and an explanation – if you are to remain in a position of leadership – you must pledge to follow the excellent suggestions made to you by eco-systems experts such as Dr. Perryman and other conservationists who understand the critical importance of beavers in our communities, even if you do not. And after you make this public pledge, these recommendations must be put into practice.

Looking forward to hearing from you, and seeing the reputation of the City of St. Matthews repaired.

Best regards, Jo Marshall

Jo Marshall, Twig Stories www.twigstories.com

Snohomish, Washington

I want to express my displeasure on hearing that the city of St. Matthews felt the need to destroy the beavers and their habitat at Arthur K. Draut Park. There are many other options available now for controlling any flooding and other worries when beavers move into an area, and it would have been to your advantage to look into these solutions. Another family of beavers will move in again and you then will be faced with this situation again.

Recently I had the opportunity to meet Ian Timothy, who is from your area. Ian is a very talented claymationist and the creator of the Beaver Creek series. He was on his way to the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City, CA where his series was featured. Ian shared with us the pictures that he has taken of the beavers and the habitat they have created in Arthur K. Druat Park. Today I received the new pictures that he took of the destruction that your city has now created.

In our small town we have learned to live with our beaver family that moved into our downtown creek in 2006. We have controlled the water flow and have painted many trees to discourage any beaver damage to them. Our creek now is home to many different birds, fish, otters and even mink. The beavers also have become a tourist attraction as they are so visible, and they are famous through out the world.

I do hope in the future if another family of beavers come to make their home in your park, the city will be ready with the many solutions to keep their beavers and enjoy the beautiful habitat they will create.

Lory Bruno

Martinez,CA

I was sorry to learn that St. Matthews decided to destroy the beavers and habitat at the park after specifically promising in your December 14th 2010 meeting not to harm them. “However, it is the city’s intent to not harm the beavers in any way.” As it is March the mother in this colony would have been pregnant, which mean you killed unborn kits as well.

Besides upsetting prominent and not-so-prominent members of your community, you might worry about the misuse of tax payer dollars when you are forced to repeat a failed solution year after year. Removing beavers (whether by relocating or trapping) is a short term solution that will need to be repeated and paid for again when new beavers move into adequate habitat. The successful installation of a flow device will control pond height and resolve flooding for many years. Allowing the beavers to remain will let them use their territorial behaviors to keep others away.Trees can be protected by wirewrapping (not chicken!) or painting with sand. The abrasive texture discourages beavers and is an inexpensive, visually undisruptive solution.

I’m sure that any city that values green solutions is aware that beaver chewing of trees also produces a natural coppice cutting – an old forestry term that refers to hard cutting a tree so that it grows back denser and more bushy. This ultimately provides ideal nesting habitat for migratory and songbirds. You must also be aware of the significant habitat beavers provide for young fish and the recent fines in Alabama where a beaver dam removal destroyed habitat for the endangered watercress darter.

You may not know that these beavers were specifically watched and enjoyed by your local residents, one of which (prominent young filmmaker Ian Timothy) relied on them for inspiration in his award winning stop-motion beaver creek series, honored this year at the Wild & Scenic film festival in Nevada, the Environmental Film Film Festival in Colorado, and at your own festival in Kentucky! In addition to apologizing to Ian for this cruel and senseless act, the city should work with him to develop a humane beaver management policy for the future. In our low-lying city beaver activity required a flow device which has controlled flooding for 5 years, and the dams have exciting new fish and wildlife. We now regularly see heron, steelhead, otter and even mink in our tiny urban creek!

There are lots of reasons to do beaver management correctly, and many proven tools at your disposal. I hope that in the future the city of St. Matthews can “see the forest for the trees”.

Heidi Perryman, Ph.D

President & Founder

Worth A Dam

www.martinezbeavers.org/wordpress

The right honorable mayor has a lot of reading to do. I know he also got letters from Utah, Massachusetts and Florida, but I’m sure he still has time to read yours, and maybe Twig’s….Ian?

Michael Pollock: Agents of Change

heidi08 Beavers March 11, 2012

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Assorted Beaver Goodness

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Recent Sightings March 10, 2012

Today’s post has turned out to be a smorgasboard of beaver tales, so take a little bit of everything and when you find something you love go back for more! This morning I should start by saying I saw two beaver from the footbridge, and they swam around each other and even did a brief ‘push-match’ before ducking out of sight. Our two fancy hooded mergansers flew in and made a nice landing for a second act, and the mallards gave them wide berth. I saw new people photographing and we chatted. They had recently moved here from Spain and had read about our beavers on our website. How’s that for cosmopolitan beavers? That made it impossible to resist posting this again!

Green_Acre_Radio_Urban_Beavers.mp3 Here’s a lovely beaver radio program from Green Acres Radio in Washington. It talks about volunteers planting trees for beavers, which apparently is allowed in many cities that aren’t ours.

Every spring urban beavers come to a hidden park south of the Northgate Mall. They come to build dams. Most of the dams are appreciated by the humans they’re forced to co-exist with, but not all.

“As you see it’s right near the culvert here so Seattle Public Utilities has to take it out every time. But they’re moving around and I’m sure they’ll be moving into other natural areas as well.” Ruth Williams is a volunteer forest steward at the Beaver Pond Natural Area. Once called Park 6, the area has been transformed by beavers into a thriving wetland. The dams beavers build hold back water, making ponds that attract wildlife. The pond filters and cleans rainwater. Williams points to a large pile of branches in the middle of the pond. “That’s the lodge right out there. Yeah, the beaver lodge. And then the main dam, the first dam, is right over here.”

Fellow volunteer Frank Backus says, “They’re really doing what the watershed needs, a way of holding back the water so it doesn’t go rushing down and cause flooding down below.

Oh Washington! Such beaver wisdom in flagrant display! Even your volunteers are smarter than our scientists! Well I guess all of Washington isn’t that advanced because there was some tree vandalism. But listen to what the program suggests as a solution – EDUCATION!!!!!!!! Imagine that!

This next delightful read is about a Canadian ambassador’s introduction of beaver to China and will make you smile several times. I especially like the confusion about what a beaver IS.

Beaver Tales: Brian Evans, the Pursuit of China and the Perils of Beaver Diplomacy

Paula Simons

The University of Alberta Press has just published Evans’ new book, a surprisingly and delightfully funny autobiography called Pursuing China: Memoir of a Beaver Liaison Officer. My Saturday column profiles Evans, his remarkable life, and his life-long love affair with all things Chinese – here’s Evans’ account of how he became Canada’s official Beaver Liaison Officer, and saved Canada from the threat of national disgrace.

What could Canada offer? Well, it could keep to its tradition of following the American example and offer animals for the Beijing Zoo. But what kinds of animals?

What better than the beaver: Castor canadensis , dammer of rivers, felter of hats, prodigious breeder, and the symbol of Canada? Surely the Chinese, schooled in subtlety, would not fail to get the point. Cast your beaver upon Pacific waters, it was thought, and they will come back as pandas. Of course, we were offering one of nature’s most prolific creatures, known to China since the days of Beijing Man, in exchange for one of nature’s most reticent ones. But then, it was that sort of thinking that gave us the sixty-three-cent dollar.

Go read the whole thing, it’s wonderfully done and will teach you some excellent history! Not to mention that learning about Chinese attitudes towards beavers will get you ready for tomorrow’s treasure on the podcast interview with Michael Pollock, who in addition to studying beavers and coho and steelhead and streambeds ALSO went to study beavers in Mongolia!

Tired yet? Wait, there’s more. First an update on our new famous beaver friend in the NorthEast. We had a good chat about her beavers and her neighbors who aren’t loving them; she bought Mike Callahan’s DVD and I got the two of them talking about the one pond she’s worried about near her driveway. She posted about our exchange here. We talked lodges, wildlife and wetlands as well as when to keep an eye out for new kits! She says she already has seen a dramatic difference in birds and wildlife!

Just one more story to go and this is a heartwarming tale of beaver rescue from near Portland OR. Nice to see a family taking care of their furry neighbors and I’m thrilled that Audubon agreed to help out!

Helping Trees by Hurting Beavers?

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? March 9, 2012

Apparently the city of Guelph Ontario loves their trees so much that they’re willing to kill their beavers to prove it. Not exactly sure how a lowered water table and weaker riparian border helps trees, but the good folk in Guelph must know best. They’re saying it doesn’t make sense to make a plan to protect trees without making a promise to kill their ‘predators’. And don’t talk to them about coppicing and new growth either!

Coun. Bob Bell says a plan that the city is developing to better manage its trees over the next 20 years should include a section on one of the enemies of trees – beavers.

Enemies of trees? W0w. Strong language from a man who’s not afraid to call a spade a spade! So 300 years ago before Canada had killed its population of millions more beavers there was no forest canopy because all those beavers devoured them? Really? And it was only when people trapped every single last furry one and planted a few token trees in the ground that the canopy bounced back?

“It is definitely an issue, and I would hope our new forestry plan would address beaver removal,” he told a city council committee last week. Derek McCaughan, the city’s executive director of operations and transit, said city officials are looking at the problem of damage by beavers.

I’m sorry the oddly named city of Guelph is plagued by enemies of trees. Are there also enemies of information in your borders? Or will you listen when I explain how the trees you want to protect can be wrapped or painted with sand to prevent chewing? Will you try and understand that beaver chewing produces a natural coppice cutting – an old forestry term which refers to hard cutting a tree so that it grows back bushy and more dense. If you don’t have willow along your streams you should plant some because they are a preferred food and quickly rebound. And when beaver dams raise the water table they help prevent drought and actually expand the riparian border.

Before you decide to kill beavers to protect trees you should think about the fish populations that will be harmed, the otters who will be forced out, the birds who will lose feeding and nesting ground. You should think soberly about what a massive impact you would have on all this wildlife if you take out this one, disliked, actor.

That’s what “Keystone Species” means, by the way.

Oh and here’s a recent letter to the editor from one of your residents about what they think about these “Treenemies”.

Pleased to see beavers are back

Guelph Coun. Bob Bell is insisting that urban forestry management include a policy for the removal of beavers.

How sad that man’s response to nature has so often been nothing more than removal of the bother. Perhaps the urban forestry management should consist merely of all tree removal given how much leaves and branches can be a bother.

Beavers are a natural treat to watch and there are ways to fence off critical trees and allow them access to some that are less critical. Indeed, some of the damage I notice is of brush, not just grand trees.

As well, there are ways to control animal population growth short of total removal.

When I first moved to Guelph 43 years ago, there were beavers on our rivers, but the city soon hired a trapper and they were all gone for years and years.

Well, they have come back and many of us are pleased.

I thought the problem issue was being handled when I saw that some trees had fencing around them, but now Bell is proposing removal.

Surely a more intelligent approach could be taken that would leave our urban forest a bit more natural, but not destroyed entirely. Does our local university not have any better ideas than Bell’s?

Jim Mottin

Guelph

New Friends

heidi08 Beavers March 8, 2012

But now something else amazing has happened in the critter world! The beavers have moved into the yard. I’m so excited I could do a beaver dance.

Apparently down the road there used to be a beaver pond but the little busy bodies caused a problem with the bridge and some piping so the city came and tore their damn down. This was way before I was around (otherwise I may have had to Occupy that beaver pond!). The beavers weren’t killed, they just disappeared.

Our Beaver Pond

Now the beavers have reappeared in our yard. We noticed that the stream at the bottom of a hill had overflowed during the rainstorms a few months ago. Then it started to expand into a pond. We went on a little hike one day at dusk and saw ripples in the water and there, busy building a whole series of intricate damns and tunnels was a fat brown beaver!

Do you know who Angela Shelton is? She’s a writer, filmmaker, public speaker and all around fiercely life-affirming woman. I stumbled upon her delightful website the other day looking for you-know-whats and found out you really should look too! Angela was first recognized for being the co-writer and producer of the 1999 movie Tumbleweeds about life with a serial-marrying mother. Since the tight script is autobiographical we can assume the pragmatic, exasperated young girl in this scene is her.

She then received national acclaim for her own documentary “Searching for Angela Shelton” in which she drives across country looking up every other Angela Shelton in 48 states while addressing her own thorny history of sexual abuse by her father. The grim background of sexual violence against women brought her eventually into the recovery hero limelight (On Oprah and Rosie) which she has now transformed into a speaking career about living joyfully and violence against women in colleges across the country.

Now she is living on a comfortable farm, writing and speaking and starring as an Emmy-winning Safe Side superchick for the Safe Side videos, while still finding time to watch some exciting new neighbors. Castor Canadensis to be precise! Located in a particularly beaver-phobic state all the feedback from her friends and neighbors has been negative. Never mind. Angela has learned that life’s challenges bring enormous victories to the women who wrestle with them. She wants to keep her beavers and learn about them. We’re having a “living with beavers” chat tomorrow.

Thanks to Angela for being willing to try something new, get excited about wildlife, and talk with a stranger after a moments introduction! And thanks to BK the retired librarian from UGA that taught me how to set up the new google search function that lead me to her doorstep!

Searching for Angela Shelton’s beaver festival? I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Third Dam: Angela Shelton Oh and check out the where our newest podcast is being featured? Look closely at the Lower right hand corner. It may not last long, but don’t worry, I already took a picture!