Brock Dolman: Agents of Change

heidi08 Beavers April 15, 2012

Beaver Delight in Devon

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental April 15, 2012

Now thi s is a pleasant surprise! Check out Derek Gow’s article about the beavers on his farm in Devon, England. The article expressly specifies you shouldn’t cut and paste, but I’m sure you’ll help me avoid prosecution and click on the original many times so that they are reassured!

I have a lot of unusual animals on my farm here in Devon: water voles, otters, pine martens, wild cats – but the most unusual are probably the beavers. They’re the only beavers on a working farm in Britain. I wanted them because they produce life; if you put them into a stream system on your land, you get more life in it.

See, that’s the kind of opening paragraph a girl like me wants to read on a Saturday morning. The kind where you tuck your feet under you in the chair and settle down for a nice ambling browse – pausing to savor each lovely word and phrase. Devon is in the southeast of England, a good long way from our beaver friends in Scotland, but not very far at all from my ancestors in Cornwall. We travelled once in that direction and stayed in a breathtakingly old farm house listed in the Doomsday book — (1066 to be exac t). That night we walked to a tiny neighborhood pub for dinner where everyone knew everyone else but us, slept in an ancient four poster bed, and stumbled down for breakfast in the morning to a huge dining hall with a great stone fireplace that was big enough for a family to stand in. While the gracious hostess gave us eggs and tea her son wheeled around the great hall with a plastic red and yellow tricycle singing loudly. We could only speculate on the transformations of time and culture that that table had seen!

Let’s just say that if you maintain a farm in Devon you’ve seen a thing or two!

People have the idea that because beavers have huge teeth they chop their way through forests like furry chainsaws, but they’re a creative, not a destructive, force. They open up the river banks to many other species: plants, butterflies, beetles, amphibians and fish. These are the building blocks of life, the species that support others.

Goodness, I’m liking this article, Mr. Gow. I can’t imagine it will be very long before the beaver reintroduction of England takes hold if you keep writing like this. (Just between you and me, there are these free beavers on the river Tay in Scotland that recently got a stay of execution. They probably won’t get all the way to Devon in three years, but I’d be surprised if they don’t cover some reproductive ground.)

Beaver impoundments play a significant role in trapping water and releasing it slowly. If you’re growing crops and leaching silt and chemicals into the water, beaver dams help trap this material and hold it so it doesn’t end up silting up main rivers or getting washed out to sea. In short, beavers help purify fresh water and can also reduce floods in lower-lying landscapes and human settlements by trapping and slowing extreme flows.

Beavers have been managing water for millions of years; they’re adapted to do a far better job than us. We can no longer pay to maintain flood walls and flood defences so beavers are a rational option when it comes to water management and flood control. When you look into every argument against the reintroduction of beavers, you’re left with dust.

What a perfect introduction to tomorrow’s Agents of Change interview with Brock Dolman, who told me sagely yesterday ‘California doesn’t have a water shortage problem, it has a water STORAGE problem.” And guess which furry quaduped can help us fix that problem? Mr. Gow certainly knows. Seriously, go read the entire article. It’s definitely Worth A Dam!!!

Girl Scouts are Worth A Dam

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers April 13, 2012

May 5th will be the massive celebration for the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts. It is anticipating SO MANY girls that it will be held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. Worth A Dam received an invitation from a big fan who attended lots of our beaver festivals, so we look for us braving the crowds of shining faces and vested heroines, talking about beavers to anyone who will listen!

The whole event is so large that the 300 groups displaying there received careful instructions of where to unload and what gate to pass through. Every member needs tickets and a special lanyard to enter. We will be in building ‘A’ because (beavers are obviously the very first thing you should learn about!) Worth A Dam lost one of our compatriots for the day and could use an extra hand. If you love beavers, children’s artwork and are up for a VERY HIGH ENERGY DAY we would love to have you! Send me an email!

Not sure what to expect? Imagine this times 1000!

What If…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? April 12, 2012

Sometimes I like to play a little game in my mind. I pretend that every city knew already that beavers exist, and that if you kill some more will just come back. I fantasize that everyone knows that beavers are good for fish, and birds and wildlife and water quality and recognize that taking care of culvert problems is best done in a proactive way that takes all those things into account. I try to imagine that every culvert built under every road and every street in the entire state came equipped with a beaver deceiver. It’s not impossible. There are standards already in place that say how narrow the opening can be and what materials they have to use. There are standards in some states that say even that a culvert has to be the same width of the body of water it’s carrying. What if there were a state standard that says EITHER the culvert has to match the width of the stream OR a beaver deceiver needs to be installed?

In my fantasy world beavers would never block culverts or need to be trapped, we’d have more fish and more ducks and more otters and roads would never flood because of blocked culverts and our streets and cities would be safer and government wouldn’t have to keep paying for things that never work.

Or you know, you could just do this again and again.

State Rep. Bob Evans, D-Monticello, said he is familiar with what beavers are capable of. “I grew up in the county and I know what kind of damage beavers can do,” said Evans. “It can be severe.” Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, agrees that beavers can be a problem.

“I know we do have a beaver control program that we always put money in because beavers causes landowners problems and wash out bridges,” said Moak. But possible budget cuts could affect the funding for beaver control programs, something Williamson says would only worsen the beaver problem.

“For me, if any bill comes through the House to assist in this program, you don’t have to be a CPA to tell that a little money spent through a beaver control program is much less than fixing bridges or roadways,” said Evans.

What’s that called when someone gets you to pay a little bit of money all the time because of a bigger threat coming down the road that would cost you everything? And because of the importance of the threat you never, ever question the payment, just fork over the cash, and you make provisions for the future to keep providing it, and never consider NOT paying it?

While saving money may sound like a great thing, the programs that are cut could lead to severe consequences. Moak said it isn’t normally clear where the funding for programs will end up, but beaver control is normally safe.

“Beaver control money is always up in the air before the end of the session where we know what we’re going to have,” said Moak. “I think we’ve always funded it except for in a few cases.”

Evans said in this legislative session money has mainly gone to big projects. “Most of the money appropriated this year, that’s ‘new’ money has been for big corporations,” said Evans. Evans said it doesn’t take a person with an accounting background to understand that using some money to fund beaver control would save money in the long run.

“It’s all about funding,” Moak said. “It’s the federal government that puts money forward, the state always puts some, but it’s one of those things that takes a back seat when you just don’t have the funds.”

Williamson reiterated the importance of doing something to protect the roads, bridges and private property in Lincoln County and elsewhere.

“It’s very important to do something about the beaver problem,” he said. “The people we have are good, but it’s just too much ground for them to cover.”

So that’s it. Keep the trappers in beer money or deal with millions in repairs. Obviously there’s no alternative. I’m imagining this big bruiser of a trapper looking out into the entire voting block of the Mississippi budget committee and saying…”Pay me now, or this road GETS it!!!!”

Who could resist?

Beavers and Heroes

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, History, In the News April 11, 2012

UPDATE:

Ian Timothy makes beaver waves in Kentucky. Out of state voices rattle the council and leave a lasting impression. Go read the whole article, you will love every syllable!

The Great Beaver Massacre occurred in the city of St. Matthews sometime in early March. That’s really the only fact everybody agrees upon. (OK, so even that isn’t an agreed-upon fact by all parties involved.) Like so many government-sponsored atrocities before it, the alleged savagery is shrouded in secrecy and official denials of knowledge. In fact, Robert Tonini, a member of the St. Matthews City Council, claims he didn’t know anything about it until mid-March when emails started pouring in. St. Matthews officials have received missives from as far away as California, Maine and New Zealand. All of them with the same claim: Someone had embarked on the demolition of beaver dams in Arthur K. Draut Park.

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Then check out the other good beaver tidings! My article as published in the spring newsletter of the John Muir Association. Click on the image for a fun read linking the city’s famous conservationist to a famous beaver advocate!

And stay tuned for some very good news for beavers in California!

At the annual conference we have an award ceremony to recognize and honor leaders in the watershed restoration community. The Golden Pipe award is an annual award presented by the Salmonid Restoration Federation for innovators in the fisheries restoration field. Usually this award is bestowed upon a pioneer in the habitat restoration field who has been a leader or unique thinker in fish passage design or innovative restoration techniques.

On March 7th, 2012 in Davis, CA the Salmonid Restoration Federation presented this award to Brock Dolman, the Director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s WATER Institute for his leading role as a proponent of “working with beavers” to restore native habitat. Brock helped co-found the ad hoc California Beaver Working Group, networked with groups utilizing beavers from all over the country, and made strategic contacts with state and federal agencies that oversee wildlife and fisheries conservation and recovery efforts.

Brock has been a Paul Revere for the Beaver, shouting its virtues and mobilizing communities to consider working hand and paw with these creatures who naturally know how to restore habitat and protect instream flows.

This pushes beavers a long way into the forefront on the salmon campaign and moves us all closer to the inevitable day when any city ripping out a beaver dam will need to pay a fish – fine – and I couldn’t be happier! Congratulations Brock and keep up the good work!