Month: May 2012

Snips and Tails

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers, City Reports, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, kits May 7, 2012

Now before we get started today I have some housekeeping to attend to. Yesterday I received an email from Joe Eaton, a fast friend of the Martinez Beavers and the author of my favorite article ever on the death of the mother beaver for the Berkeley Daily Planet. He said he stopped by to see the dams and thought they were abandoned (very high tide) and when he checked the website didn’t see any discussion of the Martinez Beavers since March! Were they okay?

I though that since a friendly faced didn’t know, you might not know either! You can always check for new sightings under the “sightings” tab on the menu bar on the top of the page. It will tell you what was seen, where, what time, and by whom. Just in case Joe is not the only one who doesn’t know! The sightings page is managed by Worth A Dam champion Lory Bruno whose friendly face you will see at the silent auction booth this summer. Here’s today’s update

May 7th – 6:15am – One beaver was seen above the primary dam and possibly a sighting of another beaver. Not sure if the same one came out but the second one was a bit smaller it seemed.. It came up to the lodge area and went underwater. Seems like there is something going on at the old lodge and there looked like new branches were on the lodge site, which was heavily mudded Saturday morning.CR

Next, our Kentucky Derby watching friends might find it interesting to know that the logo for the Derby was created by none other that the mother of our beloved Ian Timothy (creator of the beaver creek series).His father of course wrote and performed the music for the series. Here’s photographic proof of a very talented family!

You may remember that last week I wrote about the beavers at Silver Lake in CT which Councilman Thorpe described as “wreaking havoc” on the ecosystem. Of course I wrote him about the good that beaver do for the birds and fish and wildlife and he wrote back (in a manner I can only describe as ‘clipped‘) and said he knew all that but that this area was special because of a sewer line. Which, if true, you might have thought he’d mention to the media. Anyway, there’s a nice rebuttal to his alarms this morning

As the Record-Journal’s Richie Rathsack reported, there’s also evidence that the pond, larger now thanks to the beaver work, is more attractive to other wildlife. He also described dozens of trees along the shore with signs of beaver gnawing, as well as small trails left by beavers dragging trees through the woods to the water’s edge.

My strong suspicion is also that the proprietors of this so-called beaver hut are not paying their proper share of property taxes, and the beavers should probably be told that if there’s any vehicle involved that in Connecticut we tax you when you buy one, while you own one and once again when you sell one. Those trails the beavers are building should also be candidates for some sort of review and taxation, I’d wager.

It’s a clever bit of writing. Go read the whole thing.

Now let’s head even farther East for our final update. With beaver advocates chipping away at the resistance in the United Kingdom, check out this mornings BBC report on beavers in Wales!

It is thought that beavers, while common in medieval Wales, became extinct by the 16th Century. But Ms Girardi said she believed the beavers remained “keystone species,” whose re-introduction would increase biodiversity.

On a final note it’s Monday so if you’re very, very good you can watch this video from Peter Smith at the Wildwood Trust in England. A very stalwart, enthusiastic member of the Save the Free Beavers of the River Tay died two weeks ago, Mike Johnston. So Peter very nobly made sure that one of these kits was named after him. I guess its theoretically possibly you might see something cuter in your entire lifetime, but it surely isn’t likely! Enjoy!

A Full Day’s Labor…

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Educational, Environmental May 6, 2012

What we did today!

Yesterday was a rocket ship of explosive activity! Wild Kingdom and Cockpits and Squid Disection and Duct tape wallets and Zip Lines and Rock Walls and Scuba Diving and Girl Power and lots and lots of pink! Rows and rows of tents, many of them pink, in the fair grounds where camping was allowed. Face paint and s’mores and llamas and circuit boards and floating sharks and astronauts in spacesuits. Words fail me. In the middle of all this someone came to invite us to display at Green Kids day on the Microsoft campus and I honestly wanted to laugh, “are you kidding?”

There was a moment in this massive wave of a day where I looked at Cheryl in a panic and said “THEY JUST KEEP COMING!!!!!!!” And it seemed liked that most times, clusters of girls in matching shirts with badges and bracelets and eager faces. Most of them enormously polite with thank yous and questions, with an endless stream of exhausted moms (and a few dad’s) shepharding them to through the many booths, waiting patiently while they painted with pine needles or drew in black lighting or added wildlife to a flag.

Imagine this scene over again at least a thousand times….

Three top conversations of the day would have to be

the mom who grew up in Sonoma who said her Dad had tried to save beavers on their land 10 years ago and is going to send me a photo of him standing by tree stump they chewed.
the woman who had gone to the beaver festival and said her daughter had painted a tile and STILL HAD HER TAIL!!!!
The woman from the San Joaquin watershed council in Fresno who said that she had called fish and game many times about protecting trees and was outraged that they had never told her about wire wrapping or sand painting!

I’m sure there are others that will come back to me as the sensation creeps back to my vocal cords. In the meantime, this came when I got home. The entire issue is about beavers and wetlands.

And an excellent conclusion to Thomas Knudson’s piece on Wildlife Services this morning with information about non-lethal methods. Other than the fact that I am fiercely disappointed that it doesn’t mention flow devices to control beaver problems, its a very good read! Next time, right Tom?

Girl Scouts Honor [Beavers]

heidi08 Beavers May 6, 2012

Looks like the fairly pricey Girl Scouts One Hundred Fun Hundred event today is sold out. That means we’ll be talking about beavers to 20,000 girls and their families. We’re in a building with 60 other natural science displays. There are at least 8 other buildings. When I think of what it would take to organize an event like this I have to breathe in a paper bag.

Just in case your daughter is one of the lucky girls with tickets, here’s where we’ll be, booth 58 right next to passport station where every girl will visit. I imagine my vocal cords will be blown for a good week, so you’d better stop by and say hi today!

The instructions say I must coach my team to take the pledge and follow the rules of conduct. No problem, with a very little adjustment they fit the situation just fine.

will do my best to be honest and fair,

friendly and helpful, considerate and caring,

courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, [FOR BEAVERS] and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

Friends & Foes

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Video May 4, 2012

Do you remember the condominium group in New Hampshire that worked to solve their culvert problems without killing beavers? They had at least one retired engineer on board who was fascinated by the puzzle. He worked with Mike Callahan to chisel out solutions, and recently brought him a donation of Beaver Beer as compensation. Well, encouraged by his success he has now started a beaver blog! It’s called “Sherwood Beavers“. Here’s the story and the first blog entry.

It’s May, so I can’t think of a better time to start a beaver blog. The story is about to get very, very interesting! Art’s profile says he recently retired from teaching schools how to better teach technology. Lets hope he is inspired to keep teaching how to live with beavers! Welcome aboard Art. Great first act! Here’s a sample of what you’ll see soon.

Now for the ‘foe’ part of the title there’s this headline from the BBC:

‘Secret Tay beaver cull plan’ claim denied

Wildlife campaigners have said they fear landowners may be planning a secret cull of beavers living in the wild on the Tay, with the approval of the authorities. The Scottish government insisted the claims are untrue, but said the animals do not have full legal protection.

Ugh. So our hard working champions in Scotland are worried that even though the government has said ‘lets not kill them and study them for now’ they’ve had secret contact with worried farmers and given consent to kill them anyway. Let the farmers take the heat and get the government outta the crosshairs to put the beaver firmly back in the crosshairs where it belongs.

Louise Ramsay of the Scottish Wild Beaver Group said: “The Scottish government’s official position is that it doesn’t consider the beavers to be protected, although it wants landowners and farmers only to use lethal control as a last resort.

“But we have had two separate reports that the Scottish government wants the beavers dead and would like landowners’ support in conducting a cull, but keeping it quiet.”

First horror and then praise! GO LOUISE!!! She is doing such a remarkable job! They’ve been worrying about the protection issue for a while. See native wildlife is protected in Scotland, but evil criminally released beavers are NOT. That’s why I’ve been worried about the meme that the they know the beavers were deliberately released (not escaped) which suspiciously appeared at the very same time the ‘beavers have been spared’ announcement came.

So the original beavers were the result of a criminal act and all the subsequent generations of beavers are therefore not subject to the same protections as innocent wildlife. The sins of the father shall be visited on the sons.

To say this article has created a stir is an understatement. But the Ramsays are being so clever here I honestly can’t tell if they’re terrified or getting ready to say ‘check mate’. I know I’d feel very threatened if I were in their situation, but I’m not from a 1000+ year old prominent family descended from the physician to the king. With the recent panic in Devon when they learned that the discovered beaver wasn’t the LOST beaver, I would expect this to get more complicated before it gets less. We’d better all stay tuned!

IANevitable

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Friends of Martinez Beavers May 3, 2012

Draut Park beaver talks continue

Members of the St. Matthews city parks committee plan to meet this month with St. Xavier High School student Ian Timothy to further discuss strategies for dealing with beavers in Draut Park, which also serves as a water retention area for flood control.

The dam is back, and councilman Rick Tonini said it, too, will be cleared away. “I understand your love of beavers,” Tonini said. “But it’s not a beaver park.”

Okay, the Courier-Journal has given very specific instructions that they are not to be quoted in any way unless dollars change hands, but I must risk the full wrath of Kentucky copyright law to share with you councilman Tonini’s breathtaking explanation of the issues, in which he considers civic hydrology, cultural demand, and agrarian richness and boils it all down to the Hallmark-worthy greeting, ‘Son, its not a beaver park”.

Wait, does this mean that the City of St. Matthews is going to build a designated ‘Beaver Park”?

In the mean time the councilman should know that every park with trees and water is potentially a “Beaver Park”. Since the dam is back again two months later and you’re going to use manpower hours and the bulldozer again to rip it out, I have to ask is it a “Department-of-Public-Works-Overtime Park“? Is it a “pay-to-relocate-beavers-every-12-months park“? Or maybe a “Generating–bad-press-for-the-city park”?

The article (which you really must go read in its entirety) describes the AWARD WINNING Ian who has lobbied long and hard for a flow device (in his enviable earnest and snark-free manner), talked about sand- painting trees, and pledged support including this lovely sentence:

The Worth A Dam group in California would match the city’s contribution to the $500 cost of a “deceiver” structure, Ian said.

Gosh, those meddling Worth A Dam folks are everywhere! Now technically, we are generally trying to keep the scholarship in California but this is IAN we’re talking about and there’s no question its the best place for it.

At the moment there are two comments for this story, one from me and one from Sharon Brown of Beavers Wetlands and Wildlife.Why don’t you go leave one too?

Of course I sent a letter to the editor – since it has not yet been printed I have no qualms about quoting it.

By now the city of St. Matthews easily has enough public support to get 25 young people working to help wire wrap or sand paint trees in Draut park by this time tomorrow. The city already has matching funds pledged for a culvert protecting flow device. It has been provided an award-winning DVD to teach them how to do this work themselves, and the city is just 15 hours away from the top experts in the country if it wants to bring help in to do it for them.

Surely Mr. Tonini understands that any park with water and trees is potentially a ‘beaver park’? Even if the city could get rid of these beavers, with adequate habitat you can be certain that more will move in to take their place. Why not solve the problem for the long term, and use our matching funds to install a flow device?

At this point the notion of beavers at Draut park is looking pretty IANevitable.

And speaking of our own ‘beaver park’ this morning, there were some very lovely looking dams, a million swallows, several landing mallards and two happily munching beavers.