Month: August 2012

Bring your ‘kit’ to work day!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, kits August 26, 2012

Two pieces of excellent news that you absolutely will not want to miss, and (like all good Catholics), I’m saving the best one for last. The first is an excellent op-ed from beaver champion Mary O’brien of the Grand Canyon Trust in Utah, where the cartoon-cat county that is holding the beaver festival next month just decided it didn’t want beavers.

The good beaver do

If there’s any wildlife species that should unite Utahns it’s the beaver. After all, we’re the second-driest state in the nation, and more water isn’t likely. Our state’s southern half is hot and getting hotter. We’re in trouble, but beaver are waiting in the wings to help us.

Their dams slow the run of snowmelt off the mountains, which can transform creeks that have begun to dry up by late summer into creeks that once again run all year. While the temperature rises, their dams transfer water underground that emerges cooler downstream. As our wetlands disappear, their dams create new wetlands. As reservoirs fill with sediment, their dams extend reservoir life by capturing and storing sediment upstream.

This sediment raises the beds of streams that have become incised ditches and reconnects them with their floodplain, allowing the streams to once again support the willow, cottonwood and aspen that play key roles in holding our watersheds together. As the gouging of storms increases, beaver dams act as speed bumps.

Ranchers get expanded riparian areas, a livestock heaven. Anglers and hunters get more fish and ducks, and enlarged wildlife habitat. Wildlife watchers get more birds, frogs, otter, mink, and … beavers. Children get to hear a beaver’s tail slap a warning that humans are around. We all get new ponds and meadows.

Now do you see why the first time I read about Mary O’brien I thought she was the most amazing and wonderfully brilliant ecologically minded woman in the known world? The article that first tipped me off (and remains my favorite beaver article ever) was from the High Country News lo these many years ago, and described her as having a ‘thick rope of a gray braid’. It makes me smile to remember wandering star struck around at the start of the beaver conference in 2011 checking everyone’s hair to see which one was her!

This one!

What’s not to like about beavers? Why did Garfield County commissioners recently request that the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources not move beavers from problem sites to good sites in their county? According to Commissioner Clare Ramsey, it’s because the motives of environmentalists are suspect: They might use beavers to attack livestock grazing on public lands.

The truth? Well-managed livestock can allow streams to become great habitat for beavers, and then beavers can return the favor by expanding the riparian meadows in which livestock love to graze.

Which brings us to a great first-ever beaver celebration scheduled here in Utah — in Garfield County, no less. The Leave It to Beavers Festival will take place Sept. 21-22 at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park near Escalante. There will be music, food, a live-trapping demonstration, great children’s activities, Hogle Zoo animals, hikes to beaver dams led by local residents, informational displays, and art and photos of Utah’s beavers (it’s not too late to enter one of the four art and photo contests).

Nice! This is as good a time as any to remind readers about this from their festival website under ‘about’:

Why a Leave It to Beavers Festival?

In July 2011 Mary O’Brien of Grand Canyon Trust had a grand day in Martinez, California at the fourth annual Martinez beaver festival sponsored by the local group, Worth a Dam! (Their rollicking, inspiring website: www.MartinezBeavers.org) We decided to shamelessly copy in Utah the spirit, fun, and great information of that Martinez beaver festival.

And that’s what I call full circle. Go read the entire article and add a yea-beaver comment to the mix! Garfield will thank you!

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And now for the even more exciting news on last night’s kit-watch. We arrived early because we wanted to see if Jr was coming out from the regular bank hole and then going upstream before coming down from the primary (thus giving a false impression of having slept up there!) I have a hard time imagining that beavers decide whimsically where and with whom they are going to sleep every night, and wanted to understand it better. It was very high tide, so high that the secondary dam was sunk under a foot of water that extended all the way into the scrape where it hasn’t reach for years. No beavers emerged until almost 7:30 and then SURPRISE) it was Jr. coming obviously from upstream and browsing the blackberry bushes before swimming ‘through’ the secondary dam and toodling around the boundaries.

He was so relaxed and far afield that we were beginning to get nervous that the high tide had ‘taken away the toddler fence’ and he was going to swim out to sea, when along came two adult beavers swimming side by side from upstream. (Mom and Dad?) The larger one went ‘through’ the dam and the smaller one swam up to the kit, touching noses and swimming in a circle with our little fellow who (much to my delight and amazement) gave the classic KIT VOCALIZATION and whined several times, paddling onto her back and tail.

It was too dark for photos but we stood on the bridge oohing and ahhing as mom and Jr. swam side by side past the secondary, and far down stream out to the wide world beyond. Dad was ahead of them but still visible and I could tell it was an important night for beaver education. I wondered if the parents had ‘decided’ this ahead of time? Or just read his behavior and responded? We have never seen them both come at the same time. and never from upstream. It made me also realize that in super high tides their usual bank hole might not stay dry, that that might be why they move up stream, which makes sense.

The very best part was that our little one wasn’t alone anymore and we got to see how careful and caring his parents are of him. That was easily worth an early dinner, rowdy homeless, and a pesky yellowjacket. I am so proud of our beaver family! In case you forgot what a beaver kit sounds like, here’s a reminder.

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Finally: Your Help is Needed

Moses said someone was fishing from the footbridge the other night, an adult man who refused to leave and was dropping his baited hook in front of the little kit to get him interested and dropping it on his back on purpose because it was ‘funny’. Obviously a kit doesn’t want to eat a worm but Jr won’t actually know that until he takes a bite and by then the hook would be in his mouth or throat or intestines. The protective disapproval of a bold community needs to help keep an eye on our little kit and make sure this @$$-%#*% fishes somewhere else. Please, if you have time in the next couple of weeks in the evening come by and lend a watchful eye.

Beavers: honey/vinegar edition

heidi08 Beavers August 25, 2012

Let beavers in: Garfield would benefit from plan

Garfield County commissioners are suspicious of environmentalists. They seem to believe that people who are on the side of ecosystems — forests, endangered species, wildlife, fragile deserts — are the natural enemies of ranchers and other rural interests. And it’s that suspicion that led the commissioners to refuse the efforts of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to restore beavers to historical beaver habitat in the mountainous areas of the county.

That’s unfortunate, since beavers are, as one DWR official described them, “great riparian managers.” The industrious animals build dams, create ponds and lively meadows. They improve wildlife habitat and, at the same time, increase the watershed’s capacity to retain runoff and release the overflow when streams are high in the spring and humans downstream need it most.

The pressure builds in Garfield County Utah, home to the first ever beaver festival in the state next month, and self-declared ‘no-beavers’ capital. You may remember that the county commissioners voted to ‘opt out’ of the beaver reintroduction plan presented them by the department of wildlife resources and our friends at the Grand Canyon Trust. You may further remember that this bold decision came no more than ten days after Garfield was added to the natural disaster list by USDA due to drought conditions. I wrote my usual WTF article and wrote letters which lead to my being asked by the paper to make my letter a little ‘nicer’ so that it wouldn’t create such a defensive response. I encouraged them to do whatever they wanted to make the letter fit to print but advised that in my experience information doesn’t actually change politicians minds: but public pressure can change actions.

Well this article is obviously the ‘kinder’ approach, so we’ll see what transpires. It frames the refusal to participate as a reaction to the scary ‘environment-istas’ that would use their beaver inch to press for a beaver mile, or something like that. Not exactly sure where ranchers are supposed to graze their stock without an ‘environment’ or why the two sides wouldn’t have water and things to graze in common, but its a start!

The DWS manages them, sometimes moving them from place to place on public land, both for the animals’ own welfare and to improve forests and the habitat of other wildlife. The agency has moved a dozen from other parts of the state to Garfield, Kane and Washington counties and would like to bring in 9,000 more. The commissioners of Garfield County should get involved in talks about the beaver reintroduction. If they better understood the plan, they would quit seeing it as a conspiracy aimed at them.

Nice job. Just so you know, I’m conspiring against them. Does that count?

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Now look what our artist FROgard Butler dropped off on my front porch yesterday! The 8 foot beaver painted by children at this year’s festival! She painstakingly turned all their artwork into an unbelievably beautiful mural, keeping all their stories and designs, including the dragon on a surf board blowing flames and the argyle tail children requested after following the bagpiper! I just love how ‘the river runs through it’ and I cannot imagine a Worth A Dam without her amazing creativity and patience.

Beaver Friends

heidi08 Beavers August 24, 2012

And the prize for making it to friday in a very difficult week is this excellently appreciative article from Michael Kuntz in Ottawa Canada:

Enjoying the magic of a Beaver pond

A Beaver enjoys a meal. Too bad more kids aren't exposed to the "magic" of a beaver pond, says Michael Runtz

As many of you know, I am particularly fond of Beavers.

For more than 20 years I have been working on a book about these remarkable rodents, one I hope to complete this fall. Even though I have spent countless hours enjoying these animals and the other occupants of their ponds, I continue to see new behaviours regularly.

This past week I visited a pond where I had seen several Beavers in action the previous week. Even though it was early afternoon, there were two Beavers outside their lodge. Both were busily eating the leaves of Water-shield, a common water plant that grows in beaver ponds and other shallow water.

Now that’s the way to start an article! Paying close enough attention to see what each separate beaver is eating. Working on a beaver book for 20 years. Michael, where have you been all our lives? He’s teaches at Carleton University in Canada , (currently on sabbatical) where he offers the most popular online natural history course in the country and is a major author and player in the natural world up that way. Our good friend Donna Dubreuil of the Ottawa-Carleton wildlife center says he’s a great help.

I was watching one Beaver eat when I noticed another in the background. This one was cleaning its huge hind foot in its mouth. What was new about this was that the Beaver was lying on its back in the water, just like a Sea Otter eating a clam!

It is unfortunate that more children are not exposed to the magic of a beaver pond.

Michael, Michael, Michael! Trust us, some lucky children are!

Go do yourself a favor and read the entire article. Of course I wrote him right away and of course he wrote back. You should see the photo he sent in response! I can’t think of a better place for him to preview his book when its done can you?

Beavers: Far & Near!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere August 23, 2012

Remarkable introduction to Devon Beavers Beaver project from the Devon Wildlife Trust. This is as good a way to introduce beavers as I can think of, and the delight in the announcers voice when she actually SAW the first beaver brought tears to my eyes. I promise you that this recent BBC video is well worth your time. (It was processed and put on youtube by our old friend Peter Smith of the Wildwood Trust and he added his own special additions for the Free Tay beavers.) Enjoy!

Meanwhile, our historic prevalence of beavers in the Sierras paper(s) will appear in the next issue of Fish & Game which is now online. Now we are hard at work at part 2 which is beavers in coastal streams. There was a conference call this week with the key players in that project and Brock and Kate were able to secure funding from the Nature Conservancy for the Sonoma part of that research as part of their larger ‘bring back coho campaign’. Check out this finding from the Fort Ross library of an account to general Vallejo in 1833:

The next valley we crossed is situated three leagues from Bodega. It is called Sayomi. Sayomi has an abundance of year around water and is surrounded by well irrigated lands with timber. About four leagues onward is found a valley called Liuantiyomi. Its creeks form large marshes which are filled with beaver, unlike other places where only vestiges of them remain because of the foreign hunters. Liuantiyomi is located west of the valleys of Santa Rosa and Jaquilliyomi, and appears to have the best environment for the founding of a town.

Of course once he received that report Vallejo was off to see for himself, so we have his translated report as well! We’re close to pinning down the exact location, somewhere between Sebastopol and Occidental as a league was ‘as far as a man could walk in an hour’ but it makes for a exciting detective novel. Although not as exciting as this ‘false lead’ which I found in a this report from father Manuel Venegas 1739 after his trip to some islands in Baja California:

With regard to amphibians, many beavers are also found around the island. Since these sleep in the sea close to the beach with their feet skyward, to hunt them, the Indians trap them while they sleep. They go into the water, knock them on the head with a stick, and with a line of cordage drag them to the beach already dead. Other times, they kill them with their arrows, when the beavers come to shore, or get very close to it.

Don’t you just love the idea of beavers as amphibians? Or sleeping with their feet in their air? Sadly as much as I enjoyed his account he was obviously talking about Sea Otters even though he used the spanish “Castores“ and everything. Clearly the word “beaver” just meant “Furry animal whose coat I wanna sell” and it could be applied everywhere. We’ll keep looking!

And a reunion at the beaver dam last night with several Worth A Dam members gathered to see the kit emerge from above the primary dam. Did he have a sleepover with his aunt to give his parents the night off? Apparently Moses said he’s seen it before, but its the first I’ve heard of it. Nice photos from Cheryl

Let THAT be a lesson to you!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 22, 2012

Wauconda woman pulled from shoulder-deep mud

Stuck for hours after trying to clear beaver dam

A Wauconda woman is pulled from the mud Monday after she fell while trying to open a beaver dam near her home. (HANDOUT / August 22, 2012)

A Wauconda woman was rescued late Monday after she sank shoulder-deep in mud while trying to clear a beaver dam, according to fire officials.

The woman called out for help for hours before someone heard her around 10:30 p.m. Neighbors heard a faint cry from a swampy area near the house, said Ted Hennessy, deputy chief of the Wauconda Police Department. Rescuers used ladders and boards to reach the woman, then shovels to dig around her, Hoover said. Workers attached a harness around her body and pulled her out.

From the ‘just desserts’ file comes the story this morning of a nameless woman from Wauconda (near Chicago) who decided to rip out the beaver dam on her property, sank into mud up to her shoulders and had to be excavated by the fire department with pulleys like a sarcophagus in the Valley of the Kings. Prompting this single question, why didn’t this ever happen to a member of our city council or a certain property owner on the banks of Alhambra Creek?

She was taken to Condell Medical Center in Gurnee as a precautionary measure, Hennessy said. People who live in the area said they are familiar with clearing beaver dams. The problem area is a pond near VD Kimball Second Subdivision that drains into nearby Bangs Lake, said Caroline Thacker, the subdivision’s treasurer. Thacker said the beaver dams cause water to back up into people’s homes and yards.

“I’m sure she was trying to do good,” Thacker said.

Unless you’re the beavers of course.

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Beaver deceiver keeps culvert clear

More outstanding examples of beaver-stupid from Ottawa, the city that ripped out the lodge in Paul Lindsay Park and exposed two young kits to starvation and death. Their public relations department decided to do a little polishing on their tarnished wildlife image and prompted this article about flow devices being installed in places that merited an experimental approach on account of (a) not actually having beavers or (b) not really mattering all that much.

A “beaver deceiver” was erected in the Kizell Pond wetlands on Wednesday, Aug. 8. The installation of tubing and cages are to keep the beavers from building dams near or blocking the culvert on Goulbourn Forced Road.

The Kizell Pond beaver deceiver is one of five currently in the city, with another two set for construction, said Nick Stow, senior planner of land use and natural systems with the city.

“They have two main benefits,” said Stow. “They allow us to protect infrastructure from beavers without having to trap and remove the beavers and…they also dramatically reduce maintenance costs in the long term.”

Ah Nick! How have you been? It’s been a while since the endless stream of emails we exchanged where you lied first about the beavers being in the lodge the city ripped out, then lied about there being no homeless kits, then lied about the fact that storm water ponds were SPECIAL problems and couldn’t tolerate a flow device, and then lied about Mike Callahan when I sent you photos of installations he had done in storm water ponds, and then lied TOO him directly when you explained that they weren’t possible solutions in Stittsville. No wonder you wanted to show off your beaver-saving prowess, after explaining to Anita that you might be willing to bring in an ‘expert’ (rhymes with ‘rapper’) to move the beavers but she couldn’t watch or know where they were being taken to or tell anyone else about it.

This was my very favorite part of the article

“It will take about a year for the site to fully develop and of course the water levels are very low right now because of the drought,” he said. “So when the water levels come back up and the beavers again become active at the site, we expect the only visible part of the beaver deceiver will be the tops of the cages protecting the inlets to the drains.”

You see, the reason this was a good site for the ‘trial installation of a flow device’ was because there are NO BEAVERS THERE. (Or water for that matter). Makes sense right? The same way you test the success of cancer medication on people who don’t have cancer, herpes treatment on people who never contracted the disease, or birth control on lesbians? You don’t think Ottawa would take a tom-fool risk like installing a beaver deceiver where there were actual BEAVERS do you?

I’m so full of respect for your courageous and humane decision, I just have to ask. Have you ever walked out near the dam to check the installation up close? It’s incredible. Walk right into the water to get the best view. Step closer…Just a little closer….