Happy Beginnings…

heidi08 Beavers August 16, 2012

The beaver munches on Willow and Aspen branches while its temporary caretaker, Joe Cannon, sits nearby. (Photo Courtesy: Nicole Hensley)

Finding a new home for a lone beaver

A rancher knew it was either the beaver or his detention pond. He could shoot the animal, but there had to be a better way. Before any drastic action was taken, ecologists with a Spokane non-profit came to the rescue last week to live-trap a young beaver near Addy, Washington.

Recently exiled from its previous beaver colony, the young guy or gal was finding its new home in a rancher’s pond. A restoration ecologist with The Lands Council, Joe Cannon, says it’s part of their job to find problem beavers in the region who are encroaching on human infrastructure by damaging property.

Hurray for Joe! And hurray for the Lands Council! And hurray for a beaver that’s just starting out! Honestly reading a story like this after several doses of beaver-stupid is like having a sip of cold champagne from a silver flute in the desert. You think I exaggerate? Trust me, it gets even better!

The land belongs to Rep. Joel Kretz (R) who hopes the beaver will help store spring runoff on his property about ten miles north of Wauconda. Kretz is also running for reelection in the 7th legislative district. “If this is successful, and it’s not guaranteed he’ll [or she] stay, I may lose some grass from flooding, but I think it will benefit the environment. I think the water release will keep the stream flowing better and put more moisture in the basin,” Kretz said.

To make this happen, Kretz sponsored the recently passed legislation called the “Beaver Bill”. The bill, signed into legislation on June 7, improves state management of the species and make it easier to relocate nuisance beavers.

Got that? The beaver is going to a stream on 1400 acres of Ranch property that happen to belong to the senator that sponsored the beaver bill that just unanimously passed into law! I can’t even imagine such a tangle of good news, but there it is. Washington State is in the not only at the head of the class when it comes to beavers — its doing post-graduate work!

When they arrive on Kretz’s ranch property, they’ll get their hands dirty by laying down branches in the stream to back up the water a bit, giving the beaver some over night coverage. From there, the beaver will hopefully do what it does best and build a dam.

Kretz calls his neck of the woods “dry country” with low annual rainfall. Water retention in spring will improve water flow during the summer on his property. “I think there’s a double benefit. You’re removing problem beavers and putting them where they’re appropriate,” Kretz added.

And that is what happens when people truly understand beaver benefits and believe in solving problems instead of killing them. I am in awe. Way to go Joe, (who often seems to slip into the background and let his photogenic partner Amanda do the talking!) What an excellent debut onto the media field! We wish your bachelor (or bachelorette) all the luck in the world!

And if you want to learn more about what Joe does and his background, listen up:

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Subscribe in iTunes!

Garfield County Votes to Preserve Drought

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions August 17, 2012

On July 18th, after a grueling spring and a dry, hot summer, Garfield County in Utah was added to the natural disaster list gathered by USDA thus making it eligible for federal emergency assistance funds because of the worsening drought. Crops were being devastated, farms were in trouble. Everyone was feeling the impact of water that wasn’t coming.

Five days later, Heather Grossman of the Utah division of Natural Resources made a presentation to the County Commissioners about the exciting and important beaver translocation program they had developed in conjunction with the forestry service and pretty much every other brilliant mind in the region. The deceptively simple idea is that beavers placed in adequate locations upstream will preserve and protect water flow downstream, and help keep Utah’s memorable landscape hydrated. The financial impact of beavers was even studied in the recent report from the Grand Canyon Trust which concluded:

The ecosystem services that could be provided by increased dam-building beaver populations in the Escalante Basin would provide benefits in the form of avoided costs for water storage, habitat restoration, and water quality treatment (Table ES1). The services would also supply a number of other identified and demonstrated direct and indirect benefits in the basin. Based on beaver population densities observed elsewhere in Utah under similar conditions,beaver could provide benefits to local residents and visitors well into the millions of dollars per year.

Armed with fiscal impact data and an impressive collaborative management plan from the Forest Service, Heather described how they had walked the dry streams to pinpoint adequate habitat, and calculated the area for tolerance, received training in flow devices from an expert in Massachusetts, and advice on safe relocation from an expert in Colorado. Heather explained how they’d carefully relocate beavers from impacted areas to those very areas where they could best make an impact. Maybe she showed this film, or maybe she didn’t. The commission doesn’t post minutes

Well on August 13th the Commissioners wrote back the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and said thank you very much. but no thanks. Even though we’re thirsty and haven’t seen a puddle in months, and you’re the department of resources we don’t actually want THOSE resources because beavers are ‘icky’ and controversial. We thought about it for three whole minutes and know better than every scientist in the state. We plan to protect our drought by keeping out beavers and don’t ever ask us again. Never mind that beavers help climate change and birds and fish and reptiles and raise the watertable so that our wells won’t run dry and never mind that Garfield County will host the very first ever Beaver Festival this year in the state and folks from all over will come learn about beavers and how they impact the watershed and possibly how foolish we’re being. Our minds, (hermetically sealed cavernous chambers that they are), are made up. No beavers for Garfield. We have decided to keep worrying about the drought instead of allowing it to be mitigated.

No word yet on whether the commissioners have hand written letters to every constituent explaining their decision and apologizing for the fact that even though their daisies are wilting, they’re been told not to flush, and their children haven’t been swimming since last summer they are still voting to prevent ‘water-savers’ from being moved into their county. They know what they’re doing. Beavers are controversial.

Hmm… I’m thinking of creative ways to use the upcoming festival to pressure the commissioners to have a change of heart. Bobbing for beavers? Rubber beaver races? Or maybe just a big dunking booth labeled “let beavers fix our watershed” and the commissioners lined up one by one along the top! Yeah, I like that idea. Big teens waiting in line to throw the winning ‘beaver ball’ that is going to hit its target and drench all of Garfield.

Not outta the woods yet…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, kits August 14, 2012

kit 2012 — Kit 2012 -Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Looks like we finally got Cheryl to stop chasing down wanna-beavers in Benicia, Fairfield & American Canyon and take pictures of the genuine royal family in Martinez! Here are some nice shots from her visit last night. As you can see he is making excellent progress on his ‘devout’ impression. Jean was there too so I’m sure what he was praying was ‘God, I hope she brought fennel!’

betterkit2012JPG — Beaver kit 2012-Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Great news from Washington where Adopt A Stream in Snohomish County will be showing the IMAX beaver movie and teaching folks about beavers. Way back at the beginning of the Martinez beaver saga (during the punic wars) the Snohomish beaver website was about the only place one could turn for beaver answers. I wound up making a good friend of the watershed steward responsible for it, who is now comfortably retired. The evening starts off with Sammy the Salmon introducing his good friends which could not be better.

The beaver program kicks off with a presentation by “Sammy the Salmon,” a six-foot-long talking salmon character. Sammy will introduce the program by describing how beaver dams are good for salmon and trout. Sammy will show a short underwater viewing of the life cycle of salmon produced by Japan’s Hokkaido Television and Broadcasting, according to press material.

Sammy so needs to come to the beaver festival! Of course the only problem with this story is the headline

IMAX film peers inside beaver dam

Sigh. Washington may be smarter than every other state when it comes to beavers and beaver management. But one or two headline writers are still pretty dam stupid.

Green with Envy

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, kits August 13, 2012

Remember Art Wolinsky, the retired engineer who worked so hard with his neighbors to install a flow device at their condominium in New Hampshire? I connected with him through Mike Callahan’s “Beaver Management Forum” on facebook. Now Art’s watching the fruits of his labors and keeping an eye on two new kits that were born this year. Watching this video I am struck with how solitary our only kit is this year, and how vocal the others always were by comparison. I only heard our single kit vocalize once, the very first day we laid eyes on him. Actually I heard him before I saw him. That’s not the kind of sound you forget. It was one of my most favorite things about kits, and the thing that made me originally protective.

I remember standing at Starbucks, so many years ago, gazing into the water at some furry new faces after the city said they should be killed and listening to them mew and thinking HOW could people want to kill anything that makes that sound and then, have the people who want them dead ever even heard that sound? Do they even know about it? And then finally, if I let these beavers be killed when will I EVER hear that sound again?

It’s a grueling Monday morning, so I thought I’d give you something life changing to start your day. Enjoy!

Villians and Heroes

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Friends of Martinez Beavers, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 12, 2012

This commemorative tree is among several damaged by beavers on Memorial Hill Grove off the Amherst Bike Path. Beaver damage to trees has been on the rise due to this season's dry weather, which causes the animals to build more dams. Nick Agro / Buffalo News

Busy beavers unwelcome in Amherst

Traps set to control critters who gnawed memorial trees

Some commemorative trees standing along the Ellicott Creek Trailway are sporting skinny waistlines these days – if they’re standing at all – thanks to some busy beavers who are now in the cross hairs of the Town of Amherst.

The town began setting traps a few weeks ago to capture and kill the critters, a long-standing but not well-known practice that waxes and wanes depending on weather conditions. In wetter seasons, the dams built by beavers can lead to flooding damage. In drier years, like this one, the beavers have to create more dams, which means more tree damage.

And so it goes. Terrorists kill New Yorkers, and New Yorkers plant trees, and beavers chew trees, and New Yorkers kill beavers. The article waxes on to point out that they only kill beavers when it’s been a very wet year – or a very dry one. Or whenever they think of it. They have to do this. It’s not like they can protect the trees any other way.

As far as encircling all the memorial trees along the creek bank with wire mesh, Anderson said the town simply doesn’t have the resources. “I just don’t have the men, the manpower and the money,” he said.

I took the liberty of drawing up the onerous equipment list you will need to supply and I’m going to assume you can afford it. Heck, Worth A Dam will chip in for brushes if you want. Get the local scout troop involved and have them paint the trunks – they’d do it for a badge and a packet of skittles.

I saw three beavers this morning, Dad, Reed and Jr looking very beaver like at the secondary dam. Someone has put a very tidy layer of mud across the surface that is so even it looks like they used a ruler. Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to stalwart beaver hero and indispensable carrier of all things heavy, Jon. Because he has worked in the same place doing the same thing while several different corporations passed the potato, he is eligible today to collect one of the last blue collar pensions in California! Thanks for everything and the beavers could never manage it without you!