Month: September 2012
First a news flash of the very best news anyone could ever read before reporting for Jury Duty
Federal Beaver Killing Program Subject of Pending Lawsuit in New Mexico
A federal program that kills and removes beaver and other aquaticmammals in New Mexico is under scrutiny by conservationists. WildEarth Guardians filed a 60-day notice of intent under the Endangered Species Act to sue the USDA Wildlife Services in New Mexico for its failure to consider the impacts of trapping beaver and the effects this has on associated ponds, and threatened and endangered wildlife, including the Mexican gray wolf and native trout species.
“Beaver is such a critical animal for water supplies and other wildlife, particularly with looming climate change and drought,” said Bryan Bird, Wild Places Program Director for WildEarth Guardians. “The Department of Agriculture failed to consider sufficiently the impacts of trapping and killing beaver on other imperiled wildlife.”
Go read the whole thing and maybe drop some dollars or information in the kitty if you’d like to help. I think I may have just found some new BFF’s.
Onto yesterdays news:
A classy, busy, optic-laden day at Cornerstone in Sonoma. The Martinez beavers were recognized by most of the attendees, many of whom had heard me speak at the Valley of the Moon lecture or planned on attending the Madrone Audubon event in October.
As usual our display was the most inviting and kid friendly, and we had several children make and wear beaver tails. We also talked to several fairly well-off landowners who are eager to get beavers on their property, and a few who were very interested in hearing about sand painting trees and installing flow device on their own,
Highlights included the story of the woman whose 92 year old mother (now deceased) had grown up in Martinez and had always try to convince non-believers that there had been beavers here. The man who wanted to talk about how to encourage beavers on his land. The little girl who had beavers across the street from where she lived. And the several people who worked in Martinez, including the ER dr, the MUSD employee and the courthouse bailiff.
Jon and Cheryl and Cheryl’s mom took turns spelling my beaver spiel and we were all pleased with how much interest we were able to generate. Thanks to Tom Rusert of Somona birding for putting the event together, and thanks to everyone who made it possible. We weren’t exactly preaching to the choir today, but we were spreading the word to folks who are most likely to make it happen.
Run don’t walk to this issue of Scientific American where an excerpt of Mary Ellen Hannibal’s new book features the smart work of our good friend Mary O’brien returning beavers to the Escalante Basin. Here’s a taste to whet your appetite:
One five-star general in the campaign to save nature is Dr. Mary O’Brien, and she has a thing for beaver, the championing of which she has completely converted me to. In the first place, the quest for beaver has arguably had more impact on American history than the pursuit of any other single natural resource, its influence lasting well over 200 years. Sixty million or so beaver populated North America before 1600, and had a huge effect on the hydrology of the landscape – beaver dams stored water, slowed its flow and rate of evaporation, slowed erosion and supported a wealth of fish and bird species. In fact, the extermination of beaver from North America arguably marks the point at which our landscapes began to buckle and slide down the ruinous course we find them on now. Especially in the West, where water has always been an enormous issue and will become more important as climate change affects it, there is a real imperative to put beaver back on the waterways.
How’s that for an opening paragraph! Apparently everyone was a little surprised they ran the chapter now, but what a delightful read for the beginning of September, when so many cities are going to be panicking about new dams and possible flooding! September is ‘decide to kill beavers’ month, so this couldn’t be a better time to see them in a new light. Of course I wrote the author to let her know that beavers can have a similar transforming effect in a city too!
Everything is different when beaver are around. Here’s what happens: Beaver move into an area along a stream or a creek, part of the freshwater system that ultimately connects over the continent in a vast network like human veins and arteries. In that they affect whole cascades of other interaction, beavers are known as a “keystone” species, though some scientists prefer the term “highly interactive species.” They function as multiconnectors. Beavers not only rejigger the ecosystem, but also affect the lay of the land itself. Cutting down trees on the edge of the streams opens up the area, creating new ponds, swamps, and meadows. They actually store a supply of water that can be released in the event of drought. This slowing, spreading, and layering of water is precisely what makes them pests in some areas—you may not want your backyard flooded, for example. But there is no downside to letting beaver help the miles and miles of wild land creeks in a place like Fishlake National Forest attain better resilience, especially confronting climate change.
Do yourself a favor and go read the whole thing and all its wonderful details, including monster aspen stand named “Pando” which is latin for “I reproduce” – (As opposed to the more commonly recognized term “PandA” which apparently means “I don’t”!) With the first ever Escalante Beaver Festival right around the corner, the timing of the article couldn’t be better, and I am certain the commissioners of Garfield county are feeling the heat right about now.
Just to remind you that all roads lead to Rome, here is Dr. O’brien inspecting our children’s tiles on the Escobar bridge in Martinez in 2011:
Sometimes even when you write letters, and call the mayor, and get press coverage, and earn worldwide attention, and seem like you’re winning, and talk to all the professionals and get offers of help, even earn a visit from Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife -sometimes when you do all the right things, it still comes out wrong.
Our friend Anita Utas of Ottawa just reported that Lily and the two kits seen in this video have disappeared. The city says they were “relocated”, but has no details about where they were taken and no one saw it happen. The kits are younger than we would like for a relocation, and Anita fears that they weren’t relocated at all, but trapped, since they all disappeared in a single night. She argues that even if they were relocated it is very unlikely that a single beaver with two young and no shelter and no food cache will survive very long in a new habitat.
You might remember that the city bought themselves some expensive good will recently by bragging about installing a few flow devices in ‘experimental areas where there were no actual beavers’. Here’s Donna Dubrueil’s letter on the subject, published in yesterday’s EMC Kenata.
It’s not just beavers that are being deceived. Residents are as well.
The issue we have is that this provincially-significant wetland is a low-risk site with respect to beaver conflict. Thus, it’s hard not to see this installation as a cynical public relations exercise to divert attention away from the fact that the City of Ottawa still plans to trap beavers in storm water ponds, municipal drains and at the other sites where the majority of the 134 beavers were trapped and killed last year.
If the city really wanted to evaluate the success of water flow devices, why wouldn’t it install them in actual conflict sites?
How else can you evaluate the success of these devices compared to the annual costs of trapping, the very significant labour and equipment costs required to regularly unplug culverts along with infrastructure repairs?
We have some serious questions about this installation from a functional and aesthetic perspective.
It is definitely a monstrosity now but even when the water levels come back and if the beavers dam on the outside fence, it will still do nothing to hide all the metal and piping that has been installed inside the fence.
Our centre had the opportunity to see the beaver deceivers that were recently installed for the city of Cornwall using the latest and most effective design in blending these devices into the natural environment.
It was done free of charge by the Association for the Protection of Furbearing Animals, assisted by Michael Callahan of Beaver Solutions, which has successfully installed more of these devices than anyone in North America.
A similar offer was made to Ottawa but was ignored. Taxpayers should be asking why.
Donna DuBreuilOttawa-Carleton
Wildlife Centre Worth A Dam is so sorry. And feels such compassion and solidarity with your loss. No one in Martinez should fail to understand how close our own beavers came to this fate. It was never enough to have the support of downtown, animal lovers or city-distrusters. It was never enough to have nightly news or to arm ourself with information. It was never enough to have the Sierra club or Audubon or a beaver festival. The truth was always that what saved our beavers were voters. We were three families in Virginia hills or Morello Park away from ending up with only a sad inspiring story for all our efforts. If the city could have gotten away with doing it any other way on god’s green earth, they surely would have.
On days like today, I think of those people I didn’t know and have never heard from again and who had what could be called a ‘passing interest’ in our beavers such that they drove into town on a weeknight and attended that crowded November 7th meeting all those years ago. Since we shop at different stores and support different candidates and belong to different school districts we may never see each other again. But I remember them. And I am grateful.
It’s never the ‘base’ that makes the difference. It’s the margins.
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