I’ve been waiting for permission to share this video from our friend Michael Foster of the San Pedro River. Finally the moment has come! I know sometimes folks don’t bother watching video that I post but the scene of mutual grooming including the entire family is definitely worth your time. Enjoy!
Beaver social life and dam building from San Pedro River Videos on Vimeo.
It seems that everywhere else in America (and probably Canada too) it’s beaver killing season. Reports from New York, and Illinois and South Carolina bemoan the dastardly fiends and praise the heroic johnny-come-deadly beaver trapper who saved the town by snagging the culprits. So much so that this is the cover photo in this mornings Lincoln Courier.
LINCOLN —
For residents who live in the Brainard Branch area in Lincoln they can breathe collective relief sighs in regards to the problems they have with beavers.
Lincoln Streets and Alley superintendent Tracy Jackson said his department has continued to tear down many of the dams the animals make and has been battling this since the early spring.
Jackson said he is grateful to the efforts of Troy Hanger, of Lincoln, for his tenacity in wanting to rid the area of this problem.
Hanger, a licensed trapper, says the 62-pound beaver was not an easy catch.
“He avoided me for two weeks. I would put three or four beaver casters out to attract them by scent and I would see the trees chewed but he wouldn’t go near the trap,” said Hanger who started this project on Nov. 5, the first day of the trapping season.
Articles like this make me very discouraged that we will ever get to a more intelligent place in beaver policy. On mornings like today when there are so many stories of carnage that I get to pick and choose between varieties of beaver stupid I worry that it is hopeless and it will never get better. The beaver moon was named because its a good time to remember to kill beavers, and that’s true for everywhere in America.
Except Martinez.
Perhaps it was because it was the night of the Beaver Moon. Whatever it was, two of Martinez’s beavers made an appearance at sundown Wednesday while a dozen onlookers watched. The crowd had gathered on the bridge near the city’s Amtrak station downtown at 5 p.m. under the November full moon known as the Beaver Moon or Frost Moon. About 5:15 p.m., the first beaver swam out from its den along the banks of Alhambra Creek. He disappeared, but a few minutes later another beaver came out, swam near one of the colony’s dams, grabbed a vine and brought it back to the den. The event, organized by the community group Worth A Dam, was designed as a celebration of the beaver community in town.
Worth A Dam. Changing the world one beaver at a time.
The beaver family was a birthday hand made in ceramics by the very talented EG who helps at the festival. I couldn’t resist turning it into a beaver creche. Jon made the manger this weekend while I happily whittled posts. (Obviously beavers would chew the wood, right?)The three wise beavers are really carrying gold and frankincense but not sure I could find Myrrh. The beaver angel of course speaks for herself.
You can celebrate the moon and Martinez’s beaver colony at an event organized by a local community organization. The group Worth A Dam is gathering at 5 p.m. Wednesday, rain or shine, at the foot bridge near the city’s Amtrak station downtown. They plan to pay homage to the beaver colony that lives in the river near the bridge. Heidi Perryman, founder of Worth A Dam, said this is a special year to celebrate because the colony’s male beaver found a new mate and they have a new baby to go along with another young beaver born in 2010. The event coincides with November’s full moon, also known as the Beaver Moon or the Frost Moon. Perryman said this is also the time of year when beavers store food underwater for the coming winter months. This is the first time the group has organized such an event. “We always wanted to do an event. This seemed like a good year to do it,” said Perryman. Her group was formed in 2006 when the male beaver was first spotted in the river. There have been arguments over the years whether the dams built by the beavers is destructive to the river. There have been proposals to get rid of the animals, but Perryman’s group has so far prevailed in letting them stay.
There’s wonderful and terrible news in the beaver world this morning and I don’t want you to miss any of it. Let’s get the dirty work outta the way before we settle down to enjoy ourselves. Brace yourselves, these are the first two lines of the article:
A notice was recently sent to tenants living at Hampton Forest Apartment warning if they heard gunshots not to call the police. The complex is fighting to keep its property safe from a colony of beavers.
Got that? If you hear gunshots, screaming and breaking pottery coming from the living room don’t call the police. I’m just fixing a marital problem. Okay, then. I’m glad the Hampton Forest Apartment has tried Every Other possible solution for resolving this conflict. I mean first destroying their homes and dams, then hiring a trapper and only now when all other murderous options have been employed turning to the fearless sharpshooter.
What’s this thought? At the very end of the article?
Two non-deadly tools for reducing beaver damage without removing the animal is a water control device. It helps maintain the flow of water. Another option is using wire barriers to protection against gnawing.
Remember, here at beaver central we’re grading on a curve and this is South Carolina so the fact that this sentence made it into the article is sorta amazing.
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Now because it’s that time of year and you’ve all been very good, check out this Recovery Plan for the Central Coast Coho put forth by our good friends at NOAA (and you can bet the California part was heavily influenced by this year’s winner of the Golden Pipe Award, Brock Dolman!)
Restoration- Habitat Complexity
3.1.1. Recovery Action: Improve habitat complexity
3.1.1.7. Action Step: Utilize non-lethal methods to manage beaver depredation issues (e.g. flooding, crop damage) within the range of CCC salmonids such as flow devices, fencing, and beaver re-location and enhance habitat complexity.
3.1.1.8. Action Step: Where non-lethal methods prove unfeasible to resolve depredation issues, relocate beaver populations to remote CCC coho streams where habitat enhancement is needed and resource conflict is low.
