2012 in Review:

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Newsletter December 31, 2012

Happy new Year’s Eve! What have those beaver-lovin’ slackers at Worth A Dam been up to all year anyway?

January

Worth A Dam works with Anita Utas of Canada to advocate for the Stittsville Beavers
Agents of Change Interview series launches
- (Sherri Tippie, Skip Lisle, Sharon Brown, Leonard Houston, Amanda Parish)
First Meeting of the California Working Beaver Group at OAEC
Secondary dam ripped out when city reinstalls filter
Beaver Creek filmaker young Ian Timothy visits Martinez

February

Flyway Festival Display and Presentation
Beavers in Washo Newsletter
Hooded mergansers in Breeding plumage at dam
Worth A Dam helps Four Seasons in El Dorado Hills advocate for beavers
Agents of Change:
- (Mike Callahan, Mary O’brien, Joe Cannon)

March

Worth A Dam consulted for USDA articles by Tom Knudson in the Bee
Worth A Dam helps Ian Timothy save beavers in Kentucky
Worth A Dam consults about beaver care in Georgia
Agents of Change
- (Suzanne Fouty, Michael Pollock, Paul Ramsay, John Hadidian)

April

Lisa Owens Vianni writes about CA beaver meeting in Architect magazine
Field trip for 76 third graders
Enos Mills trek to Martinez to visit John Muir documented
Beaver supporters wear tails at Earth Day!
Agents of Change:
- (Ian Timothy, Jimmy Taylor, Brock Dolman)

May

June:

July

August

September

October

November

December

Oh yeah, and not to mention we are 15 away from 2000 posts about beavers! What a year it has been! (No wonder I’m tired.)

See this picture? It is from this year’s number 1 website (according to ebizMBA rankings) which of course is the Huffington post. It’s actually NOT a website per se, but rather a news aggregate site, which takes stories and columnists from all over. (Like if there were thousands of beaver writers around the globe and I could just pick which ones of them to feature.) (Imagine that!) It sold for a cool 315 million to AOL in 2011 and Arianna herself was made editor in chief of the Huffington Post media group – which, in addition to the lucrative advertising deal, means ultimately she’s responsible for this.

This ‘beaver’ is number 44 in their end of the year animal photos. ‘Year end’ means they already posted it before. You can bet I already wrote to helpfully explain that beavers never, ever do the backstroke and they ignored me and blithely continued to mislabel it. I actually believe I exchanged emails with the photographer some where along the way who was embarrassed to have got his trip to the zoo photos mixed up. But never mind. His mistake is now a photo of the year.

I again pointed out the mistake, as did some other people with eyeballs and frontal lobes. But never mind. It’s a photo of the year now. Or misnomer of the year if you will.

“Oh, I’m sorry, my dears,” Uncle Monty said, wiping his eyes with his hands. “You must be very frightened. But the Incredibly Deadly Viper is one of the least dangerous and most friendly creatures in the animal kingdom. Sunny has nothing to worry about, and neither do you.”

Klaus looked at his baby sister, who was still in his arms, as she playfully gave the Incredibly Deadly Viper a big hug around its thick body, and he realized Uncle Monty must be telling the truth. “But then why is it called the Incredibly Deadly Viper?”

Uncle Monty laughed again. “It’s a misnomer,” he said, using a word which here means “a very wrong name.”

(And by the way, if you never treated yourself to any Lemony Snickett, what on earth are you waiting for?)

Well some misnomers bring weirdly good fortune I guess, because this morning an old friend wrote me after seeing my post on the gargantuan aggregate and was very pleased to learn I was helping beavers. This particular friend traveled with me as a fellow disciple through the thick inkblot-laden forest of graduate school and once decorated a cake to look exactly like card X to honor a beloved professor. If you have any wish at all to know what on earth I’m about, here is my entire dissertation in Haiku:

This looks like a bat

But people cooking dinner

Will get you discharged

Beavers & Moose

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Creek Seekers Poetry Contest, Earth Day, Educational December 29, 2012

When the wall crumbles and the polarities shift (and they will shift) and folks across the country start to advocate for beavers because they are so good for wildlife and wetlands and habitat and climate change and salmon and drought and you know-EVERYTHING. The very first federal agency to change their stripes won’t be fish and game, or the secretary of the interior, or god forbid USDA. The first ones to the ‘reasonable stewardship table’ will be these guys. USFS. The forestry people who say things like this:

A unique relationship exists between moose, beaver and willow communities, with each component influencing the persistence of the other. Browsing of willow communities by the inflated moose population of the 1960s and 1970s was detrimental to willows at that time, especially in the absence of beaver. Today, a more vigorous beaver population has helped willow communities proliferate, and the Forest Service is interested in maintaining the health of these communities in order to benefit the declining moose population, which is highly dependent upon willow, especially in the winter months.

Yes Virginia, there are Santas who appreciate beavers!

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Environmental December 28, 2012

Beavers Make their Home in Fairfax County

The county says beavers are not threatening to residents.

Beavers in the ‘burbs? Many people think of beavers as wilderness animals. They do live in wilderness areas, but also seem comfortably at home in northern Virginia.

Two places in the Mount Vernon-Lee area where you might see beavers are Huntley Meadows Park and the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve.

Recently, beavers have been very visible in Huntley Meadows Park, said Park Manager Kevin Munroe. “This may be best time to see them because they’ve decided to build at the beginning of the boardwalk. They are very cooperative at the moment,” he chuckled.

What a nice intro to an article! You will remember Huntley Meadows from back in November when they were protesting that beavers were moving things around in their beautiful marsh park. Well they are still in residence and even after the rabid beaver attacks in the county this year, they are still much appreciated.

The beaver lodge, seen from ground level. Credit: Ned Stone

Singing their praises, Munroe remarked: “Beavers have more effect on their habitat than almost any other animal outside of humans. Beavers have a very positive effect on watersheds because they create wetlands that provide wildlife habitat, consolidate silt and allow for deep pools during both winter and summer. They reduce erosion by slowing down the water.”

Mr Munroe! You get a letter from me and a free t-shirt! I can’t tell you how happy I am to meet an old beaver friend that’s a complete and total stranger and lives in a state that has more than its share of beaver foes. Well met, sir! And Glenda Booth who wrote the report really paid attention and listened when he was singing! Good job!

Usually active at night and known as “nature’s engineers,” beavers chew down trees to construct dams and lodges in lakes and streams. Beaver dams usually form ponds. They eat primarily herbaceous vegetation, woody and aquatic plants. They store limbs and logs underwater near the lodge for winter.

In Virginia, beavers are found in the northern piedmont, mountains and coastal plain, but between 1911 and 1932, there were no beavers in Virginia because of over-trapping for pelts. In 1932, state game managers “imported” 35 beavers from other states and released them in nine counties. By 1953, the beaver population had recovered enough so that DGIF allowed limited trapping. Today, the state manages them as a game species.

Beavers create new habitats that help other plants and animals. Their dams can slow moving water and allow other wildlife and plants to colonize. Beaver ponds can attract waterfowl, amphibians, reptiles and aquatic insects. The dams can also allow more sediment to collect and cause flooding of roads and other property. Beavers kill trees and the higher water levels they create can kill trees.

Ooh you forgot ONE sentence Glenda. Let me help out “Dead trees later make important homes for obligate nestors like the woodduck. Stands of beaver drowned trees become rookeries for Great Blue Heron.” Other wise excellent work in every way!

Oh and by the way, do you know who makes a point of regularly visiting and photographing the beavers at Huntley Meadows? Our friend Ann Siegal who wrote about beavers in the Washington Post last year. Very small world.

Rehoboth 099 — Great Blue Heron & Hooded Merganser - Ann Cameron Siegal

Small Beaver World

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental December 27, 2012

The entrance sign to the Crows Woods Nature Preserve. Credit: Shelly Castorino

You may remember the horrific New Jersey beaver tale last year, where the local animal control officer Mark Johnson went out of his way to shoot two beavers in the public park and everyone scrambled to deny responsibility for the action. Because of the location and the college town ambiance, there was enough outrage to eventually charge him with a very minor crime, but no judge would hear the case and it kept getting moved farther afield to find someone that didn’t owe him favors. Go figure.

Well Haddonfield is about 45 miles south and very beaver savvy. They have taken it upon themselves to offer us the best possible beaver story in contrast. Brace yourselves. This is a once in a lifetime gift. A woman like me dreams of this kind of fortune, but doesn’t ever think it’s really possible. Take a deep breath and inhale the coming scent of 2013: where apparently anything is possible.

The Beavers are Back!

By Shelly Castorino

After a two-year hiatus, beavers have returned to Haddonfield’s Crows Woods Nature Preserve.

Vinny and Sal Calla, students at Haddon Heights High School, spotted two beavers swimming near a drain pipe that runs under the PATCO light-rail line earlier this week.

“We were trying to get a closer look when one beaver started slapping its tail on the water,” Vinny said. Sal explained “slapping the tail on the water is how they scare away predators.” Vinny and Sal were close enough to the beavers to capture excellent pictures of the furry duo.

For months, hikers, runners and visitors to Crows Woods have noticed dramatic changes to the shoreline along the Cooper River that runs through the preserve. Trees up to 12 inches in diameter were strategically cut to fall towards the river. Curved wooden shavings surrounded the base of each tree. The tell-tale signs of beaver activity were there, but until Tuesday morning, no one had seen an actual beaver.

Look at the reporter’s name. Castor, as you know, is the latin word for beaver, and ‘ino’ is a suffix meaning diminutive. So Castorino, Shelly’s lovely name, literally means LITTLE BEAVER. I imagine that a reporter from Patch could wait their whole life for the story that represents their destiny. An automotive story for Mr. Carman, a woodcutting tale for Mrs. Carpenter, a lost feline story for Lenore Delgato. But this for Shelly Castorino is an opportunity of epic proportions. Folks will be celebrating this in the news room for years to come.

Oh and Crow woods? It’s already under the watchful eye of our beaver friend Sarah Summerville at the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge. This entire Patch article is a beaver-fan’s Christmas treasure!

Beavers in the Crow’s Woods Nature Preserve

By Butch Brees, Haddonfield Parks Conservancy Trail Restoration Coordinator, and former Scoutmaster of Troop 65, Haddonfield, NJ

A few short months ago, the members of the Haddonfield Parks Conservancy of Haddonfield, NJ, became aware of a beaver, or beavers, beginning activity in establishing a new lodge in the 44-acre Crows Woods Nature Preserve. Not being an expert in the activities and processes of a young beaver establishing his new home, and being the Parks trail restoration coordinator, I contacted Sarah Summerville for information and lessons in Beavers 101. It wasn’t more than a few days and Sarah made the trip to meet with me and view the area where the beavers had begun building dams. It had been a long time since I had seen Sarah since I retired as Scoutmaster, so it was nice to see her again. Her information was extremely helpful in helping us to make a decision as to whether to let the beaver remain or try to have it removed.