Month: January 2013

Tick, tick, tick…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species January 15, 2013

I am officially a week away from driving to Oregon for the State of the Beaver conference. I am starting to get nervous. Last week I heard from Suzanne Fouty that she won’t be attending due to another conference, and Sherri Tippie called yesterday to confer that she won’t be there either because of knee surgery. I’m very, very disappointed because listening to Sherri last time was my most inspiring moment at the conference. The moment where I felt beavers were absolutely in good hands whether I helped any or not. What will inspire me this year?

Two people that are still on the agenda that I am looking forward to meeting are John Hadidian of HSUS and Jimmy Taylor of APHIS. Kind of an unlikely combination but I’m sure if you could get those too laughing and drunk in a corner you could change the world. Well, I’ll give it my best shot. I’ll get to hear Mary O’brien, Jeff Baldwin and Eli Asarian. Worth A Dam is paying travel expenses for Michael Pollock to be there. And of course our good friends Paul and Louise Ramsay who are zipping out all the way from Scotland.

Yesterday I talked to Mike Callahan of Beaver Solutions just to make sure that I could give the ‘we-want-to-save-beavers’ his contact info so they could chat about how they might install a flow device here. I’m hopeful that they might be able to work something out because Mike is traveling back to California for a beaver management workshop in Douglas City and he’s planning a visit to see our beavers on the way! (If they finally agree to show themselves, that is!)

A big thank you to Shell who just sent a $900.00 check for last year’s festival, and to Kiwanis who just encouraged us to reapply again for this year! I thought it’s a good morning for some appreciate for our old beaver friend Glenn Hori who has been keeping an eye on some river otters at Heather Farms. He photographed four yesterday, which is pretty amazing.

four otters at hidden lakes — Otters at Heather Farms (2013) - Glenn Hori

Although not as amazing as this photograph from 2007 by Sean Merrigan and recently posted on facebook by our otter friends. Yes, that’s a sea otter floating toward the golden gate.

Mystery Solved!

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Educational January 14, 2013

An illustrated talk about Castor Canadensis, better known as the Canadian beaver, will launch the six-week Nature in the City series Tuesday at the Wolf Performance Hall in downtown London. Learn about this iconic symbol of history and industry that is both admired and scorned. (QMI Agency)

Urban beavers subject of series opener

The eighth incarnation of the hugely popular Nature in the City speaker series kicks off on Tuesday at the Central Library’s Wolf Performance Hall in downtown London. Nature London and the London Public Library are co-sponsors.

Through six illustrated talks, Londoners again have an opportunity to learn about interesting aspects of our urban habitats. However, too often we simply see streets, bricks and mortar within the city limits there is a surprising diversity of spaces, plants, and animals.

Tuesday’s presentation will be on the theme of urban beavers. Since these animals are largely nocturnal, we see more evidence of beavers’ presence than the animals themselves.While many admire this industrious emblem of Canada, others decry North America’s largest rodent. Outdoor educator Tom Purdy will talk about how these adaptable animals cope within London.

While I have made every possible human effort to establish first contact with Tom, I’ve had about as much luck as SETI so far. The good news is that I contacted Donna Dubreuil of the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Centre and she put me in touch with ‘boots on the ground’ in his area, so to speak. This morning, she sent this:

London Free Press: Gillespies’ article this morning is on Tom Purdy’s lecture tomorrow. In the past, Gillespie has been known to be anti-beaver (largely from info he received from a local trapper.) Gillespie quotes Purdy saying that trapping is the last resort when dealing with beaver problems. He states that beaver deceivers and baffles allow us to peacefully coexist with this amazing animal. The article also references Stanton Drain…

And then she sent the article which contains this. (God, I love having ‘boots on the ground…)

Although some local environmentalists opposed moving the beavers, those animals were moved to the Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Rosseau, near Parry Sound, for the winter and will be transferred to the Munsee-Delaware First Nation reserve this spring.

Beavers can ignite strong emotions. I learned that about two years ago when I wrote a column about a licensed trapper who has removed beavers — in lethal fashion — for both private landowners and the City of London for nearly 20 years.

After writing about the trapper, I received a number of angry letters and e-mails, including one from a young former Londoner who, borrowing a page from my description of the lethal beaver traps, wrote that she’d like to see me “trap yourself and find out how it feels to have your vertebrae crushed slowly and painfully while you slip into an irreversible state of unconsciousness.”

Well, that is fairly colorful. Do beavers provoke strong emotions? To be honest, for me ‘beavers‘ don’t provoke nearly as strong emotions as ‘stubborn ignorance’, ‘willful dishonesty’ and ‘puposeful cruelty’ do. But, hey that’s just me. The article also says this:

Although Purdy acknowledges that intervention is warranted in some situations, he says in most cases we can coexist with the flat-tailed chewer. “(Trapping) should be a last resort,” he says. “There are lots of other strategies that should be tried first.”

Purdy points out that beaver dams, which can often cause damaging flooding, can be circumvented by “beaver baffles” or “beaver deceivers.” These devices feature underwater pipes that alleviate flooding while still preserving the dam, which beavers use to maintain a safe watery route to food.

Tom! Buddy! Old pal! Ever think about starting a beaver festival in London?

Unbelievably good news…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Creative Solutions January 13, 2013

Let’s say, (and why not) that an unnamed city a fair drive from Martinez had some beavers that were blocking a culvert. Not surprising yet? Here’s the fun part: through a weird accident of fate they didn’t want to kill them. (Yet.) They wondered if they could solve the problem another way, and wrote Wildcare for help.

Wildcare didn’t know much about fixing beaver haitat but they had recently published my article about it and sent their SOS my way. I followed up and talked to these folk about the issue and arranged for Cheryl to go have a look at the habitat. Gasp-inducing fact #1: when I mentioned the value of beavers to the watershed and all the wildlife they’d produce, the person on the phone said “Oh you don’t have to convince me! We know!”

Let’s say that when Cheryl was out scoping the habitat she met the man behind the beaver-savin’ campaign who happened to have installed a camera to keep watch on them. Lets say he was actually employed for this unnamed city and asked if we could do a site survey and tell them what they might need. Let’s say at our yearly new year’s dinner,Cheryl arranged for Jon and Igor to come traipsing around the habitat and look around.

Now let’s say that the habitat turned out to be the most magical beaver wetlands imaginable. They had a delightful morning following the twists and turn of a perfectly meandering stream and identifying 6 dams and countless chews. There were cheerful conversations, otter scat, paper whites, and more secret dams to uncover than they had time to track down! A second visit was planned. Mike’s DVD was given along with two Worth A Dam hats, at which time the resident beaver saver offered his card.

Gasp-inducing fact 2: his card said he was from an undisclosed department that had greatly balked about saving our beavers, lo these many years ago.

What happens next? Well, Igor and I may be requested to present a plan to the city council, (no names until they’re on board) and detail the reasons to live with beavers, of which I can tell you right now the biggest one is that this habitat is so beautiful that even if they trap every single one they’ll be more in 6 months anyway. We discussed the Worth A Dam scholarship and having Mike or Skip come do it and we’ll see what happens next!

All in all a pretty remarkable start to the new year. And I am in wonderland.

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Martinez update: Beaver visit last night saw no actual beavers but plenty of work on the primary dam, nothing on the secondary

And lots of work on the possibly to be renamed ‘third dam’.

Remember, beavers change things. It’s what they do.

Two truths and a lie…

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Earth Day, Educational January 12, 2013

Did you ever play this game at a party or on a road trip? You say three inscrutable things about your life, like ‘I played bass in high school, My first paid job was as a peanut, and I never smoked marijuana’. And your companions have to spot the lie. It’s a fairly fun way to pass the time. (Word of advice – always think of the lie first, or your delivery will give the whole thing away.)

Well this morning we have two lovely things about beavers, and one that’s fairly dismal and packed with lies, so I’ll let you pick which one is which. The first comes with an email I received this morning from Bob and Jean of Canada who did a lovely photo essay on some beavers along the Oxtongue river in Algonquin park in Ontario. You will have to go check them out themselves because the photos don’t allow shares, but consider this an appetizer:

Promise me you’ll go look and maybe leave a BEAVERS RULE comment on the site?

More alarm from Montana Audubon Conservation Education Center. Seems the wire fencing they were forced to install (against their will when folks didn’t want them to kill beavers) hasn’t worked because those selfish beavers really, really want to eat. Oh and Apropos of nothing, the temperature today is -19.

Bucky beaver, friends gnaw down 50 trees near Billings

The large rodent stirred up a fuss in October by gnawing down about 50 trees surrounding ponds at the Audubon Conservation Education Center, south of Billings close to Riverfront Park.

It’s a popular natural area. There was talk of trapping and killing the beaver to save the trees, but that idea was rejected after a public outcry.

The trees were fenced off from the busy beaver, using heavy wire and posts pounded into the ground. That worked for some trees but not for others. Bucky has tunneled under fences to reach the trees and has gone over the top of other wires, or pulled them down. Bucky is a fairly big beaver. One estimate by the center’s staff put him at close to 80 pounds.

“I’ll tell you, they are tenacious,” said Darcie Vallant, Audubon Center director.

Very tenacious, Darcie. Almost as if they’re very lives depended on it!

Sigh.

And last but never least our own Bob Rust sends this photo of one small beaver taken last night around 10 at the location of the third dam, which has been getting a lot of attention lately. A lot of building with reeds too. Reed! Is that you? (In fact, more than the secondary, which could mean that we’ll have to swap the names soon!)

smaller beaver — Beaver at Third Dam, Robert Rust 1-11-13

Two to One Ratio

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Educational, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now? January 11, 2013

What’s that old saying? ‘One step forward two steps back’ Well as of this morning we officially have that beat, with three beaver articles from three different states, one ignorant and two wise! Again they are unrelated, although even the negative one mentions that they checked the website for Beavers:Wetlands and Wildlife, mostly to laugh at it but you know what Gahndi said…

Buckleigh neighborhood eager to get rid of beavers

Pests causing damage to pond in Buckleigh neighborhood

Right now, you can easily see four dams beavers have created in the Buckleigh neighborhood pond. “This is a huge problem for us because we can’t let the beavers continue to destroy the trees and the pond,” says Shaw. This has been a growing problem over the past four years. “When it rains the water level really rises in the pond.”

Where to begin? Another HOA eager to solve problems by killing beavers? A discussion of the irony that coppicing can’t happen if they fastidiously remove the stumps of every trees the beavers cut? A thoughtful analysis of the covariance of states that regularly kill beavers AND accept FEMA monies for drought relief?

No, lets start with their problem solving skills and leave it at that.

The beavers are challenging the HOA on every front. Traps have not worked; folks who tried to hunt them have not been successful, either.

More night vision goggles for Buckleigh! A case of beer and a carefully placed copy of Three Against the Wilderness and maybe these hunters will get some new ideas.

In fact let’s start the hunters off reading THIS article.

Beavers do world of good

Rick Brockway writes a weekly outdoors column for The Daily Star.

Although beavers can cause problems, they really are wonderful animals that are vital to nature. The American Indian called beavers the “sacred center” of the land because they create such rich, watery habitats for other mammals — turtles, frogs, ducks and birds. I’ve taken many fish from beaver ponds and shot loads of ducks as well. As the Indians discovered, the beaver pond was a source of food and water.

It’s so much fun to sit along a beaver dam in the evening and see what’s happening out there in nature. The beavers swim by, heading off to work; deer come in to drink; ducks spread their wings as they reach land; and even brook trout rise for flies near the water’s edge.

Guess whether I already wrote Rick to thank him for his column and say that beaver problems were actually pretty easy to solve? Good guess! Well, when sportsmen spread good news about beavers we are always happy!

And when politicians do it we are ecstatic!

Op-Ed: Restoring waterways is crucial

The cleanup of the Bronx River helped blunt the impact of Hurricane Sandy.

The tristate area is only beginning to recover from the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy. As we assess the damage and how we prepare for a future storm, it is worth noting that work by local communities, government and nonprofit groups to restore and stabilize the city’s local waterways may well be part of the answer.

In the meantime, the Bronx River cleanup provides a national model for a new federal Urban Waters initiative designed to stimulate local economies, create jobs and protect Americans’ health by revitalizing waterways in underserved areas. The return of two beavers suggests that restoration is now taking on a life of its own.

This is a nice Op-ed that describes how the natural restoration of the river helps absorb and mitigate some of Sandy’s more damaging effects. He even talks about how recovered oyster beds can help.

Oyster restoration work by groups like Rocking the Boat protects—and could further protect—urban shores from storm impacts by solidifying our natural infrastructure. Oyster beds can slow powerful waves and, working with marshes, sand bars and other features of the coastal landscape, provide greater stability and defense to shorelines.

Oh and just in case you don’t recognize the author, this Op-ed is written by representative Jose Serrano who got 30 million to clean up the river, was discussed in Audubon and National Geographic, and is the inspiration for this: