Month: March 2013
A couple months ago I commented about an article from naturalist Carla Carlson in Niagra. She was writing about strange beaver phenomena like coprophagia without actually mentioning anything useful that beavers contribute to the watershed. Wasted air time much? I was reassured by mutual friends that she was a good egg, so I sent her a care package of beaver education, and received a response. Let’s be honest, I wasn’t exactly hopeful, but it seemed worth a shot.
If only we were more like the beaver
Quoting from Water by Alice Outwater, “Beavers do more to shape their landscape than any other mammal except for human beings, and their ancestors were building dams 10 million years ago. These Miocene beavers were seven feet long, felling trees ages before the mammoths roamed. Their underground spiral burrows can be found from western Europe to central Asia and North America. Legends of these prehistoric giants were once widespread. The Indians of Nova Scotia claimed to know of an ancient beaver dam so vast that it flooded the Annapolis Valley. Farther west, tales circulated of tribal ancestors using immense beaver teeth to hollow out their canoes.
“In tribes across North America, legend had it that the beaver helped the Great Spirit build the land, make the seas, and fill both well with animals and people. Long, long ago when the Great Waters surged in a blind and shoreless world, the gigantic beaver swam and dove and spoke with the Great Spirit. The two of them brought up all the mud they could carry, digging out the caves and canyons and shaping the mud into hills and dales, making mountains where cataracts plunged and sang. Some tribes believed that thunder was caused by the great beaver slapping his tail.”
Love the title! This is much better! A recognition of beaver dams shaping landscapes for millions of years! Which they’re still trying to do today…Honestly this is a much smarter introduction to beavers, well, except for the fact that scientists think Castorides didn’t build dams, or chew trees…Honestly, I hate to look a beaver gift horse in the mouth, but the collection of facts in this article bear no resemblance to the facts I am familiar with…
Their mating, breeding season is from January through February. “beavers sometimes mate in the relative comfort of their lodges, but more often choose to couple under water, and in some cases, under the ice.”
We have footage of our beavers mating in December, on the surface of the water.
Those females that find mates at two years of age or older, (usually three years old), breed every year, ovulating 2-4 times at seven to 15 day intervals during the breeding season. The larger the female the larger her litter.
Natural History of a Wetlands Engineer: Dietland Muller-Swarze
However, the numbers born are dependent on the number of yearlings living with her, the more of them, the fewer newborns. Nature is beyond amazing isn’t it?
In 2007, our beaver mom had zero beaver living with her and produced 4. In 2008 mom had 4 beavers living with her and produced 4. In 2009 mom had four beavers living with her and produced four. In 2010 mom had zero beaver living with her and produced three. This year our new mom had zero beavers living with her and produced one.
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Sigh. People sometimes tell me I’m too exacting. Ruthlessly committed to precision instead of listening to the gist of the message. Okay, its possible that’s true when folks talk about beavers too. I was trying to be patient. Really I was.
It just took too long.
Now enjoy this lovely photo of a beaver lodge snug in winter from The West Milford Messenger.
Willard Bay State Park Beaver Dam Partially Contained Chevron Oil Spill, Officials Say
Well looks like the Huffington post took time out of its busy day of politics and fashion flaws to write about the beaver heroes in Utah who saved the diesel spill with their dam. Apparently six beavers have now been rescued, and the first three are doing better.
The beavers that were part of the group rescued Tuesday night had burns on their skin and eyes, and only patches of fur left on their bodies. Erickson said she worries that some of the newly rescued beavers might not survive the fallout from the spill. It’s unknown whether any other beavers might remain near the fuel leak site and have yet to be rescued, officials said.
One of the new beavers, a head-strong mother, is resisting the three-a-day cleanings with Dawn dish soap. So Erickson and other workers had to sedate her. Workers brought in more than 40 large bottles of the soap to scrub the beavers clean during their hour-long baths.
It’s terrible that they’re in such bad shape, but it makes me so happy to read this – to think of the family together again. And to remember that Sherri Tippie said when she trapped entire families the last was ALWAYS the mom. We were lucky in every way with our mom beaver, who, when she was sick, was such a good sport and let Jon and Cheryl nudge her into a dog crate with no fuss at all.
Protecting other animals and plants is part of the beavers’ daily routine, said Phil Douglass, spokesman for the Department of Wildlife Resources. Beavers are natural homemakers, he said, crediting beaver dams, or “lodges,” for drawing moose to Utah because moose like still waters for drinking. The dams also keep the water cool for trout and make surrounding areas healthier by inviting more plant growth.
That paragraph starts out so well. And then things get so horribly muddled. I’m going to assume Phil knows that beaver dams aren’t lodges and that beavers don’t live in the dam. I’m going to say that who ever patched this article together didn’t know the difference and assumed they were interchangeable. Just so we’re clear, beavers don’t draw moose to their lodges, okay?
Anyway, I finally managed to post a comment on HP after 16 hours of trying, so go join me in singing the beaver praises if you have a moment.
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Remember, today is the last day to submit recommendations to Fish & Wildlife for adopting beaver as a surrogate species. Sick of listening to me nag about it? Lets let Owen and Sharon of Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife do it for me. Send your comments here.
CBC the Beaver Whisperers airs tonight and folks are getting ready for the beaver ecology boom that follows! Over in Perth several watershed groups are arming themselves with wire and flow devices to teach folks how to live with beavers. Don’t believe me? See for yourself.
Local stewardship councils host beaver workshop in Perth April 22
EMC News – The beaver is a brilliant hydro-engineer and a colossal pain in the butt. What does it take to live side-by-side with beavers? For answers, go to Beavers and Us, an all-day workshop on Monday, April 22 in Perth. The Stewardship Councils of Lanark, Renfrew, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington and Hastings counties will co-host a productive day of fascinating revelations about Canada’s largest rodent. Read on for the impressive line-up of speakers.
I wanna go! Don’t you want to go? Mind you Perth is very near Ottawa so Mayor Watson and his friends from Stittsville should be able to zip on over and learn something. The program looks amazing. Check it out:
- – The Influence of Beavers at the Watershed Scale by Cherie Westbrook, professor and researcher at University of Saskatchewan Hydrology Centre
- – Cooperative Responses to Beavers by Conservation Authorities, Municipalities and Landowners by Rudy Dyck, Director of Watershed Stewardship Services, Rideau Valley Conservation Authority
- – Ontario’s Road Crews Defend Against Flooding Every Spring and Fall by Mike Richardson, Public Works Supervisor, Central Frontenac Township
- – Successful Beaver Management: Tools and Plans by Michel Leclair
- – Matching Wits with the Beavers: My Relationship with Beavers on 300 Acres of Mississippi Drainage by Don Cuddy, Regional Ecologist (in his past life!)
- – Roles of Beavers in a Constructed Wetland by Cliff Maclean, Hastings landowner
- – Finding Beaver Dams Using Remote Imagery by Jean Thie, Remote Sensing Specialist
- – Dam Builders: the Natural History of Beavers and their Ponds by Michael Runt
My, my, my. What a nice way to celebrate Earth Day! If you’re in the area I’d definitely make a point of attending. that makes 8 positive beaver articles this year, for those of you following along at home. It’s still March, so I’m hoping 2013 gets 25.
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Update on the “hero” beavers of Utah. Apparent they have given up on finding the parents and are calling them ‘orphans’.
Salt Lake City’s Beaver Heroes Now Orphans
A third beaver is now in the care of Erickson and her team at the center. The third beaver came in covered with thick sludge, but seems to be recovering faster than the original two. Erickson believes this third beaver may be from a different family, whereas the original two are siblings.
All three beavers showed signs of intestinal problems resulting from diesel fuel ingestion. However every member of the trio ate at least a little bit during the past two nights.
Erickson’s team spends twelve hours per day with the beavers, including nine hours of “tub time” helping the beavers swim. The second and third beavers to come into the center have made the most recovery and are starting to show normal beaver behaviors, such as slapping their tails when startled.
Sadly, the beavers may have been orphaned by the 8,000-gallons of diesel fuel spilled by a Chevron pipeline.
I’m so glad the beavers are hanging in there and doing better. And glad that Ogden Wildlife knows how to connect with us if there’s anything we can do to help. No word yet on why it is ‘sad’ when beavers get sick because their dams trap leaking diesel but ‘necessary’ when beavers are crushed to death by a conibear trap because their dams block roadways. Isn’t diesel used on roadways? I’ll try to keep on this story until we find out.
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Finally a reminder that spring is here and new kits are just around the corner. Here is a demonstration of why beavers make the most patient parents you will ever see in the watershed. This is from Paul Scott in Blairgowrie Scotland, enjoy!
Do you remember being a kid and running home so excited to tell a story that you could barely find the breath to carry your announcement? Maybe you wanted to get home before your brother so that you could tell it FIRST! This is how I feel this morning, but I will exercise a modicum of self control and tell you the most exciting news LAST because that’s the kind of girl I am.
Yesterday I received my April-June copy of Bay Nature and guess what I found on page 11? Very nice colors and eye-catching location. The undeniably first of its kind advertisement for a beaver festival they have ever had. Indeed, probably the first ad for a wildlife festival of any kind. Nice.
I know what you’re thinking. How can you possibly top that? Well, how about a positive beaver article from Texas? Yes, Texas.
Walls: Beavers have value in conservation
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, beavers were hunted extensively for the value of their pelts. By 1910, their populations became dramatically low in many parts of the United States. So low that strict regulation of their harvest was implemented. Their value as soil and water conservationists is well known by many educated land owners and sportsmen.
Mind you, its no High Country News or Canadian National Geographic, but its definitely note worthy from a state that is generally known for beaver badness. All good things have to start somewhere, and I hope we see more and more beaver ecology coming from the Lone Star State.
Which leads me to our third good news of the day, and the most exciting piece yet. First some context. Back in 2010 I was invited to speak about our beavers at the Santa Clara Creeks Coalition Conference, which was a delightful day that introduced me to some fantastic advocates. One of the folks who attended my talk and got excited about beavers was the executive director of the Guadalupe River Conservancy in San Jose. She introduced me to some folks who introduced me to some folks who got me invited to the California State Parks conference that year. She donated handsomely to us in 2011 and also really, really wanted to build a network of support for beavers in the Guadalupe, just in case she could get permission to introduce some down the road.
Um.
Guess what was just spotted beside the river near a certain aquatic-predator named team’s silicon valley stadium?
Oh and it looks like the world might be changing today.
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