Month: March 2013

Beavers: French Historical Edition

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, History March 16, 2013

Comte De Buffon

Georges-Louis Leclerc,

Buffon (1707-1788) was a Jesuit educated man who, in addition to his ‘Lord’ status and role in parliament, was a dedicated scientist,naturalist and author. He was so bright he was said to have ‘discovered’ Newton’s binomial theorem by himself when he was only 20 years old. His interest in math, became an interest in science, and he wrote about Man, Animals and the history of the earth – among other subjects! Encyclopedia.com describes his enormous contribution thusly

Buffon’s work is of exceptional importance because of its diversity, richness, originality, and influence. Buffon was among the first to create an autonomous science, free of any theological influence. He emphasized the importance of natural history and the great length of geological time. He envisioned the nature of science and understood the roles of paleontology, zoological geography, and animal psychology. He realized both the necessity of transformism and its difficulties. Although his cosmogony was inadequate and his theory of animal reproduction was weak, and although he did not understand the problem of classification, he did establish the intellectual framework within which most naturalists up to Darwin worked.

Ambitious no?

As it happened, he was particularly interested in the social/communal aspects of the beaver. And in addition to some laughingly incorrect things, wrote charmingly about how well they seemed to get along and work for the common good. In fact, it would be fair to say, that as much as beavers and their pelts may have ultimately fueled American capitalism, the beavers he wrote about were definitely French socialists.

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“Happy within themselves”. What a nice description. Indeed, if you go read some more of his account, especially the part where their homes on the pond are described as having two entrances ‘one for land and one for water’ with a nice window facing the land that also serves as a balcony – you will be hard pressed to differentiate between beavers and hobbits. Which probably isn’t a bad thing either.

Now if this Saturday adventure hasn’t sated your appetite for all things beavers, watch this smart, eco savvy video from Cows and Fish in Alberta which will make their past, present and future importance clear.

Trap-palooza

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Video, Who's Killing Beavers Now? March 15, 2013

March 17th may be the day we celebrate St. Patrick driving all the snakes out of Ireland, but March 15th is apparently the day to broadcast the folk who kill beavers. This morning’s beavers headlines read like a Where’s Waldo of trapping beavers. Apparently extermination is an equal opportunity employer. In more ways than one.

Don’t believe me? Let’s start with Mr. Les Wedge in Syracuse New York, who boasts he has been killing animals for 57 years. His glossy cover story comes with video, and and he sagely notes;

“I do it for the enjoyment. It’s another excuse to be outdoors and observe nature,” Wedge said. “Secondly, it’s a kind of game with the animal. You have to be right on a particular spot to trap so that they don’t miss it.”

Now there’s a man who knows how to have fun. His nature-lovin’ “hunger games’ must be a hoot at parties.

Or let’s talk about Mr. Philip Engle, who very generously comes down from the frozen climes of Montana in the winter just to trap beaver in Mississippi. Sometimes there are so many beaver that need killing he bring his friends.

Every day the three were in Monroe County, they probably set 40 to 50 beaver traps each day and collect most the following day. It’s a grueling routine that starts at 7 a.m. and typically ends at 7 p.m. with the rest of the night skinning the day’s catch.

“Some nights, we may stay up until midnight skinning. We don’t waste a thing with the beavers. We may get a buck for this and a buck for that so we really get $3 per beaver. The landowners are happy to have them off their land and we’re happy just having fun trapping,” Engle said.

3 dollars a beaver. And you get to have fun trapping. The thoughtful part of me would like to know just how much you are costing the state with all the fish and duck population you are destroying, and exactly how many dollars Monroe County received in federal FEMA funds for drought compensation. But surely that’s water under the bridge. Or a drop in the bucket. Or some other water-based metaphor that basically means you people are so deeply committed to stupid that its almost a religion.

You think you’ve seen it all. That you have read the most remarkably short-sighted and inhumane article possible and that nothing will have the power to shock you any more. And then you see this:

Mother, son duo discover nature through trapping

Leslie doesn’t fit the stereotype for a fur trapper. She wears insulated camouflage waders and she has all the appropriate tools and methods. She knows the state regulations. But she also looks like she just stepped out of a beauty salon.”I don’t have to change who I am to trap animals,” Leslie said. “This is just who I am.”

In fact, instead of fitting the mold of a trapper, trapping fits the mold of Leslie’s family.

I won’t mention that she brings along her 11 year old son. Or that the reporter is compelled to mention that her personality is as ‘sparkly’ as her sunglasses. I will just say that they really, really hate beavers in Missippi, and leave you with this.

“We absolutely have to set and check our traps every day before sundown, so this just fits our needs perfectly and it gives us something to do outside,” Leslie said. She added that the outdoor activity meets additional needs for her son. “This also helps me to teach him about the balance of nature,” Leslie said.

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Let’s review what we’ve learned, shall we?

Some people need an excuse to go outside.
Men and women can be equally ignorant and heartless. (But men may have a head start.)
Mississippi really, really resents the animal that tries to give them fresh water.
When people refer to the balance of nature they visualize a pyramid, with man at the top.
Reporters across the country admire, idolize, and regularly fantasize about trappers.
Trapping connects people to nature in much the same way that serial killing connects you to humanity.

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The antidote:

Capture — Click to play: The Beaver Whisperers Clip 2

Mysteries

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions March 14, 2013

So yesterday I was idly thumbing though some news stories on beavers and I saw that Polk county in North Carolina is still hard at work trying to determine whether or not to allow trapping of fur-bearers.

Polk hears alternative to trapping furbearers

They recently had a big meeting and brought in a bunch of experts for the local commissioners to hash out the subject and brought Deborah ODonell who talked about coyotes not eating pets was advocating flow devices to control beaver flooding.

Oh and the punchline? She works for USDA.

On beavers, ODonnell said Colleen Olfenbuttel, biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resource Commission told her about the BMAP program, which is not designed to eradicate beaver population but rather assist the N.C. Department of Transportation, local government and private landholders.

The program cost the participating county $4,000 annually, ODonell said with more than 45 counties currently participating. When someone has a conflict with a beaver, a federal employee will visit the area to assess the problem and offer solutions, including a flow device, tree management or trapping some of the beaver, ODonnell said. She said the program is used to supplement existing solutions in the county and not designed to put trappers out of business.

“In 2006 a survey found that trapping as a solution to beaver problems had a 79 percent failure rate within two years due to re-settlement by new beavers,” ODonnell told commissioners. “Conditions that attract beaver will always attract beaver.”

She added that flow devices are relatively cost-effective, low maintenance solutions that regulate the water level of dams and keep culverts open. An example of a flow device is a beaver deceiver, ODonnell said, which is a cage-like device that is installed into the dam and keeps the dam open.

USDA teaching flow devices and wrapping trees? Wait, what?Away to the google I flew like a flash, tore open the shutter and thew up the sash – or something.

Beaver Management Assistance Program (BMAP)

A major goal of the BMAP is to educate the public and participating landholders about the best strategies for managing beaver damage including the pros and cons of removing beaver or using pond levelers, exclusion, or other non-lethal techniques.

Does all USDA have a program that teaches good sense about beavers? Have I been unjustifiably unkind to them all these years? Should I change my comments to reflect their good many deeds? Or maybe this is a special program that some states choose to ‘opt in’? Where can California sign up?

No where, it turns out. Because this program is limited to North Carolina.

Of course, you and I must have the same questions. How did a program like this get started in 2009 in NC? And why don’t we have one? Especially when South Carolina was famous for taking stimulus money to kill beavers? To the extent that I have any contacts at all, believe me when I say I am pursuing answers. In the mean time, we should all take a moment to get off our ‘California high- horse’ and salute the awesome talents of North Carolina.

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Now an update an a heartfelt apology. If you undertook the challenge yesterday of Bruce Thompson’s beaver crossword puzzle you no doubt are aware of my deep, deep deficiencies. It turns out I am a terrible beaver blogger and have woefully unprepared all of you for facing the intricacies of beaver world. There is so much I cannot teach you because I, in fact, do not know. For instance, there’s number 16. across “How do beavers keep warm in the winter”(two words).

To which the answer apparently is BROWN FAT. Which apparently is a real thing explaining the adipose tissue of certain animals that aren’t born lucky enough to be able to shiver to stay warm. No, I’m not kidding. This is the kind of information that you, a devoted reader of a beaver website – yea the ONLY beaver website to be updated daily – should dam well expect to know. And I have let you down.

I’m so sorry. Things will be different in the future. I promise.

Two beavers: no waiting

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental March 13, 2013

So this morning I crept down to the dam when it was still so dark I thought my eyes were closed and saw a bumpy unfinished but surprising secondary dam, beyond which a ray of lamplight flickered in the water. The light appeared to split and moved closer, and then a lumpy shadow appeared on the other side of the dam. Could it be? I held my breath.

Suddenly a beaver lump was crawling OVER the dam on the left, not at all surprised to see me, paddling around in the pond before swimming under the bridge and on up to the primary. He did no work at all on the dam-in-progress and I thought I recognized him as one of the ‘useless bookends’ from our 2010 kits. For a half hour I chatted happily with Moses who was also there, earlier that morning filming three otters up by the primary dam.

After he left, a second beam of light split down stream, revealing a moving 2nd shadow and a llittler beaver emerged over the dam on the opposite side from where the first one crossed. This looked too big for Jr. but could have been Reed or mom. It swam about a dedicated bit, diving for mud and nosing it into place here and there before scrambling up onto a large log for a full profile shot out of the water. It appeared to be staying in the bank lodge under the bridge and did not return to the primary. Considering I have not seen a beaver since November 28th, I was very, very happy. Hence the Sousa.

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This deserves a celebration. How about a beaver crossword puzzle sent to me yesterday by Bruce Thompson who teaches ecology in Wyoming for EcoTRACS. I apparently have the wrong skill set for crosswords, because I’m told Mike Callahan already zipped through this in a trifle. Bruce is promising the winning entry gets:

a mammal Tracks and mammal Scat of North American bandanna ensemble (including beaver specimens, of course) to the most correctly submitted puzzle-solver by March 31st.

Tempting, eh? That means the winner gets his or her own beaver poop. Sweet. Of course a real friend would donate it to the silent auction, right?

New friends in high places…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental March 12, 2013

Beaver at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Photo by Glyn Lowe Photoworks on Flickr.

Appreciate our furry ecosystem engineers

by Malcolm Kenton

The DC area’s beaver population has boomed in the past 20 years, and that’s a great thing. It’s a sign that our region’s waterways, having suffered from decades of channelization, pollution, neglect and mismanagement, are starting to regain their ecological health, though much work remains to be done.

The industrious creatures’ presence brings challenges when their work conflicts with human activity, but beavers, which biologists recognize as a keystone species, benefit the environment far more than many people realize.

Well? Is that not the best thing that ever came out of Washington? Are you hooked? Go read the whole thing just in case he gets credit for the number of hits it generates. I will wait right here. You know someday there will be dozens of regional sites about beavers, and martinezbeavers.org/wordpress will just be one of many. Then you can decide every morning to read about beavers in the north, or in the great plains, or beavers from a more ecological or scientific perspective. Right now I’m the only game in town but don’t think I don’t know those days are numbered.

Shhh this is my favorite part:

But perhaps the best-known “downtown beaver” success story comes from Martinez, California, a Bay Area city that rehabilitated part of the creek that runs through the center of town. When a beaver colony established itself there in 2008, the local government threatened to have them removed. But citizens’ organization Worth a Dam rose to the creatures’ defense, and the city has come to celebrate its newfound furry, feathered and finned denizens, which have even attracted visitors from around the country and overseas (many of whom arrive on Amtrak).

Did you just get a tingle from your spine to your toes? That’s US! (It was 2007 and not 2008 but who cares!) I absolutely love the fact that its 6 years later and folks are still finding out that cities can work to live with beavers. Thanks so much Malcolm. Really, go read the whole thing. I met him on facebook and when he was kind enough to send his comments on beavers as a surrogate species he described himself thusly;

I’m an urban environmentalist and animal advocate. I grew up in Greensboro, NC, where I double-majored in Political Science and Environmental Studies at Guilford College.

Go say ‘hi’ to Malcolm and welcome him to team beaver. You will be hearing more from him when I get around to posting a collection of comments recommending beavers as a surrogate species. This is a busy beaver time, it seems. I have too many things to tell you about every morning.

But this can’t possibly wait. Jon saw a small beaver working on the secondary dam yesterday morning. Spring is here! Yeah!