Month: March 2013

Crepuscular

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere March 11, 2013

The word crepuscular is derived from the Latin crepusculum, meaning “twilight”. A crepuscular animal is one that is active only at dusk and dawn. Sometimes its a mosquito or a beetle. Often its a predator because they can still see well enough to hunt and yet be hard to detect. Sometimes the animal is only there to eat other species that are themselves crepuscular. And there is a very old ecological rumor that beavers are crepuscular, and apparently all of the Canadian park service believes it.

First: credit where credit is due. She is very, very good, and the rap is enormously clever, tight and well filmed. But I would argue that the division of science that has determined in their infinite wisdom that beavers are crepuscular is the same school of thought that produced the tireless theorem postulating that if you shut your eyes tightly enough no one can see you.

In fact, the notion that a large animal that survives entirely by digesting plant cellulose could make a living by feeding for around 40 minutes a day, during which time they also have to chop down trees, build dams and block culverts, is patently insane. How much time, for instance, do cows spend chewing?

I suppose if the animal were like an anaconda, that eats only once per month, and happily digests the other 29 days, being crepuscular would be possible. (Well, except for the cold blooded part). But willow bark is such a fibrous, nutrient-lacking diet that beavers even have to eat it twice to break it down. They can’t possibly do everything they need to do at dusk and dawn, and any field scientist in the history of the world who stayed awake to watch them in the wild would know that.

Let’s see if I can inspire a retraction….

Bad Solutions

Human-Wildlife Conflict: An Interview with Dr. Michael Hutchins

Jordan Carlton Schaul of Wildlife SOS on March 9, 2013

Michael: Simply put, a conflict may arise when the interests of humans and wildlife—real or perceived—do not coincide. Chief among these is competition between wildlife and humans for food. Taxa as diverse as elephants, gorillas, deer, waterfowl, passerine birds, such as starlings and blackbirds, rodents and insects can have devastating impacts on agricultural products and thus economies, both on the ground and in storage facilities.

An excellent example is the flooding damage to homes, municipal water systems and timber production that occurs when beaver dams impede drainage (http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/beavers.asp).

No mention of flow devices, no mention that sometimes we need the wildlife we’re eliminating, no mention of unintended consequences to lethal methods. Forget all that, and allow me just to say that this is National-something-Geographic and they should bloody well know how to post a link properly. Every single link in the entire article is just pasted in direct html. It even transformed my comment from a link to straight code. I suppose there’s some etiquette-based explanation for it, like it allows you to see where you’re going before you click, but it is SO annoying it’s almost impossible to read. Which honestly, considering the subject matter, may not be a bad thing.

New technologies may revolutionize our ability to manage human-wildlife conflict non-lethally, at least for some species. For example, Taser has now developed a wildlife product, which can be used as a powerful form of aversive conditioning (Lewis, L., Dawes, D., Hinz, A., and Mooney, P. 2011. Tasers for wildlife. The Wildlife Professional 5(1): 44-46). The devise has been used in Alaska on habituated bears and looks to be an extremely valuable new tool for wildlife management. In fact, large animals find the experience so distasteful that they appear to totally avoid the location of their experience and humans, in general, after only one application.

Tasers for Wildlife? That’s the nonlethal control you’re decide to mention? The mind reels. The jaw drops. The subscription waivers. You should know, that years of graduate school have forever made it impossible for me to read the words “aversive conditioning” without substituting the word “pointless sadism” and flashing on helpless Scottie dogs whining on electrocuted panels. I suppose I can understand the hypothetical theory behind it being better to tase a wayward tiger than to shoot it, but you KNOW that’s not how it will work. Tasers don’t really ever replace guns. All kinds of human activity gets responded to with tasers that would never justify getting shot by the police. If you market wildlife tasers for 5 minutes I can easily imagine ardent neighbors on the front porch tasing raccoons, or possums or cats.

Jordan: Road ecology is an emerging field, but few people are familiar with this applied scientific discipline. Can you explain what it is and discuss some of what we have learned about managing wildlife in regard to our expanding network of roads here in North America and around the globe.

Michael: Yes, road ecology is a fascinating topic and one that has important implications for wildlife conservation. The construction of a system of roads that allow us to drive from place to place or transport goods can have a number of direct and indirect effects on wildlife. For animals, roads can present significant obstacles. Depending on the type of animal and amount of vehicular traffic present, roads can be risky to cross or completely impenetrable. As barriers to movement, roads disrupt natural migration and fragment habitats. Individual animals attempting to cross roads in order to migrate, find food or mates, or return to their breeding grounds are not always successful as evidenced by the vast number of dead animals found on or near roads. One clever author has published a field guide to identifying wildlife killed on or near roads: Flattened Fauna: A Field Guide to Common Animals of Roads, Streets and Highways.

No, road ecology is not a fascinating topic and the author of flattened fauna is not ‘clever’. Honestly Dr. Michael Hutchins used to be the director of The Wildlife Society which was responsible for the beaver conference in Oregon that Igor attended in 2007. He can NOT be this stupid. Maybe it’s the author. I commented yesterday and it’s still ‘awaiting moderation’. Maybe I should post how wonderful I think this interview is instead and see if that gets moderated faster, for comparison

For the record, this is the only part of road ecology that interests me.

I’m pretty sure that elephants trampling crops and leopards eating children is not really the same as beavers flooding culverts, and putting them together in the same field makes the problem seem so insurmountable that any response is justified. What the article never mentions is unintended consequences. What happens to the rodent population when you kill all the coyotes, what happens to gazelle health when you poach all the lions, and what happens to fish when you trap all the beavers.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.

Robert Frost

Beaver Escort Service

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions, Dispersal, Environmental March 9, 2013

About this time every year we get stories about crazy yearling beavers scurrying across the highway or through a grocery store or over farm equipment. It’s dispersal time, and that means its time for two year olds to head off into the world and seek their fortune. Sometimes the stories end horribly, because dispersal is the most dangerous time of a beaver’s life. Sometimes they end with a sigh of relief because someone slowed down their car or helped the beaver through traffic and showed a little compassion.

And then sometimes there’s this.

Bumbling beaver escorted to safety by Oregon City Police (with video)

Oregon City Police escorted a beaver to Abernethy Creek on Thursday night after it was spotted wandering across McLoughlin Boulevard. Oregon City Police spokesman Lt. Jim Band said the beaver appeared to be lost and was walking toward the headlights of passing cars near 14th Street around 11:30 p.m.

Knowing beavers typically aren’t the friendliest or most cooperative creatures, Band said an officer tried to use a pole with a noose to catch the animal. However, the officer quickly realized the easiest way to get the beaver out of danger was to herd it back to Abernethy Creek.

For a long time I have revered Washington State and devoted my highest praise for its treatment of water and fish and beaver. I admired their culverts and their fish passage and their careful stewardship of watershed resources. I have practically strewn their name with rose petals in describing it as the most eco-savvy state in the union when it came to certain aquatic rodents. I thought my love would hold strong and that I would be faithful forever to Washington.

But, I’ve met someone new.

“It was a long walk that took several officers about 40 minutes, but there really was no better option,” Band said in a press release. “The beaver turned out to be pretty mellow, as you can see in the video.”

Once near the creek, the beaver scuttled down the bank, into the water and swam off, Band said. As expected, this scene drew a lot of attention from onlookers.

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Now a shout for helpers from our friends at Bird Rescue where our own Cheryl Reynolds is eager to add you to the team.

International Bird Rescue Volunteer Orientation:

Do you love helping wildlife? Then come be a part of our dedicated team and learn how you can help. International Bird Rescue is a non-profit wildlife hospital for injured and orphaned aquatic birds. Volunteers are needed to help in our wildlife hospital, transportation of wildlife and facilities support.

International Bird Rescue has been saving seabirds and other aquatic birds around the world since 1971. Bird Rescue cares for over 5,000 birds every year at its two bird rescue centers.

Our next orientation will be:

Saturday March 16, 2013, 10 am- 12 pm

at our SF Bay Center in Fairfield.

For more information please visit us. Or contact Cheryl.

Follow-up Friday…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Educational, Environmental March 8, 2013

I thought today I would catch up on the back stories that trickled in as a response to this week’s news. Maybe Friday should always be a behind the scenes look at what happened after the post aired, but it’s definitely necessary today. We’ll start at the end and work our way backwards, okay?

Regarding the volunteer-built beaver deceiver in yesterday’s post, I heard first from Jake that he does not know Mr. Stoll but he has passed on a lot of his information and materials to neighboring public works crews. Then I wrote the North Kitsap trails Association and they forwarded my letter to Evan. He very gratefully wrote me back and said that he had been looking all over for beaver information and had to figure out how to build a beaver deceiver on his own! And he would pass our information along to his friend who was thinking about installing a Clemson Pond Leveler!

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The day before that post, you will remember I talked about meeting the couple from Barcelona at the beaver dam and wrote about the complicated history of beavers in Spain. I sent that post to Duncan Halley since I had linked to his dispersal research and he wrote back that he was very involved with the beavers in Spain and had been following them closely.

I’ve been involved with the beavers on the Ebro watershed in Spain now and then since 2005. I was sent photos by ecologists working on European mink at that time, asking if these were beaver signs. The photos showed a group poplars clearly felled by beavers. I visited the area (the confluence of the Aragon and Ebro) later that year, and concluded that beavers were well established and that the river system was mainly fringed by good to first rate habitat throughout. The natural carrying capacity would be measured in thousands.

He went on to explain that the introduction had NOT been through the proper channels even though Spain was generally good about that process and had reintroduced BEAR for goodness sake. As a result they were officially illegal and they were trapping beavers. He thought it really wouldn’t get rid of the population which had such a good start. He also said people’s concerns with the ‘subspecies’ issue was very unimportant and that it wouldn’t make a functional difference whether you had a beaver from Bavaria or Norway.

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Since our promotion of the Beaver Whisperers documentary there have been 132 plays of the clip and a ton of forwards and shares. And if you personally haven’t watched the clip yet, what on EARTH are you waiting for? Our friends with family members in Canada are already setting up their DVDs to record when it airs in 20 days. Fingers crossed.

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Now my post monday which asked folks to recommend beaver for a Surrogate Species produced some amazing responses. I received many copies of comments submitted, from locations ranging from Maine to Michigan to Oregon and everywhere in between. I will wait to gather more and then put some together in a post as we get closer to the deadline. If you haven’t submitted your comments yet there’s still time, they still matter, and you can send a copy to me too if you like. Folks tell me the form itself is confusing, but you can send your remarks directly here.

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Good news from our beaver friends in American Canyon, who recently met with Fish and Wildlife and got the go-ahead to install a flow device of their very own. Thanks to everyone from Worth A Dam who helped out, including Jon, Cheryl and Igor who assessed the site. Mike Callahan who reviewed the plan from afar and donated the DVD we gave to them. And watershed contacts that helped us find good people to approach in the rank and file. Yeah, team beaver!

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And finally, a follow-up for my personal post February 25th.This happens to have been written by another Perryman. My mother.

Progress and Regress…

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions March 7, 2013

Back when I was at a brain-storm session at the State of the Beaver conference (well, a brain-storm session with beer) folks were chatting about how good Washington was at handling beavers, Snohomish County in particular. A man I didn’t recognize said it was because of “that guy who used to be a great installer at public works” . He snapped his fingers but couldn’t remember his name. The table of 30 couldn’t think of it either, but I of course knew.

“Jake Jacobsen?” I asked helpfully and everyone was relieved to finally remember.

Michael Pollock, who was at the center of the table and the dominate brain storming at the minute, turned my way appreciatively saying with surprise “Heidiiiiiiiii!” in a long tone that seemed to mean “It always surprises me what she remembers”…which felt like a compliment at the time but truthfully none was needed because I could never forget Jake’s name. He was one of three voices that I wrote practically every week during our beaver crisis. At the time he was the Watershed Steward for Snohomish County, then Stillaquamish County, and he frequently installed flow devices.

I talked to him about our dam, about beaver digging, about population worries, about city council meetings, about how to get along with public works. I remember reading his answers over and over again and trying to memorize his advice. I wondered at the legislation that had made the position of “Watershed Steward” a reality and assigned someone to watch over every stream in the state.

Jake retired a couple years ago, but he still agreed to be listed on our consultants page. This year at the conference I met one of the two men who were assigned to replace him, and we had a very friendly lunch with Mike Callahan on the day of our presentations. Suffice to say Jake’s work will definitely be carried on.

Which means it came as a surprise to read this article:

‘Deceiver’ is a safe way to prevent beaver dams | Port Gamble Gazette

It’s called the Beaver Deceiver, and it has nothing to do with any trick plays that Oregon might run against Oregon State during football season. Instead, it’s an in-water flow device made of wire and wood that prevents beavers from building dams that block culverts and potentially damage property.

Kitsap County’s newest Beaver Deceiver was installed recently in the Grovers Creek watershed in north Kitsap County after some industrious resident beavers continually blocked a culvert and created a nearly two-acre pond that threatened to wash out trails and a logging road that is heavily used by hikers, bikers and by Olympic Property Group.

Now there used to be money for Jake to do this work, but it looks like that dried up or wisdom was slow getting to Kitsap County three doors away. Kitsappians made every effort to be stupid first before volunteers set them straight.

The situation was expensive as well as destructive and dangerous. The cost to replace the original culvert with the larger pipe was $10,500. Additionally, the new culvert had to be unplugged three times at a cost of $500.

OPG contracted with Absolute Nuisance Wildlife to trap and relocate the persistent critters, but to no avail. The state’s Department of Fish & Wildlife has restricted the release of beavers in alternate sites at this time due to high beaver populations in the state. So relocation of the beavers wasn’t an option.

Enter the Beaver Deceiver. After crews removed a 10-foot plug from the culvert, a group of community volunteers led by Evan Stoll quickly stepped in to install the Beaver Deceiver. The trapezoid-shaped fence structure prevents the beavers from building a dam directly in the culvert.

Evan! Nice work! I went trolling for background and came across this Evan Stoll who is a board member of the North Kitsap Trails Association. Call me crazy, but this sounds like a man who would know how to help install a beaver deceiver, and maybe was a friend of Jake’s along the way. I’ll see if I can send word.